School portraits · Hull, England
Valeted for Judi Dench, and Still Damp
In July 1995 Hymers College in Hull opened a theatre named after Judi Dench. Everyone prepared, and one teacher prepared his car.
4 July 1995Read the story
School life, between the linesBy Eleven Plus Diary
Notes from the School Gates
School stories, admissions adventures, and the things parents talk about on the way home.
Britain & beyondHistory · Culture · Parent perspectives
School portraits · London, England
06:30: Wake Up, but Don’t Get Up
In 2020 Latymer Upper’s two school captains published their daily timetables. I tried running our house on them.
One school year in Hammersmith, September 2019 to February 2020Read the story
Parent life · Edinburgh
Twenty-Four Parents, One S1 Timetable, No Uniform
Boroughmuir High School in Edinburgh invites first-year parents to spend a day as pupils. The parents are keen. The pupils have views on that.
A parents’ school day at Boroughmuir, 2016, and another the year afterRead the story
School life · Dronfield
If the Data Logger Does Not Say Hello, Give Up
In 1992 a Dronfield sixth-former who hated chemistry wrote his teachers a guide to the black box nobody could work. Our eldest has just written me one for the thermostat.
Henry Fanshawe School, Dronfield, 1991 to 1992, and a drawer in 2011Read the story
School portraits · Edgware, London
Ten Stones Each, Then an Angel or a Crocodile
In the summer of 1964, every girl at North London Collegiate was asked to bring home ten stones from her holidays. The art teacher had plans for the stones, and for anyone aged fourteen.
North London Collegiate, Edgware, summer 1964 to summer 1965Read the story
School portraits · Bristol
Six Top Tips From a Sixth-Former, Followed to the Letter
A girl who joined QEH’s sixth form from an all-girls school wrote six tips for settling in. I had just joined my fourth PTA, and I was desperate.
QEH, Bristol, one sixth-form September to EasterRead the story
School portraits · Glasgow, Scotland
Two Primary 2 Critics Judged the Toast on Jam
Hutchesons’ Grammar School in Glasgow sends pupils home with ten life-skill challenges. I printed the idea out for our youngest and forgot who would be living in it.
2017–2018 pupil accountsRead the story
School portraits · London, England
How to Avoid Rugby: Join the Club With No Members
The magician Guy Hollingworth got his start at St Paul’s by hiding from the rain in a society nobody attended. I read this to our eldest as a lesson in initiative.
Schooldays at St Paul’s, recalled a long time afterwardsRead the story
Family life · Britain
She Squeezed the Envelope. I’d Have Steamed It Open.
A mother who never got a Blue Peter badge watches her daughter write a song for one. The reply arrives while the girl is at school.
Britain, one winter in 2019, with a postscript from 2024Read the story
School life · Kent
One Raised Hand, and Now the Whole Parish Knows
In Kent, a shy primary pupil volunteered for bell ringing and ended up talking to adults. I wanted that for our daughter, and I wanted it by Easter.
Kent, 2023 to 2024: one raised hand, then a great deal of noiseRead the story
School life · British school memories
Bring One Thing for Harvest. We Brought Fourteen.
The note from school asked each family for a single item. I read it the way I read a speed limit.
One harvest festival in Salisbury, a week in late SeptemberRead the story
Parent life · Stockport and elsewhere
The Interview Email Landed at 14.31. Panic Resumed at 14.41.
The Stockport Grammar interview invitations arrived on a Friday afternoon in January 2024. The parents could relax, briefly, until the real question arrived.
January 2024, one interview invitationRead the story