Here is the view (in the late 1950s) from, roughly, the cricket pavilion, over on the south side of the field looking towards Magdalen tower with the road bridge hidden by the trees on its RHS, with the Botanic Gardens’ hothouses just below the tower, the entrance to the field over the famous ‘white bridges’ just visible behind the figures reclining below the lime tree in the foreground just above RSS’s signature, and a cricket game in progress, of course.
I am a great fan of Mrs Stanier’s ‘Oxford verses’ which she wrote regularly for the Oxford Times (or was it the Oxford Mail? No, I think the weekly Times is more likely), under the pen name of ‘Culex’. She had, for me, and uncanny knack of knowing how to say memorable things. One day I shall find in my memorabilia collection the MCS calendar with her verse (much searched-for-by-me on the internet, in vain) about the lime tree on the school field, which included a line or two, roughly as follows:
“….the scent of lime and the drowse of bee,
and the poplar leaves a-quiver,
and the murmur of mums as they brew the tea,
these things go on for ever, oh let them go on for ever”
The school field (or rather around the school field on the Cherwell) was also the site for ‘tubbing’ practice (two oarsmen[**] and a coach steering) by the MCS boat club (rowing club). I well remember occasional tubbing practice being valuable, including for members of the school 1st VIII, usually under the watchful eye of Dennis Clarke. He was a splendid balanced blend of familiarity and school-masterly detachment, which I respected, and still do.
(Added 31.3.15): [**] The ‘two oarsmen’ were sometimes myself and my ‘middle-of-the-boat’ Ist VIII colleague, Robert Herbertson. We rowed one-behind-the-other at 3/4/5, Robert on stroke side, in William Waynflete for several years. What a delightful backdrop against which to be coached in the finer points of blade-technique. A totally green ‘river-world’ almost out of The Wind in the Willows’. Elms and chestnuts in their mature magnificence overhanging the river everywhere. And much else of beauty, with nothing to take away from the peace and seclusion of the ‘very enclosed’ world of the Cherwell, at about a mile from its confluence with the Thames/Isis at Christ Church boat house and OUBC (as it was then) at the top of The Green Bank, where the entire character of the secluded Cherwell gives way to the wide-open-spaces of the Thames and VIIIs rowing and so on.
A few more lines from Maida Stanier: (entirely from memory on 31.3.15) - my favourite one of her verses:
Freshmen:
Scholar type from Winchester, or sometimes Eton,
Coming up to New-Coll with other pleasant guys,
With luggage full of Berlioz, Lapsang-Soochong,
Apparatus Criticus and neat bow ties.
Mustard-keen commoner from midand grammar school,
Never letting on that he doesn’t know the ropes,
With luggage full of Sullivan, Penguins, county grants,
Sherry glasses, marmalade and microscopes
Muscle-man from Empire with dirt-caked sports shorts,
Butting through the trials to a rugby blue,
With luggage full of Tiger Rag, foodstuffs, track-suits,
liniment, boots and a book or two.
Talking of ‘Muscle-men from Empire’, we knew one. A Rhodes scholar. He was the son of Edith McCullah who was housekeeper for Grandpa Archer (WGRA), when he was living next-door to us, at Cotswold, 19 Sandfield Road, Headington, in the late 1950s/early 1960s. Peter McCullah was a Rhodes scholar, and a very keen walker. Olympic standard, I believe. Of course Rhodes’ empire money was the tainted-est of all. But 1959 was before such ideas were of much interest to me.
More on MCS: (as a Direct Grant School):
Here is some text about Direct Grant Schools as published by Wikipedia: (14.5.18):
Direct grant grammar school
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Manchester Grammar School, the best-known of the direct grant grammar schools, was significantly larger than most.
A direct grant grammar school was a type of selectivesecondary school in England and Wales that existed between 1945 and 1976. One quarter of the places in these schools were directly funded by central government, while the remainder attracted fees, some paid by the Local Education Authority and some by private pupils. On average, the schools received just over half of their income from the state.
The status was introduced by the Education Act 1944 as a modification of an existing direct grant scheme to privately endowed schools. There were 179 direct grant grammar schools, which, together with over 1,200 grammar schoolsmaintained by local authorities, formed the most academic tier of the Tripartite System. They varied greatly in size and composition, but, on average, achieved higher academic results than either maintained grammar schools or independent schools.
State secondary education was reorganised on comprehensive lines in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The direct grant was phased out from 1975 and the schools were required to choose between becoming maintained comprehensive schools or fully independent schools. Forty-five schools, almost all Roman Catholic, joined the state system, while a few closed. The rest (including all the secular schools) became independent and mostly remain as highly selective independent schools.
