A question

[maddalia.livejournal.com]

Hello everyone!

There's something I'm trying to find out for my story - well, two things actually, and I wonder if anyone can help me.

1. In the '60s and '70s, what was the minimum term of service for a naval officer? How long would one sign up for, and how easy/hard was it to quit?

2. Did all private schools in the '50s have entrance exams? Or were there some where any kid could go if his parents had the money?

Comments

[inlovewithboth.livejournal.com]

Not sure about the Naval question. But with Private Schools, I'd always been of the understanding that the term 'Private' school meant your parents paid for you to go there, regardless of your abilities. Somebody else might be able to confirm that for you, but that's the way I thought it worked. xx

[maddalia.livejournal.com]

Thanks ILWB! I expect that must be the case with some schools, otherwise where would thick rich kids go? *g*

But I briefly attended a private school in the '90s, and did an exam to get in, so I thought I'd better check. At least it's only a matter of changing a word or two in my final draft, whatever the answer is!

[imachar.livejournal.com]

In the 60's and 70's a lot of fee paying schools (at least the day ones, not sure about the real "public" schools although I suspect they were the same way) used an entrance exam to select students out of a much larger pool of applicants. When I took an entrance exam in 1975 there were 1000 girls applying for 60 places. So anywhere that is popular enough to have more applicants than available places probably used the same system.

[maddalia.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I attended a similar kind of school in the '90s. Definitely food for thought; thank you!

[angel-ci5.livejournal.com]

Someone may have a more definitive answer regarding private schools, but my understanding is that the most popular ones had entrance exams, but there were others which didn't, and you just had to pay the fees to attend. :)

[maddalia.livejournal.com]

Thanks, that is my thought also. :)

[judesmk.livejournal.com]

The English school system in the 50s was based on public (i.e private fee paying schools), grammar schools (which were entered via an exam) and secondary modern schools where everyone else went. Schools like Eton and Rugby were public (private) and were fee paying but they also offered scholarships to anyone who could pass the entrance exam.

I'm not totally sure about the navy question but I think the Royal Navy had a minimum service term of 20 years (or at least they did in the 1980s). Once you'd passed the 6 weeks induction you were in until you retired or you bought your way out i.e. you paid a fee to leave.

Hope this helps.

[maddalia.livejournal.com]

Thank you, that really does help!

[anna060957.livejournal.com]

I think you'll find that before the advent of the Comprehensive School - and that took YEARS to work its way through the system (my sister attended the first comprehensive in our county in 1958, but where I'm living now only "went" comprehensive in 1980) - there was some sort of selection process whether it was private or state school. For example, to get into a grammar school (state) you had to take an exam called the 11 plus - probably so named because you took it when you were aged 11. Depending on where you lived and how many places were available (back to over-subscribed schools!) you either got in or not. If you didn't, you went to the Secondary School.

Not sure when this would have come into being, but most private schools also had scholarships - this is how they get the brainy kids in!!! Ooops sorry, my diversity training just went out the window! So this type of selection deliberately targeted very bright children who could access a better (in some opinions) level of education without having to pay the full fees. (There was of course a down side to that because a scholarship child tended to have secondhand uniform, couldn't go to the extra curricular activities or the trips!) This probably isn't helping you!
My own son went to a state boarding school with a quite strict selection process. This however was not based on academic prowess (a wonderful school!) Sorry, I bet you're even more confused!

No idea about the navy, but I could try looking it up.

[maddalia.livejournal.com]

It sounds like it could be fluid, which is exactly what I'm after. The school I envisaged was one where fee-paying kids (the majority) just got in, while scholarship kids took an exam. Thanks for your insights!

[anna060957.livejournal.com]

I did a Google search and came up with: The Royal Navel Museum and on the home page it says:

The Museum’s mission is 'to make accessible to all the story of the Royal Navy and its people from earliest times to the present'


http://www.royalnavalmuseum.org/index.htm

I would suggest you simply ask, but I can’t find any e-mail contact and only a telephone number. I’ve also looked at the Her Majesty’s Naval Service Eligibility and Guidance Notes which don’t seem to have any information about service periods – lots of other very interesting stuff though (but of course all current rather than 1970s/80s)!

This is the site for the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard which does have an e-mail contact:

http://www.historicdockyard.co.uk/contact/

Good Luck! (Can’t wait to read the story!)

[maddalia.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this! I'll see what I can find out.

[kiwisue.livejournal.com]

Royal Navy, or merchant navy? (just checking)

[maddalia.livejournal.com]

Royal navy.

[rosie55.livejournal.com]

Might be worth asking londonronnie about the Navy question, perhaps a PM, if she doesn't see this, as she has navy connections, maybe even about that time or a few years later.

[maddalia.livejournal.com]

I might just do that. Thank you!

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

I went to a UK public school in the 50s. There was an entrance 'exam' but to the best of my knowledge its purpose was to sort out kids who might deserve scholarships, and also to let the school know what they were getting... The scholarships were awarded regardless of parental finances and were to make sure the school would have some Oxbridge candidates later. There ws help with fees for some categories - I was a vicar's daughter and had a 'clergy daughter's place' with very low fees. A friend whose parents were quite well off had a scholarship. Some of my year were extraordinarily 'thick' but had wealthy parents so were presumably tested in an effort to make sure they could actually benefit from education in some way or another... So far as I know, most of the public schools had a similar system. Again, I think most of them decided between applicants (when there were too many) on the basis of other things like religion or parental involvement in some way or another. But back then, there were rarely too many applicants. The world of public schools was very small!! So be as fluid as you like! I'm sure some school somewhere would function in whatever way you dreamed up!!

[maddalia.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much, that's so helpful!