Navy for me too, Rory.
(see next post!)

I left school at 16 but I did OK out of it. It was a good school. My next post is a bit more about my own adventures while I was there.

I got the wrong Quentin… “Sir Quentin Blake is an English illustrator, born in 1932 in Sidcup, Kent”. A bit before your time.

Thank you, Bernard! I have a few followers from C&S now. I had no idea!

I wonder if you were there at the same time as Will Hutton or Quentin Blake (our most famous alumni). I overlapped a bit with Nigel Warburton.

Girls had recently started and were in the fifth form when I was there. My mum went to Chis & Sid technical high school for girls which IIRC was in the glasshouse at Frognal roundabout. (I think) C&S for girls became Beaverwood in Chislehurst which is where my sister went. Keeping it in the family!

You are too kind, Kev!

My memory is fading… did we talk about you living in Devonport already? Mrs Clown and I lived on Plymouth Hoe for a year after we got married. Kevin (commenter above you) also lived in Plymouth and we joined the Navy about the same time in Torpoint across the river. I was probably there while you were in Devonport.

https://raggedclown.substack.com/p/lonely-in-the-automat

Yes, I think expectations were the biggest difference and even GCEs vs CSEs were a part of that. But also — the opportunity to do advanced maths and three sciences was good for me (post coming on that soon).

My family were split evenly between grammar schools and secondary moderns: Dad, Brother & sister & two of her kids in secondary modern; mum, other sister, me & sister’s other kids at grammars. But we all did well in life. The secondary modern didn’t hold anyone back and we all succeeded in our chosen fields. I think the idea of targeting education at the child’s interests and abilities was a good one.

Regardless, grammar school gave us the opportunities that I don’t think we would have had at the local Comp – not necessarily in terms of education but in terms of expectations – we were expected to go on and do something with our lives. Careers advice at the Comp involved telling you to join the navy or a Youth Training Scheme at 16. Grammar schools advised you to do A-levels and then do a degree (back when they were free). I went on to do engineering at Bristol and then a computing science masters at Imperial. My best friend stayed locally but was the first in her family to get a degree and is now a teacher.