Figure 1.--Here we have a class portrait from the Patcham C.S. School taken in September 1951. It is clearly the Second Form of a secondary school. We were not sure at first what "C.S." meant. Click on the image to see the rest of the class. |
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Here we have a class portrait from the Patcham C.S. School taken in September 1951 (figure 1). It is clearly the Second Form of a secondary school. We were not sure at first what the abbreviation "C.S. means. A reader tells us that Patcham is an area of Brighton - a resort on the south coast of England - I know because there is a Youth Hostel there." We have no idea what a "C.S." school is. We thought it might mean Catholic School, but then the word School would not be repeated again. "S" could mean Secondary, but we do not know what "C" means. It crossed our mind that it might mean Church of Scotland as there are many Church of England schools. A SCottish reader tells us that Scotish schools were not so identfied. Thus we simply do not know at this time what kind of school the Patcham C.S. School is. Hopefully our English readers will help us here. A reader writes, "I'd suggest C.S. School is English and stands for "County Secondary School" - non- denominational schools. England of course has Church of England (C of E) as well as Roman Catholic (R.C.) schools. Interestingly the Scottish denominational schools do not have "R.C." in the name but something like "Our Lady of The Rosary Primary School" tends to let you know that it's a enominational school. Another British reader writes, "I never heared of CS but I have seen CP School outside of Inner London - the so-called "Home Counties" - and think that means
County Primary School. Others you might see are JMI School - Junior and Infant Mixed School - as opposed to plain Junior School where the infants are in a completely seperate school."
Here we have a class portrait from the Patcham C.S. School (figure 1). It is in Sussex just outside of Brighton. A reader tells us that Patcham is an area of Brighton - a resort on the south coast of England - I know because there is a Youth Hostel there." We are not sure if this would be a grammar school or a secondary modern.
The portrait here was taken in September 1951.
It is clearly the Second Form of a secondary school. The children would be 12-13 years old. The form would be comparable to the 8th grade in an American junior high school. A British reader explains, "Usually, Secondary schools often named their classes in accordance with the year (Grade) that the child was in. A Class name that started with "1" would cater for children who were 11-12-years-old, a class name starting with "2" would cater for children who
were 12-13-years-old etc... According to British Education law the academic year runs from September 1st to August 31st; thus the children in the photograph below would be known as "2nd Form" students and they would all be 12-years-old but would turn 13 at some point between September 1st and August 31st. I note that the photograph was taken in September 1951 and accordingly it would be fairly safe to assume that all of the children depicted would be 12-years-old - unless a birthday had passed August 31st and the date of the photograph."
The Patcham School in 1951 had no school uniform. We note a few children wearing uniform garments, but there was no uniform. We do not know if there were any clothihng regulations. All the girls wear dresses. The boys wear both short and long trousers. There is quite a mix of schoolwear. Some boys wear short pants sxuits while others wear casual outfits with long trousers. A reader writes, "The photograph shows that the school was one where school uniform was not compulsory - this was generally the case with those
schools situated in working-class areas and/or where the children attending came from relatively low-income families. The children do, however, look smartly turned out though this may well have been because an effort had been made by parents knowing that school photographs were to be taken on that particular day. It may be noted that some of the boys are wearing short trousers even at the age of 12 - it was not unusual for some boys at that time to continue wearing short trousers through 2nd, 3rd, and occasionally even into 4th Forms."
A reader writes, "I was working my way through your pages when I came across this page for the Catcham County Secondary School. In the picture they use the abbreviations 'CS" for part of the schools name. I was wondering if it might stand for 'Comprehensive School' Because of the length of the name, they might have shortened it to keep the more important information in there.. Maybe some of your contributors may be able to throw some light on whether these schools still exist." The letters fit, burt I am not sure Britin began creating comprehensives in the early 1950s. I think that this came a bit later. We do not yet have much information on Comprehensive Schools.
We were not sure at first what the abbreviation "C.S. means. We have no idea what a "C.S." school is. We thought it might mean Catholic School, but then the word School would not be repeated again. "S" could mean Secondary, but we do not know what "C" means. It crossed our mind that it might mean Church of Scotland as there are many Church of England schools. A SCottish reader tells us that Scotish schools were not so identfied. Thus we simply do not know at this time what kind of school the Patcham C.S. School is. Hopefully our English readers will help us here. A reader writes, "I'd suggest C.S. School is English and stands for "County Secondary School" - non- denominational schools. England of course has Church of England (C of E) as well as Roman Catholic (R.C.) schools. Interestingly the Scottish denominational schools do not have "R.C." in the name but something like "Our Lady of The Rosary Primary School" tends to let you know that it's a enominational school. Another British reader writes, "I never heared of CS but I have seen CP School outside of Inner London - the so-called "Home Counties" - and think that means
County Primary School. Others you might see are JMI School - Junior and Infant Mixed School - as opposed to plain Junior School where the infants are in a completely seperate school."
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