Hi, My wife was Eunice Kirby, our best man, Cliff Beddows was also from the same year at Waverley.
In 1948 infants and juniors from that area went to either Church Road or Bordesley Green until Blakenhale was built and then on to Cockshut at 11 unless you had managed to get a place at one of the Grammar schools. I thought that a choice of going to Moseley Art, Bordesley Tech or Sparkhill Commercial came at the age of 13. I was at Blakenhale 1948-51 and never danced a maypole so that pleasure must have been introduced later.
It's obvious from our comments that the function of the different schools was adjusted to suit varying demand, sounds sensible!
Pete Witherington was certainly in the same year and for some of the years in the same form. We were always sat in strictly alphabetical sequence so would be in the same row of desks. A copy of that 4A photo would be great. I think you can send it directly to me via the personal message system on the forum. Cliff was only some six weeks younger than me so I always assumed he was in the same year maybe he was in the next year as I was quite near to the cut off age for the 1951 entry.
Been having a rummage and found 1952 copy, in pieces and a bit missing, plus ok copies of 1956 and 1958. No sign of 1954.Also this very posed picture of "The Library" at Kings Heath.
Does anyone who was at Waverley in 1950's remember why the head mistress was known as "Float" I think her name was Hawarth.
very good points raised maurice...i did not pass my 11 plus but being the eldest of 6 children i doubt very much if mom and dad would have afforded for me to go to grammar school..however knowing how keen i was to work in an office they managed to let me stay on to take my cse exams of which shorthand and typing was a must for office work...i passed with flying colours and got the office job i wanted..i wonder just how many children passed the 11 plus but due to financial circumstances could not go to the grammar schools...i only recall one friend who passed and was able to go through grammar school and she was an only child..Cosette,
I think a lot depended on costs and whether the family could really afford it. There was also a tendency in some families for it to be assumed that girls would get married at an early age and hence the whole process would be a waste of time & money. Bear in mind that people get married much latter today, if at all. I passed and went to Moseley Grammar, but my father died two years later and my mother, doing three part-time jobs to make end meet, could not afford for me to stay to do A Levels. That suited me because I hated school and couldn't wait to leave - a mixture of poor eyesight, bullying and not being allowed to do the subjects that I wanted to and that I was good at. A lot of thopse problems are still there nearly 70 years later, and given the lack of discipline, I cannot see some of them being solved in the next 70 years.
Needless to say, my full-time education did not resume until I was 43 years old and financially able to do an HND, in which I got a Distinction, before the onset of charging to do higher education courses. Today even that option would not have been open to me.
Maurice
