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ORIGINAL MESSAGE
NAME: James (Jas) Cowen
.jpg "James Cowen gallery")
Then & NowDATE: 01 September 2012
CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 56-63
Once again there are outstanding results for QE at both GCSEs and A levels. Not only does the official QE website give the news but the Daily Mail highlights uniquely QE with a photo of boys outside the main entrance pointing like Usain Bolt but in the opposite direction and a great address by the current headmaster. Obviously there is a good public relations connection. Other papers are also available, such as The Times, which like the Mail produces a league table of state and independent schools. I have for years enjoyed reading these league tables and joke about them with my wife, who also went to a single sex school in a city, which also had an associated boys school i.e Nottingham High School for Girls. I say: "There you are. We've beaten you again." It is of course seriously a very priveleged world, which the majority of the country do not partake in. My children went to a comprehensive school and further ed colleges before going to university in 4 out of 5 cases. One did try for Oxbridge but went to Exeter instead and got a good degree there. It is all a question of background in the colleges - no Oxbridge bias. They prefered generally ex-Polys with relevant work experience and all have good jobs as a consequence.
Then & NowDATE: 06 September 2012
CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 56-63
At Ludgershall in Wiltshire, where my home is now, we have a local secondary school called Wellington Academy. This used to be Castledown School and was the school, where we withdrew our eldest child Grace after we moved here in 1987 due to her being bullied as well as the school getting such a low standard of exam results, both facts related. Since becoming an Academy it has improved remarkably. What I find interesting is that there is an oversight from Wellington College, the well known public school, whose headmaster is Dr Anthony Seldon. (Please refer to the College website for a good HM's address). I find it good that the College is relating to the other world different to the one where parents pay large fees to get their children a good education. Some other public schools do the same, such as Dulwich College. It would be good if those at QEs also can relate to those in the different world of currently non-excellent league table status. I know when I was at school I used to associate with same age secondary modern kids as a member of the Baptist Church Youth group and Boreham Wood athletic club.
2nd REPLY
NAME: Nick Dean
.JPG "Nick Dean gallery")
DATE: 16 August 2015
CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1964-71
Interesting interview in The Times (14/8) with Mr Enright to mark QE's being the "top" secondary school based on A* to B grades at A level (98.4% - inconceivable in our day, I should have thought). His observations include: (a) the school tests applicants in English and maths only - no reasoning tests - and does not publish past papers so as to help minimise specific coaching; (b) because there is no catchment area "our intake reflects the national average in terms of deprivation" (not sure that necessarily follows, but presumably he has data); (c) "We don't run an exam factory, we get them to discover things that get them fired up" (though the suspicion must surely be that the vast majority do get on the treadmill); and (d) boys "love learning activities that have a competitive element ... they admire each other for succeeding and are spurred on" (hmm ...) The link takes you to the wrong 'Times' but I've have left as it is so that reply 5 makes sense!
DATE: 16 August 2015
CONNECTION WITH QE: inmate 1957-64
So the current head proclaimed that "our intake reflects the national average in terms of deprivation" - jolly jolly good!! We were generally deprived of good teaching when I was at QE between 1957 and 1964, with one or two exceptions of course like John Wakelin and Richard Dilley, to whom I am eternally grateful for all their efforts in History and Geography. It must have almost been a lost cause for Richard Dilley to teach us Geography after all interest had been drummed out by two or three years of Sam C0cks' drivelous rants !!
Then & NowDATE: 27 August 2015
CONNECTION WITH QE: Inmate 57-64
Oh come off it Enright. "Your" results are due entirely to QE's ruthless selection system compounded by the Parents often brutal regime of enforcing their child's success at any cost. A bit like the Eastern block's approach to athletic prowess in the iron curtain days.
