Latest Moan From You and Me 2025

@KT53, similar at my school, in the early 70s. I was under some pressure to do Physics and Chemistry, but held my nerve and was the only one in my class to opt for Music. Our choice was Phy/Chem or Art or Music or Cookery/Neddlework or RE. Compulsory others were Maths, Eng Lang, Eng Lit, French, Biology, History, Geography, with either Latin or German for those who took up a second language in the second yr (which depended on your French exam result in the first yr).

I hated Biology and would much prefer to have done Physics as my science option, but we had to fit in with the timetable rather than the timetable adapting to us.

 

I recall having to choose between Physics and RE as one O-level option. Zero interest in either subject but chose RE as the least boring! We were a very small group as most people chose Physics ....

 

Once upon a time there was technical colleges in Scotland where you needed very little school qualifications and you learnt a trade. Then someone in Government decided to turn them into universities and another outlet for kids who did not like school was gone.

 

We seemed to do every subject for the first three years, which is a good idea. Then it gets to O-Levels and we had to drop off a few subjects. As a girl I was told we couldn't do technical drawing as that was for the boys. And in careers advice geology was not really for girls as it was a bit dirty. I did do geology O-Level and Economics. Then for A-Level it was obviously only a few subjects you could do. But I think having a go at all the subjects is a good idea.

 

I like the Scottish system of Highers. More subjects are studied for longer. Rather than leaving school with, say, 3 A levels a Scottish school leaver may leave with 5 or more Highers.

A Ukrainian lad that my brother in law took in at the beginning of the Russian invasion, along with his granny, has studied Scottish Highers and is leaving school with TEN. And that in a second language that he only really picked up once he got here. Wants to study Accounting!

 

I was quite talented at art, but had to give it up as I was streamed into the Latin class instead. I did hate chemistry, but managed to get a decent O level grade. I promptly gave it up, and signed up for A levels in Zoology, Physics and Maths ( pure and applied)
In the first week of sixth form, when it was noticed that I hadn’t signed up for chemistry, the headmistress sent someone to collect me and I was almost dragged along to the class. Told that it would be essential for any medical careers, and that I had to do it to keep my options open. So for lower sixth, I was studying for five different exams! I did drop the maths, after passing the Additional level exams, and yes, I did need chemistry to apply to dental school, in fact I think it was the only subject that was actually a compulsory requirement.

 

@Obelix-Vendee, I wonder if you went to the same school as me. There can't have been many mixed grammar schools in Cheshire in the 60s and 70s.

 

I was probably the only kid in my class that liked gym, they mostly wanted to play games, so that was what we had to do most,it was great when the last term came round after Easter and you could do athletics instead of ruddy games.
Remove the rake from the sand pit before the next jumper was something to bear in mind.
We could even do tennis but I could never afford a decent racket, mine came from Woolworths

 

I was made to do several years of domestic science (cookery and needlework) at school, before being able to drop it at O level time. The cookery lessons taught us all the different cake making methods (rubbing in, creaming, whisking etc) but not how to cook a meal. I remember making a chocolate log, and a cake in the shape of a hedgehog with chocolate spines. All useful healthy stuff for later life! And the needlework lessons never introduced us to a sewing machine. I've been dressmaking as a hobby for about 30 years now and never hand sew anything if I can help it.

We did get some exposure to woodwork, metalwork and pottery as well. The year before we had to choose O levels we got to do several weeks of each as an introduction. I made a little metal shovel with a turned wood handle, which was then used to clean out the rabbit hutch for years!

When I left home and went to Uni I used Katherine Whitehorn's wonderful books, "Cooking in a Bedsit" and "How to Survive in the Kitchen".

 

I worked to put myself through university and even though I paid for everything, my tuition fees were still based on my parents income. I did a science degree and had 25-30 hours of lectures a week plus about the same again reading and coursework. I think fees were about 3.5k a year but I got a lot of tuition for that really. A friend was doing an art degree at the same time and they only had 3-7 hours of tuition a week and not much else to do. I would be most annoyed paying for that, especially the amount they students have to pay now.

I was a bit stuck for choices at a-level because I wasn't sure what I'm wanted to do. The choices were marine biology, pharmacy or environmental science. I went for the latter but wished i'd done marine biology now.

 

I managed to scrape together 4 'O' levels. I had a grammar school education at an all girls school, and loved English Language and Literature. I would have done them at 'A' level but it would have meant resitting Maths and Geography O levels first, as they were 2 part exams and I missed the second part through (genuine !) illness.

How I ended up in the O level class for maths I will never know, I wouldn't even have scraped a pass in CSE grade. I swear if there's a mathematical equivalent to dyslexia then I have it. My teacher was a lovely woman with the patience of a saint, but even she gave up in the end (in a kindly fashion, she could see I was trying, in more ways than one).

I did manage to pass French and RE, didn't do any sciences and failed art. Chose that as I didn't want to do history. If it had been about the Tudors then yes, but it was all Jethro Tull, repeal of the Corn Laws stuff, and the only Jethro Tull that I was interested in was the group .

A good school though, not just academically, and it gave me a good start in life.

 

Gawd! What memories they bring back!

 

Dyscalculia. Join the club.