Origins[edit]
In the 19th century, few boys and very few girls in England and Wales received secondary education, which was available only at private schools. During this time, secondary provision expanded and adjusted to growing demand. At the start of that century, some boarding schools like Eton College and Winchester College thrived educating the sons of the aristocracy, but most endowed grammar schools were in decline, their classical curricula seen as irrelevant to the industrial age.[1] These schools were reformed under the Endowed Schools Act 1869, which also led to many endowments being diverted to the creation of girls' schools.[2] In the meantime a range of other schools had appeared. After the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 and mid-century Irish immigration, Catholic teaching orders from Ireland and mainland Europe began to establish their own grammar schools.[3] New proprietary schools were established, initially as joint-stock companies, converting to charities if they were successful.[4] One of the largest such companies was the Girls' Public Day School Company (later Trust), set up to provide an affordable academic education for girls, which had established 32 schools by 1894.[5]
In the latter part of the century, many of the less wealthy schools received annual grants from the Department of Science and Art and from their county councils.[6] The grant system was restructured when the Board of Education was created in 1901 to fund early secondary schools, and the Education Act 1902 gave counties and county boroughs responsibility for schools, designating them as local education authorities (LEAs).[7] Secondary schools controlled by voluntary bodies could receive a grant from either the Board of Education or their local authority, or both. In return they were required to meet the Board's regulations, and were subject to the same system of inspections as state-funded schools.[8] Under the Education (Administrative Provisions) Act 1907, secondary schools in receipt of grant were required to admit a specified proportion of their intake, usually 25%, free of charge from state elementary schools. Suitable pupils were selected using a scholarship examination.[9][10]
Circular 1381, a directive issued by the Board of Education in 1926, required that schools choose a single source of grant: they could receive a "direct grant" from central government, or be "grant-aided" by their local authority.[11] By 1932 there were 240 secondary schools receiving a direct grant, compared with 1138 aided by local authorities.[10] Although this division was intended purely as an administrative convenience, local authorities gradually gained more influence over the schools they aided, in part because of the schools' weak financial position during the Great Depression.[12]
The Depression and the falling birth rate in the pre-war years had also weakened independent schools and schools receiving the direct grant. At the same time, the state-funded sector had grown to the point where universal secondary education seemed achievable, and changes in society had made the idea more popular. Proposals were made for a reorganisation of the maintained sector, including a new accommodation with the voluntary schools. In response, the Headmasters' Conferencepersuaded the President of the Board of Education, R.A. Butler, to establish a commission under Lord Fleming in July 1942 "to consider means whereby the association between the Public Schools ... and the general education system of the country could be developed and extended".[13]
Direct grant scheme
The Education Act 1944 aimed to introduce a universal system of secondary education for England and Wales. Under the Tripartite System, there were to be three types of schools, with pupils sitting an eleven plus exam to determine which type of school they would be sent to. The most academic tier would be the grammar school, and the Act revised the terms of the direct grant to operate alongside LEA-maintained grammar schools, many of which were former LEA-aided schools. The latter schools, unable to cope with the costs of the reorganisation required by the 1944 Act, had been offered the status of voluntary controlled or voluntary aided schools, under which the state would pay all their running costs and all or most of their capital costs. They were thus fully integrated into the state system.[14]
The new direct grant scheme was a modification of proposals in the Fleming Report of 1944.[15] A direct grant grammar school would provide 25% of its places free of charge to children who had spent at least 2 years in maintained primary schools, and would reserve at least a further 25% of places to be paid for by the LEA if required.[16] The remaining ("residuary") places would attract fees, but no child would be admitted unless they had achieved the required standard in the eleven plus. The schools would be inspected by Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools, would have one third of their governing bodies appointed by the LEA, and would require the approval of the Secretary of State to raise fees or carry out building work.[16][17]
The scheme was attractive to most of the direct grant schools.[18] Of the 231 secondary schools receiving direct grant in 1945, 196 applied to join the new scheme, with the rest becoming independent schools. In addition 31 grant-aided schools applied to join the scheme.[19] Of these, 164 schools (including four formerly grant-aided schools) were accepted as direct grant grammar schools.[20][21] The list was re-opened between 1957 and 1961, when 44 applications were received, of which 15 were accepted.[22][23] There were therefore 179 direct grant grammar schools, alongside over 1200 maintained grammar schools.[24]
Beside the Direct Grant Scheme, the Act also made provision for LEAs to fund places at independent schools in areas where there was a shortage of appropriate places in maintained schools. For example, there might be a lack of selective places, or of selective places in Roman Catholic schools. In the late 1960s, 56 independent schools had over 25% of their places funded by LEAs in this way, with seven of them over 75% LEA-funded.[25]
Characteristics of the schools
See also: List of direct grant grammar schools
In 1966, when direct grant schools were at their height, they educated 3.1% of secondary pupils across England and Wales, while independent schools accounted for 7.1%. For A-level students, these proportions rose to 6.2% and 14.7% respectively.[26] Before Culford School became coeducational in 1972, all but 2 of the schools were single sex, with a slight majority of girls' schools.[27] There were 56 Roman Catholicschools, 14 Church of England and 6 Methodist.[a] Many of the schools were in the north of England, with 46 in the historic county of Lancashire (including Manchester) and 18 in the West Riding of Yorkshire, while there were only 7 in inner London and 4 in Wales.[30] In 1961, an average of 59% of pupils at direct grant grammar schools were state-funded, but the proportion also varied greatly between schools.[17][31]
Direct grant schools had similar teacher/pupil ratios to the maintained grammar schools, as their fees were regulated to match costs at the latter schools. The proportion of teachers with first and second class degrees was slightly lower than in their maintained counterparts.[32] The principal difference from the maintained schools was greater freedom from LEA influence.[33]
Although there was much variation, these schools as a group were middle-class institutions, with many tending to move closer to the independent schools in social composition.[34] On average, three-quarters of pupils came from white-collar homes, including 60% with fathers in management or the professions, while only 7% were children of semi-skilled or unskilled workers.[35] On average, the intake of the schools was also more academically selective than either maintained grammar schools or independent schools.[36] Their results were correspondingly high, with 60% of their pupils staying on to age 18 and 38% going on to university, significantly greater proportions than either of the other groups of schools.[37]