Do you remember Direct Grant schools?

[complexnumber]

(Preparing to be flamed)

They were quite good weren't they?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_grant_grammar_school

I went to a GDST school as well. It was a good school, but I don't think any different to the local grammars. About half the girls were on free places, the private girls tended to be bright but not bright enough to pass the 11+. The class sizes were the same as at state school, and most of the subject choices the same - except we had a couple of extra language choices, which is why I have an O level in Greek as well as Latin. I don't think there were any working class pupils, but it's in a very middle class neighbourhood and the grammar school was probably the same. I hated it, but I hated school in general.

another free place girl here went on 100% scholarship to a gpdst school.

Took me ages to feel entirely comfortable there and left after O levels.

Would say it was half success to send me there but really wanted to go to the local state grammar school where most of my classmates went.

TBH I think it's given me a chip on my shoulder and a more radical outlook. I think my 10/11 yr old self could not fathom all the privileged and sheltered gals with swimmng pools, ponies and who had never been on a bus.

I felt caught in the middle between my world at home (dad clerk/mum a dinner lady) and the new world I entered. I knew I was bright but lacked confidence IYKWIM

There were a few other girls on my social level but I think we felt uncomfortable esp at the beginning.

However now live in inner London and ds2 actually would like to go to private school (so presumably would not have the chip that I have) but as there are no 100% scholarships any more there is no chance.

sincitylover, can I be really nosy and asked what made you apply for the GPDST school instead of the state grammar school.

I was tempted (very briefly) to try for one myself. I don't know if I would have got in but I am so glad I didn't go for it.

My old school was direct grant but I had only the haziest understanding of what that meant and I agree with all the posters that say there was no snobbishness. I was fee-paying but have absolutely no idea to this day of who were the "direct grant" girls - actually even the fees were nothing compared to what you'd pay to go there today (it's a GDST school now - Northampton High School). Lovely school with better results than the nearby public school. Only odd thing was we had to get a bus to games (the other side of town) and get changed on the bus - no curtains, you were in full view of all the drivers in Northampton, right up to the age of 18!! Any old girls out there remember that?

cecily p - the reason I went was that my primary school (where we were actually as a class badly bullied by the class teacher) head recommended to my parents that I was put in for it - I didn't want to because it marked me out as different - other classmates called me a snob - which I clearly wasn't but anyway. I told them I didn't want to go but they didn't listen to me - just as they didn't listen about the bullying by the teacher. They are also very much in awe of authority and so just went along with what the school said!!

still feel - I think its easy to say there was no snobbishness when you were fee paying yourself - I would imagine that most of the fee payers would say that. If you were a free place girl then you would be acutely aware of it and i knwe who all the other free place girls were. That was in the mid/late 70s and I do think things improved over time /in the eighties.

I knew I would have been happier if Id gone the state grammar however Im not sure I would have moved away from hometown or gone to university (albeit later than usual) if Id gone there. As many of my ex classmates stayed put in our hometown even thouogh they must have had potential to go alot further. Our primary school was drawn from mainly working class/lower middle class. Even most of the bright girls ambitions was to get marrried and have kids.

I find it really very interesting and for those who say that class doesn't matter then I think the above proves it does. Im the first and only in my family to go to university.

With my own dcs I will let them decide (with a little guidance) which school they like best as they are the ones who have to go there and flourish not me!

However ds1 is at a good local state comprehensive which he doesn't like much but in the absence of any grammar schools in our area (inner London) there weasn't really a choice IYKWIM. He has every opportunity to do well and he could transfer to a different sixth form if he still felt the same. He's very bright and predicte A* (if he gets down to some work)

DS2 is different and would like to go private but I can't afford the fees. As I said previously if direct grant was still around he would have been an ideal candidate - again quite bright but more grounded.