Then & NowDATE: 01 September 2015
CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 56-63
In regard to reply 2 and the link to the newspaper report, if one clicks on it there is in fact a newspaper report from the local paper (The Times for Hendon & Finchley / Barnet & Potters Bar / Edgware & Mill Hill), whereas I believe Nick Dean was referring to the national paper The Times. In the local paper, besides the article that is linked to in reply 2 ('Teenagers celebrate GCSE success across Barnet'), access may also be gained to a further article. These articles are all very interesting in themselves but I wonder if either the national Times article can be found in full on the internet or if Nick has still got a copy of whole article which he can post if there is much more than what is quoted. Nick's reply said his observations include ... so there may be more of interest. In regard to those local newspaper reports, I note that the percentage for GCSE entries graded A* to B (99.4%) is even higher than that quoted for the A-levels (99.3%). In the other article about A-level students the old controversy of where Elstree ends and Borehamwood begins raises its head again. Adam Hilsenrath, ex-head boy and a person who has gained a place at OU to read history, is quoted as living in Deacons Hill Road, Elstree. I still think of that as Borehamwood even if it is the other side of the railway line. At least the station is still called after both Elstree and Borehamwood even if we still hear about Elstree Studios, which is clearly situated in Borehamwood. In regard to names a pub in Andover previously 'The Railway Hotel', which is nowhere near the railway, has now changed its name to 'The Lunar Hare.' About time too, I say, even if the old railway sign with a steam engine was rather good, compared with others. Oh dear - I hadn't noticed that it was the wrong Times! I'm afraid I can't track down the article Nick had in mind.
6th REPLY
NAME: Nick Dean DATE: 03 September 2015
CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1964-71
To me The Times is The Times, as in "Top people take The ..."! Jas's reply reminds me of an episode of The Good Life in which Margo boasted to her music friends of a forthcoming article in The Observer and it turned out to be some local rag. Anyway, to be more serious, the link added to my original reply appears to be to a more local feature. I'm afraid I didn't keep the original article and, although I haven't gone surfin', I doubt it's online as The Times can be accessed only on subscription. However, it wasn't a terribly long piece - merely an adjunct to the league table - and I don't think anyone is missing much.
Then & NowDATE: 09 September 2015
CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 56-63
Here we go again, Stephen (3rd reply). You repeat your odium for Sam C0cks and his rants, as you did in 2008. I look back on dear Sam with affection as being quite a character, with some odd traits but some good ones, as I have posted earlier myself. Most of us in our year of entry I think got our O Level pass 1st time, certainly those in 1B. For me English Language with Alfie Alford was another matter, though eventually I did get a pass grade for that also. Your post, however, made me and perhaps others look back at the C0cks anecdotes on site and most made me smile again. As for Richard Dilley, by whom I was taught in Transition X Arts in Spring and Summer 1960, I have no recall of the contents of the lessons or the manner of teaching, but it does seem as if he was generally held in high regard by all, unlike Sam. If this helped with GCE O Level I thank him. I came 18th out of 29 in the Summer and no positions were given in the Spring. Comments on the reports, which I still have, were "His work shows considerable promise" and "I feel that this result is not a true reflection of his ability which is considerable." Not all subjects received any comments at all. Earlier reports did get comments from Sam C0cks. In 2b Summer 1958: "Very good." (I came 1st) and 4b Summer 1959: "He has worked well." (I came 2nd=). Certainly John (Bop) Wakelin taught history well and all of our year who took History A Level I believe got pass grades, though not all got the top grades.
