Random thought that just popped into my head about Grange Hill

[helloisitmeyourelookingfor]

How come 1980s Grange Hill the school had its own swimming pool?

Is this a thing London schools had in the 80s???

Both secondary schools I went to had their own swimming pool. One in southeast London, one in north London. Neither of my primary schools did.

My secondary school had an outdoor pool. Bloody freezing it was.

My school was in a very small market town in the SouthWest.

I started secondary school in 77 - bog standard comprehensive in South London and we had our own pool. It was outdoor initially but by the time I left they had put a roof on it.

Most of the secondary/upper schools in my area had their own pools back in the 90's/00's. The primary schools used to use them too for swimming lessons

My West Country comprehensive in the 80s had a concrete, freezing, unheated pool. Water was always dark green.
Apparently some time in the 90s they filled it in and built a new Science block on top of it.

My primary near Lincoln had one around '84/85, it was opened by Amos from Emmerdale 😆 he of the big whiskers! I got his autograph. I've just googled, it's not there any more.

Then I went far away to private secondary which had what we joked was a sheep dip - outside, unheated. If the water was 18°c you went it. I learnt to swim VERY FAST in it and was on the swim team. Floating about was an impossibility, it was disgustingly cold.

The pool they filmed In as Grange Hill’s pool was actually the municipal swimming pool in my (N.London) home town. So it was the same pool I did my own swimming lessons in! (Not a school pool… we just walked in crocodile formation from the local primary…!)

My Brighton & Hove primary had an outdoor unheated pool in the late 60s.

My high school and then the school I moved to for sixth form both had pools. Schools were built 1970s and early 80s. All the primary schools used them for lessons during the day too. Memories of walking back to school in winter with our hair freezing as caps were not required. This was Greater Manchester

I was at primary school late 60s - mid 70s,and I can't think of one single primary school in the area that had its own swimming pool. I can remember in around 1973,when I would have been 9 or 10,our headmaster decided we were going to raise funds,via sponsored walks etc,for a sports pavillion. All us kids tried our best to persuade him to make it a swimming pool instead (we certainly had the room for it with 3 huge playing fields) but he was adamant that a pool would cost too much to maintain.
The sports pavillion was duly built about a year later. Within 18 months,it was being used to store old desks,chairs and tables!

I went to secondary school in 1986.

Both my primary and secondary schools had pools.

Nowhere near London.

Northwest London here - my school had a pool (outdoor brrrrr) back in the 70s/80s!

My primary had a pool,bought by Ringo Starr as his step son was in my class:)

My dc primary school had its own pool. My youngest is 13 so fairly recent. Big standard state primary.

My school had a pool as well - Kent grammar school.

My comp in a rough area of Scotland had a pool when I was there late 80s/90s. It was also used by the community in the evenings and at weekends. Getting changed for swimming was even worse than normal PE changing.

The school burned down a couple of years ago and the pool was open until then.

It was absolutely vile though ,I cannot drink milk to this day ,because of the horrible warm milk that smelt of vomit i was forced to drink in primary school, would it have killed them to have kept it in a fridge?

Ww did not have a pool in my secondary school, but tbf ,we were literally a five minute walk from the local leisure centre which did have a pool which we used .

Our local secondary has its own pool.

My secondary school (in the 80s) had a pool and still does. A whole leisure centre attached to the school. My primary school was just over the road.
The pool was run by the council back in the day, but is now owned by the school along with the rest of the leisure centre. Used by the school during the day, and run as a profit making business for public use the rest of the time.

I thought they went on a bus to local pool. Remember being scared by the drowning episode.

It really wasn’t that unusual.

my old secondary school had its own swimming pool. The building was an old grammar school though and it was located in West Sussex.

however I’m in north wales now and a few of the local high schools have pools which were there in the eighties.

Yes to the milk. I still can’t drink milk either due to the milk being kept out in the hot sun until midday and then being forced to drink it 🤮

Both my junior school and both lower and upper secondary school (on same road, had previously been the grammar and secondary modern) had pools in the 70's/ early 80's. I remember swimming in the junior school one in the summer holidays, and it being open generally as parents would sign up to supervise - no lifeguarding qualifications needed - so my mum would do it loads so we could swim for free. It was used all the time by the school during warmer months which was great. By the time I was at secondary school the lower school pool was no longer in use, and we swam a bit in the upper school one but it was horrible, unheated, and it was down to the regular PE teachers to teach so I think that it was too expensive and risky to run and it was out of use by approx 1986

My primary didn't, but the secondary literally down the road did and we used that.

Secondary did have its own pool (left early 2000s). Its turned into a primary now and I'm not sure if it still does...

My West Midlands comp had a pool (1980s).