my school was slightly different in that it was 'voluntary aided' (had been private until the 1944 Education Act, then accepted funding from the then Inner London Education Authority but kept its own admissions policy), but it was basically the equivalent of a direct grant and had its own exam and interview - I came from an outer London borough and for us the pass mark was a big higher as our borough would only fund a very small number of places per year

sadly the year after I started it became private as ILEA was abolished and the social mix changed completely

My mum went to Withington Girls school on a free place in the 1950s and it completely transformed her life - her father was a technical draftsman who'd had to leave school at 13 and her mum was a dinner lady - because of her education her horizons expanded dramatically - she was the first in her family to go to university and never looked back. Her cousins weren't bright enough to get a place and their social mobility was greatly restricted as a result

Thanks for the long explanation sincitylover, I think I would have felt like a fish out of water at such a school, even supposing I had passed the entrance exam.

generalhaig, I went to a voluntary aided grammar school in the ILEA (well LCC when I started) and I didn't take any extra exam, only the 11+. We applied on the normal LCC application form where you had to give a first and second choice, although the school did interview all applicants. The school became a comprehensive when selection was finally abolished, though I am aware of some similar schools becoming private at that time.

We knew 100 percent who had a scholarship and who didn't. It didn't matter much as the class gap between us was so narrow - some of the private girls had ponies, others lived next door to girls on scholarships.

Presumably the fish out of water feeling would be stronger at a private school with only a few scholarship kids. But you would have to go to that sort of excruciatingly uncomfortable school to actually get the life changing effect of private education - at my school we didn't get small classes or fabulous facilities, and we didn't end up with a useful 'old girls' network either.

Some of the comments about a perceived social divide between scholarship pupils and fee paying pupils puzzles me: the free places weren't means tested, so were a different creature from bursaries to independent schools today. I was a fee-paying pupil until Year 6, took the 11+ and had a free place from Year 7 on. My social class didn't change.

At my school there was no divide whatsoever even with a senior school intake which was socially incredibly diverse. Other schools may have been different.

My mum went to a direct grant, and was in the top form (so clever clearly). It was girls only, and by all accounts that meant that they all achieved their potential free from ideas about "girls' subjects". All of my mum's friends were working class, from poor homes, excessive numbers of siblings etc, but they ALL ended up doctors, lawyers, accountants. Can't imagine that happening now. Grammar schools don't provide it anymore because only the middleclass have much chance getting in given how much tutoring goes on. Sad times.

I had a scholarship to a direct grant school and there was no means testing for it either, so you could be from any background. If it was known you had a scholarship you were just seen as being a bit cleverer perhaps, but as everyone had to pass an exam to get in it was no big deal. It was a girls school and you were expected to do well, and expected to go to university with the result that most girls did (this was in the 70's). Apirations were high. The few that left at 16 or 18 to go to secretarial college or into nursing all did well in their chosen careers.

The school went Independent in the 70's and in the last few years has joined with the local grammar school to become a co-ed Independent. It undoubtedly will have a less diverse intake now - although as it is in an area where there are some very good state schools the pressure on places will be less, and it will cost less than London schools I guess.

Betty, was it by any chance a school with a big willow tree and a terrace running alongside the staff room and the library?

And the library had mice carved into the furniture? Could be!

Snap! I was there 72-79.

71-78, me.
Did you see they used it as the hospital in 'Monroe' on ITV? Weird, they seemed to spend all their time going up and down the stairs.

No, missed that! I hate thinking of the old place standing empty.

Yes, it looked pretty sad last time I went past (last summer) but at least it's being used for something. I haven't seen the new school, but there doesn't seem to be the same hysteria surrounding getting in as there is in London for grammars and Independents. Certainly my friend who was entering her daughter last September seemed much more laid back.
When we sat the exam we didn't have any tutoring, just did a few practice papers.

I didn't even do a practice paper! Miracle I passed, looking back. I went to the open weekend they had not long before the school closed and it was astonishing how little had changed. I had mixed views on the place while I was there but with hindsight I would say I was very, very lucky to go there.

Yes, I agree, and looking back through the thread it would seem the majority of the those who went to direct grant schools appreciated it and benefited from them.