Then & NowDATE: 11 September 2015
CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 56-63
It is not just the national Times, who have put the A-Level results and comments by the Headmaster on-line [replies 3-6], there is also the Daily Telegraph, and unlike The Times it may be accessed free without subscription. This also has comments made by Neil Enright, which may be read on the site in full. One main point he makes is that QE boys need the qualities of grit, resilience and self control as well as intelligence. I think that I also had such qualities 50 yeers ago, some of the time. He also talks about boys being encouraged to take part in extra-curricular opportunities as well as excelling in exams. Most of my extra curricular activities 50 years ago was outside the school, though I did go to the stamp club in early years as well as playing sport and going on Record Society trips. Maybe more extra curricular activities are available now, which I think is a good thing, to reiterate 1066 and All That. In the article it also states that QE results are up 2% on last year to the 98.37%, a full 3.55% above the next school, Pates Grammar in Gloucestershire. Well done to all concerned indeed! In regard to the results tables I also take interest in the Independent schools section. I like to see how schools we used to compete against at rugby and cricker did, such as Haberdahers' Askes Boys School but I especially like to see the results of my wife's old school Nottingham High School For Girls and to joke with her about it. This year they were 169th in the list with 46.1% from 94 candidates. This was at least better than our fairly local swanky school, the Godolphin School at Salisbury, with 42.13% from 56 candidates. My wife also likes to know how her fellow boys school in Nottingham did. I am sorry but they did better than the girls (145th with 98 candidates at 48.7%.) Maybe next year! I notice, though, that Nottingham High School For Boys appears in the list of "10 of the best value private schools in the UK" with annual senior day school fees of £12,843, a sum saved by QE parents. It is good how results for 2014 are also there on the Daily Telegraph website
Then & NowDATE: 21 September 2015
CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 56-63
I was hoping that by now that there would be some thoughts and views from others in regard to Adam's reply 4. There is still time to do so, or maybe some think that this has been talked about sufficiently in past posts on the site. There is of course much to be said about the selection system for pupils wanting to come to QEs giving them a head start in the chase for distinction in the schools league tables, and of course this success will magnify more wanting to be part of the success, a bit like people all over the country in the past wishing to support Manchester United at football. I think though some credit should also be given to the teaching staff and also the fact that pupils will compete with one another to excel in exam marks. I know nothing about if there is any brutal parent regime but suspect there are brutal parents in regard to children at most schools. I think parental support for the school in regard to FQE is generally to be praised. In regard to the 98.37% of the 490 entries at A-level getting A*/A/B results, I am wondering if there are any sanctions against the 1.63% of pupils (approximately 8 pupils) who did not come up to the mark. Do they have to appear before housemasters for credible explanations for this shortfall or should they be put in the stocks for wet sponges to be thrown at them, as happens with masters and others for fund raising at the Founders Day FQE fete? The whole school results do contrast markedly with those of my own days at the school, though some were still able to excel. Much to the horror of my wife and son, I joke with my granddaughter, who attends Bishops Stortford College (rank 101 with 56.66% in the independent list), as to what she got wrong when she gets marks of 97 or 98% in some subjects. I do have to give some praise as well. Any criticism does seem to spur her on to greater efforts to excel, whilst she does like also to beat other brainy friends of hers.
Then & NowDATE: 23 September 2015
CONNECTION WITH QE: Inmate 1956-63
Is this the only way of measuring our school and the people that go there - with percentages and exam results and pass marks and league tables? Like hundreds, thousands of others at Q.E I scraped along but for all my efforts was never a high flyer. I left at the age of 18 and went out into the world. Jenkins said that I wasn't the 'right material' for Oxford or Cambridge - and that was that. How do you measure me?
11th REPLY
NAME: Nick Dean DATE: 29 September 2015
CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1964-71
Neil Enright has popped up again (28/9) in The Times - yer actual Times - with a list of ten novels suitable for, presumably, secondary school students. This appears to be related to a Government-led project to identify 100 such works of which special editions would be produced for bulk purchase by schools. NE's list is as follows (they appear to be in alphabetical order by author): Flatland (Edwin Abbott Abbott) Oliver Twist (Dickens) Hound of the Baskervilles (Doyle) Brave New World (A Huxley) Turn of the Screw (H James) 1984 (Orwell) Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck) Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde (Stevenson) War and Peace (Tolstoy) Journey to the Centre of the Earth (Verne). Any reactions or better suggestions? I'd like to say that I'd read all of these, but I can count only four.
