Did anyone see...

[englishangel]

I didn't see the show, but my sister said the houses look exactly the same (she didn't go toCH)and only saw the tail end not even knowing it was Hertford, she just recognised it.

Of course James may not be her maiden name.

She is just one of however many girls passed through Hertford, and I would like to wager that more of us were affected like Katharine and her 'careful' ways than like this poor woman.

Also (and what am I letting myself in for here?) don't her children's names, Troy and Brandon, just tell you all you need to know about her?

[Vonny]

don't her children's names, Troy and Brandon, just tell you all you need to know about her?

Seconded!

[Katharine]

Wow, some spectacular judgments about this woman here, especially directly above, considering no-one has actually seen the programme or read any more than the snippet of text above!
Lots of people get traumatised at school, any school, for a variety of reasons. To think that CH is any different, or that everyone should love it undyingly, or that everyone got an amazing education, is nonsense.
At least wait until seeing the programme before judging her - and even then bear in mind it carries the spin of the director.

I do agree with most of this gnuvag. I cannot tell your age or gender from your user name and profile, so I cannot tell whether you were educated at Hertford or not. Some of us on this forum were. While we all carry some traumas from that time, most of us take the Charge we were given as we left school seriously and are concerned when we see or read of a programme like this.

As to it carrying the spin of the director, I am sure that is true, we did go to a very special school which would have made for 'interesting' viewing. We live in a blame culture and if that strange school could be blamed so much more interesting, in the eyes of some directors.

I am very unlikely to ever see this programme, we are amongst the 1% of the population with no television.

[J.R.]

I didn't see the show, but my sister said the houses look exactly the same (she didn't go toCH)and only saw the tail end not even knowing it was Hertford, she just recognised it.

Of course James may not be her maiden name.

She is just one of however many girls passed through Hertford, and I would like to wager that more of us were affected like Katharine and her 'careful' ways than like this poor woman.

Also (and what am I letting myself in for here?) don't her children's names, Troy and Brandon, just tell you all you need to know about her?

Sounds very Chigwell or Braintree to me !

If anyone sees that its being repeated, please PM me ! Ta !

[A Dirty Old Jack]

That boil on my arse is really killing me this morning. Absolute murder, it is.

I blame that weird waxy-tasting porridge they used to give us at CH - or maybe it was to do with getting my bum pinched in the tiny gap between two abutting dayroom benches whilst watching TV on a saturday evening. (The bloke who had to sit on the gap had it tough.)

Or maybe I was whacked with a wallybonker just once too often.

[cj]

All we can tell is that she has not wished to stay in touch with the Foundation (either through the former CHOGA or subsequently through the CH Club) which seems to indicate why she had no scruples whatever about publicly slating the school for her own ends, now.

I am not an 'official' OB, being neither a member of CHOGA or the Old Blues Club (or whatever it's called now).

what must, at the very least, have been a good educational experience for her.

I'm afraid I would have to disagree with this one. I felt hugely dissatisfied with the quality and breadth of my education whilst at Hertford (for 2 years), particularly with the music, and my parents would not have considered sending me there if the merger had not been on the horizon. It was not an enjoyable experience for me and many of my friends.

I haven't seen the programme, but would hazard a guess that the revoltingness of the Hertford uniform was not the factor that drove this woman to financial problems and overspending on clothes. We don't know of her home background and why she was sent away, or her own personal experiences at school (bullying?). And for some, being 'sent away' is the start of the emotional troubles that can end with spending to make you feel good. It's the same as over-eating. Or excessive drinking. Or taking drugs. As I have said in previous posts on different threads, not everyone has rosy memories of the place. Some ended up coming out more damaged than when they went in, and structures were not always in place to help those who needed support.

[sejintenej]

That boil on my arse is really killing me this morning. Absolute murder, it is.

