I nearly went to High School. I passed the 11+ and had a place waiting for me at Stafford Girls' High. If I'd gone there I might well have met Carol Anne Duffy, who is my age, so would have been the year below me. We bought the uniform and a length of scratchy turquoise fabric from which we were required to make a gym tunic and (very baggy) knickers.

Then Dad was offered a promotion, which meant moving to the little town of Uttoxeter, just far enough away for commuting to be unfeasible, so I went to Alleyne's Grammar School, Uttoxeter, instead. His next promotion, sixteen months later, took us across the county to Alleyne's Grammar School, Stone. (Both schools were founded by the will of the same priest in 1558. No-one knows why there. There's one more, in Hertfordshire.) Then, two years later, another promotion took us back across the county to Burton-on-Trent, where I finished my schooling.


Dovecliff Grammar was a mixed Grammar School in a town with two much more prestigious single-sex institutions. It went comprehensive a few years after I left, and changed its name. Both Alleyne's schools have been comprehensive for around forty years too. The past really is another country.

My teenage life in Staffordshire in the 60s and early 70s bears little resemblance to the equivalents in the US - except that all teenagers experience angst, worry, first love, hope, despair...

My Senior Year = My Upper Sixth year.

The year was: 1972-3
1. Did you know your spouse? No.
2. Did you car pool to school? My father took turns with a lady up the road to take the offspring across town to the school in the mornings. I took the bus home. I could either take two buses, one into town, one out, for a total cost of 4p, or walk half a mile and take a single bus, then walk up a steep hill at the other end, but only pay 3p. And, yes, it was actually worth the bother.
3. What kind of car did you have? I didn't have a car and didn't learn to drive till I was in my late 20s.
4. What kind of car do you have now? VW Passat estate, seven years old.
5. It's Friday night...where were you? Usually babysitting. I had a fairly regular job - they paid me 50p for an evening or £1 if I stayed overnight.
6. What kind of job did you have in high school? Babysitting. See above.
7. What kind of job do you have now? Retired/escaped teacher.
8. Were you a party animal? No
9. Were you a cheerleader? Good lord no. No such thing existed in any school I attended, at the concept was utterly meaningless to me.
10. Were you considered a jock? Not a word I knew, but I was definitely not sporty, though I enjoyed the fencing we did once a week.
11. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? I sang in the Messiah once and was a fairy in Iolanthe in the Lower Sixth. Thank God there are no photos.
13. Did you get suspended or expelled? No. I was boringly well-behaved.
14. Can you sing the fight song? I have no idea what one of those is. I'm sure we didn't have one.
15. Who was/were your favorite high school teacher? Mr Jackson, my History teacher and form teacher in the Sixth Form. He was a very innovative teacher for the time and I loved History almost as much as I loved English.
16. Where did you sit for lunch? In the Prefect's Room. In my year we were all made prefects, though some of us were Senior Prefects (more equal than others...) and we had a crowded common room where we could boil a kettle and make soup as well as eat our sandwiches.
17. What was your school's full name? Dovecliffe Grammar School.
18. What was your school mascot? I'm pretty sure there wasn't one. The badge had an image of a mediaeval corner post on it, which had something to do with the origins of the town, I think.
19. If you could go back and do it again, would you? No. It was better than earlier years had been, but university was much better.
20. Did you have fun at Prom? No such thing.
21. Do you still talk to the person you went to Prom with? I have one FB friend from those days, but haven't seen anybody from school in person for at least thirty years.
22. Are you planning on going to your next reunion?I gather there was one three years ago, but I am totally out of the loop, so no.
23. Are you still in contact with people from school? See above - one person on FB.
24. What are/were your school's colors? Brown and yellow. In the Sixth Form we wore brown skirts, white shirts and a brown and yellow tie in winter, but in the summer we could have any style of yellow dress as long as it had sleeves and either a round neck or a collar. Not a lot of freedom and it must have hurt the eye a little, but we relished it.

The year was eventful - the miners' strikes, the three-day week, my failure to get into Oxbridge. Lots of reading and studying I really enjoyed. Drama classes - I won a prize which was presented by Samantha Bond's father. Visiting friends the year above who were at university already - there was a strong sense of waiting for the next phase.


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