Then & NowDATE: 29 September 2015
CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1954-59
Well, excuse my political correctness, but I find it surprising that no female authors (or authoresses, if you must) are represented in Mr Enright's list. I think that's a fairly serious omission because there's no denying that women tend to write from a rather different angle, with more psychological and emotional analysis and less action. That's not to say that the great male authors don't offer deep and moving insights into their characters - of course they do - but more by inference and circumstance than by inspection. An obvious omission from the list is Jane Eyre, which is actually a fairly 'masculine' novel in some ways, yet early reviewers soon twigged that it had been written by a woman and Charlotte was obliged to own up. I would certainly put the sorely neglected Mary Webb's Precious Bane or Gone to Earth on the list. Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca or Jamaica Inn would be there, too. If people are going to have to study literature at all at such a young age, they need the feminine input. But Turn of the Screw? I'm rather glad I didn't read that in my teen years - or perhaps all the deeply sinister undercurrents would have gone undetected (and unremarked by any teacher). But then, I suppose this is what happens, to some extent, to any piece of literature studied at that age, which is why I occasionally wonder if there is any point to the literature side of A-level English. Perhaps it would be better to leave people to read what they want and get what they can out of it during the rest of their lives! Might that not result in more reading of serious literature in the long run? As it is, it can be decades after leaving school before someone feels like having another look at Shakespeare, for example, and that's a terrible shame.
.jpg "Nigel Wood")
DATE: 01 October 2015
CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1957-64
Probably wise of Enright [reply 11] not to include Middlemarch, 'one of the few English novels written for grown-up people'. What are the others? Virginia Woolf doesn't say, though her essay on George Eliot is interesting and entertaining. Thanks, Vic, for the Precious Bane recommendation. I'd assumed it to be ludicrously over the top in language and sentiments, but that comes of judging it solely from that hugely funny but distinctly secondary source, Cold Comfort Farm. This brings me to note that there are no funny books on Enright's list. I might have substituted Scoop or Decline and Fall for Hound of the Baskervilles. But what's one man's meat ...
Then & NowDATE: 05 October 2015
CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 56-63
In regard to the A-level league tables [see most replies before 10] I note from our local paper, the Andover Advertiser, in an article "Academy's students soar to achieve record results" that Ludgershall's Wellington Academy has improved its A*-B grades from last year's 27% to 47%. That may not just be of local interest for I note that the Academy does not appear in the Daily Telegraph's list of the 341 top schools whereas, usually near the bottom, other comprehensive schools do. The 311th on the list is Holy Cross college at 46.87%. I wonder how many other comprehensives do not appear and whether it is just some were not submitted. Incidentally some on the list even in the top 341 have rather low percentages such as the bottom one, an Academy, at 19.78%. Reference is made elsewhere to the ex head of the independent Wellington school and I believe he contributed to the better results of our Academy, which is associated with that public school. Just as my wife Ayleen likes to hear how her old school and the associated boys school do in the A-level results table (they appear very close - Nottingham High School for boys at 145th and the girls at 169th in the independent schools table) I wonder how the QE Barnet girls school now do as a comprehensive school. Perhaps someone has read in the local paper, the Barnet Times (as against the national Times). I expect now they are way behind our old boys school. Having read the local Wellington Academy results I have been joking with my wife how the Nottingham High School for girls have been beaten in percentage terms by our local comprehensive.
Then & NowDATE: 05 October 2015
CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1954-59
Replies 4 & 10, from Adam and Martyn, reflect the concerns a lot of people have about the obsession with league tables. Schools here in the valleys of South Wales have come under scrutiny (from the wrong side of Offa's Dyke) for generally coming low down in those tables. When I was learning Welsh I attended weekend schools in many (perhaps most) of those schools over a period of several years and was struck by much evidence of an emphahsis on social responsibility, democracy, justice, fairness and concern for others and for the environment. Posters, pamphlets and children's essays on these themes were everywhere in the classrooms and corridors. There were also notices requiring any instance of bullying to be reported and insisting that bullies would be harshly dealt with. Behaviour of children and young people in these parts is markedly better than in any other place where I've lived over the past 50 years or so. It's true that they were mostly 'deprived' areas but this is also designated a deprived area, with massive unemployment, a continuing legacy of the demise of the coal and steel industries 25 years ago. Could it be that too much concern about academic achievement at a tender age is not only socially divisive, causing many to feel worthless, but also takes the focus off what should be the most important aspects of education? It should be remembered, too, that antisocial behaviour is not confined to to such things as vandalism, rowdyism, litterbugging and joy-riding, perpetrated by those with low expectations and self-esteem. There are also those bankers, tax avoiders and dodgy politicians, whose almae matres are no doubt riding high in the charts.
