My recollection is that if you passed the 11+ you went to a school where university was encouraged, if you failed you were probably expected to leave age 16 and get a job or maybe to a tech college if you showed the inclination. This was pre-comprehensive schools.
Sore point with me. I started fulltime work in the spring of 1970, worked part time from the age of 13 which was the legal limit in those days. Worked until I was 68, had two jobs during the Ted Heath Government of the early 70's just so we could keep our heads above water. In with that is 30 years self employed and I was VAT registered.....and I don't qualify for a full state pension. Met an old face on the bus today who has never had a job in his life, he dodged work by enrolling on a variation of university courses, none of which I could pronounce, none of them ever brought him a wage packet. He told me 'I've fell on my feet' Council bungalow on the coast, doesnt pay rent or council tax, all his bills are paid and he gets more state pension then I do. The benifits of a university education for you.
So at the age of 11 your future was decided for you because of one exam? Great system eh? I actually did get to Hull University when I was in my 50's. Got two thirds of my marks towards a degree in my subject, then the funding was pulled and the course dismantled.
We had a careers officer come to the School I went to up here,he took an interest in the more intelligent students,prefects,teachers pet's etc...Advice to the rascals was 'plenty of warehouses/factories in the area'!!
Well, I think that's the issue comprehensives were meant to address. I'm sure some 11+ failures went on to uni but they would have been the exceptions rather than the rule.
No everyone got student grants for the likes of Hull Uni, you only payed for the Oxbridge type posh Uni’s
No your right, I just said any thick ****er can get a degree, I never said everyone was a thick ****er, maybe if you learned to read you could have gone to Uni
They were not.A load off my council estate stayed on at both my grammar school and the local secondary school. A lot went to university which in those days was difficult and used to get a write up in the local papetd, including HDM, of who had managed it. I can't think of any of my age group prevented from staying on if they wanted to.
I wasn’t put forward for the 11+ cos teacher thought I was thick, I wasn’t a ****er at 11, anyway, it was a great way of selecting clever people to go to Uni, the ones maybe who ran the country in the future, but looking at the likes of the government we have now scrapping it was a bad idea.
Remember it well(11 plus). Straight choice between a 10 minute walk to Driff Secondary or bus to Brid Grammar.Needless to say I walked to school,stopping on the way for 5 cigs and a box of matches...Cough/Splutter
Very similar to me, 32 years self employed since 1991, had 6 weeks on the dole in the mid seventies, got made redundant in about 87 with a house and 3 kids, got told to sell my house because I wouldn't get help with mortgage, I don’t get full pension, yet lazy bastards on dole or sick get full stamp every week and full pension. Britain is broken, I just wish I had ****ed off to Spain 10 years ago when I had chance.
I never knew of one kid going to university, in fact I can only remember one lad going to college. Everyone left school at 16 and desperately tried to get any job they could. Nobody ever even mentioned university.
I've got a full stamp for the last 47 years(through working for numerous employers).Never been self employed and can't see why/how it should make one iota of a difference as we're all knackered whatever way we've worked our way through the years...It's a ****ing disgrace to be honest!!
My old man passed his 11* in 1943 he left school and got on board an ellerman Wilson ship for the next three years No mention of university to him And he had to send money home to grandma to look after his younger brothers
I can imagine, I'm talking about the mid-late 60's though when we 'never had it so good', if you remember that!
