School life, between the linesBy Eleven Plus Diary
School stories, admissions adventures, and the things parents talk about on the way home.
School portraits · Newcastle upon Tyne, England
In October 1894 a pupil at the Royal Grammar School in Newcastle wrote to the school magazine as his own overcoat. I read the letter and then went and looked at our hall pegs.
School portraits · Moray, Scotland
A Gordonstoun pupil who had watched thousands of sheep being shorn found the first day of the course hard on his back. I have watched thousands of haircuts, and I own clippers.
School memories · Edinburgh & the Lake District
One boy was picked last for Scottish dancing in an Edinburgh gym. Another was told by his school report to loosen up. I have a parents’ ceilidh on Friday.
Family life · London & West Sussex
A mother’s two-line review of a night under the whale at the Natural History Museum should have put me off. I booked it the same evening.
School portraits · Bristol and Auckland
In the 1950s a Bristol Grammar French master introduced his new class to the furniture. Years later he went looking for one of them on the other side of the world.
School portraits · Manchester
Withington’s two Elles had to keep straight faces while a teacher stood in for the chihuahua. I have been standing in for everything in our kitchen since February.
School portraits · Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire
At Cheadle Hulme, Lower Sixth mentors help the new Year 7s through their first term. So I set one up at home, between our sixth-former and our Year 7, in time for Christmas.
School portraits · Sennybridge, Wales
The chair of governors at a Powys primary is learning Welsh at the school, and the children keep checking up on her. In our house, the examiners are smaller and have no mercy.
School life · Scotland
A Young Enterprise team in Scotland lost its event a week before the big day and went to the final with nothing to sell. I read about it on the morning of our daughter’s enterprise afternoon.
School life · Exeter
In a 2017 heatwave, an Exeter school told boys who wanted shorts to wear skirts. The BBC turned it into an English lesson, and I turned it into ammunition.
School life · British school sports days
The mums’ race is in eleven days and our daughter has made her expectations clear. I went looking for parents who had been here before.
School life · Goole, Lincoln and Harrow
Our youngest asked whether his first cross-country race would have shortcuts. I said no, and then made the mistake of checking.