Then & NowDATE: 08 October 2015
CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 56-63
Making a list of 10 suitable novels [reply 11] is always a brave undertaking and open to easy criticism. At least Neil did not apparently say these were his favourite novels. Of the 10 I have read 7 and will consider perusing the other 3. I remember at school one summer holiday setting myself the task of reading all of Tolstoy's War and Peace. I regarded it as a fairly challenging proposition but I managed it. Since then I have especially enjoyed TV and radio productions of the book, given the basis of reading it earlier. I have especially enjoyed over the years reading Jane Austen's novels but believe the non-reader would have enjoyed TV and film productions as much, possibly more. Of the Charles Dicken's books. I remember reading David Copperfield to my wife when first married with all sorts of accents being employed. In those days we had no TV. When OE Richard Beeny visited he always remarked on that fact. ("What this house needs is a TV").
Then & NowDATE: 12 October 2015
CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 56-63
In my last reply I mentioned TV versions of Jane Austen's novels and also War and Peace. I notice in the Daily Mail Weekend Magazine guide to TV and radio of 3rd October there is an article on the 20th anniversary of Pride and Prejudice, celebrating the version of 1985 with various tales back screen about it. I did especially love this version and I have got video tape copies of it. Reference is also made to a new version to be screened in the winter of War and Peace with the same adaptor, Andrew Davies, and his BBC team. I expect this too will be brilliant and I look forward to seeing it. The production is planned as a six-hour adaption with a cast including James Norton, Lily James, Ade Edmonson, Greta Scacchi, Gillian Anderson and Rebecca Front.
Then & NowDATE: 24 October 2015
CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 56-63
In relation to part of your reply 12, Vic, about having another look at Shakespeare after leaving school: we read
Then & NowDATE: 26 October 2015
CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 56-63
In the light of the recent National Poetry Day I wonder what list of 10 poems to read would be made by the current Headmaster. I was amused to see our local Andover Library made space on a board for residents to pin up some poems. I remember large chunks of some of those poems and Shakespeare speeches we used to read in class, though I think they were not as regular as some older generations, who at school used to memorise and recite a poem every week. I understand from Radio 4 that some patients with dementia join in when poems are recited in their homes, as is also the case with old songs. I recall ex pupil Poupard's poem, a skit on Keats i.e. "Season of mists, more likely fog, as through the woods we gently jog." and the skit on John Masefield's poem "I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky. I left my vest and underpants there and want to see if the're dry." Both were better than on the Andover Library notice board.
DATE: 10 November 2015
CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1960 - 1968
I find Enright's book list [reply 11] old fashioned. I think we did a Shakespeare play, some poetry and a novel every year from age 11. Whatever its other faults, QE did encourage us to read widely and modern in the 4th or 5th year. I seem to recall being taught English classes (might have been by HG Thomas) where we read novels by Ernest Hemingway, Carson McCullers, Harper Lee, JD Salinger, Joseph Heller and Kingsley Amis amongst others. All very contemporary then. Best novels to read now? Everyone has their own list and it depends if you are choosing 'literature' i.e. books in the 'canon' or a good read. Time magazine's All-TIME 100 Novels could be a good place to start. I have to confess most of Time's list I haven't read. There are, of course, some excellent books written since the '60s which might be good to include in a 'best' book list (why stop at 10?). People speak highly of JK Rowling and Philip Pullman. I can't comment on these.