I blame that weird waxy-tasting porridge they used to give us at CH - or maybe it was to do with getting my bum pinched in the tiny gap between two abutting dayroom benches whilst watching TV on a saturday evening. (The bloke who had to sit on the gap had it tough.)

Or maybe I was whacked with a wallybonker just once too often.

We all have backgrounds to get over. The majority of us (by definition) are from poor / disadvantaged homes, most will have seen violence in the home** and all of us, according to social workers are therefore justified in committing crimes. Baloney.

** we had a problem with my son's school for depriving him; he was the only one one the class who hadn't seen violence at home and the teacher didn't like it!

Some people come from advantaged backgrounds - plenty of money, exotic holidays at the drop of a hat, sports cars as soon as they get a licence (or before) but still some commit crimes for social workers to explain away - his teacher didn't like him and he's damaged for life - blame the crime on the educational system / NHS / old uncle tom cobbley.

I guess that the majority of people here have reasonably clean records (OK perhaps a few driving points but not much worse) BECAUSE we have overcome our backgrounds.

I didn't see the programme but four words in the precis stood out;
single mother; (not a widow with children) but someone who either could not keep a marriage together or made a bad decision or flouted conventionality possibly to obtain state support (like my neighbour's daughter)
social worker - a bad phrase in my book. The concept is OK but the way they are trained makes most of them unfit to work in their chosen profession.

This woman has problems, true but surely they are down to lack of self control and the social worker's ethic that it is the duty of the state to provide any and everything the person asks for.

gets coat of armour....

[kerrensimmonds]

I should add to my previous messages that
a) In Who's Blue you can cross check maiden/married names and I could not find this lady anywhere
b) Yes I guess that every school produces some people who are disaffected or traumatised one way or another. But hopefully they are in the minority (not in the majority, as I have heard it said of Hertford women who left the school in the 1960's - which incidentally doesn't quite cover this particular lady)
c) I maintain we (in the 1960's) DID get a good educational experience for our time and place, whatever we made of it subsequently. I acknowledge that may have been different for 'canteen cath' in the late 1970's/early 1980's. It would be interesting to see if Elizabeth Tucker could remember the face and name....
d) Like other Hertford women contributors to this thread I feel desperately sorry for this lady (I guess none of us - well, maybe only Katharine! - could be said to be squeaky clean and speaking for myself I have debts which I know I could clear if I had to, but nonetheless they sometimes bring me out in cold sweats at the dead of night). But if she had remained 'in touch' she might have thought to turn to our own support system 'Blues Supporting Blues' (BSB - the Benevolent Society of Blues) for help at an earlier stage, before 'going public'.

At least she (whoever she is! - isn't there a 49 year old Hertford contributor to this Forum who might recognise the photograph?) has provoked an enormous amount of discussion in a very short time.

[Katharine]

d) Like other Hertford women contributors to this thread I feel desperately sorry for this lady (I guess none of us - well, maybe only Katharine! - could be said to be squeaky clean and speaking for myself I have debts which I know I could clear if I had to, but nonetheless they sometimes bring me out in cold sweats at the dead of night). But if she had remained 'in touch' she might have thought to turn to our own support system 'Blues Supporting Blues' (BSB - the Benevolent Society of Blues) for help at an earlier stage, before 'going public'.

I'm not sure how to take that, Kerren!! I think (and hope) it is a compliment!

[kerrensimmonds]

Of course its a compliment Katharine!
I was talking about the Forum today to Clare (Chisholm) - my best mate from all time - and saying how few of us there were contributing, but I named you and described some of the things you had inferred (inc. not having a TV). She remembered you with great clarity (having had a bed next to you in the dorm for a year), how nice you were (and presumably still are), and recalled your father and what he did and where. She then said (by the way she is now a Lay Reader in the Dicoese of Southwell) that 40+ years ago she could have predicted all the things I had been saying about you today. So there. Yes, a compliment!
The rest of us are far lesser, weaker, mortals..... (well, I am, anyway!)

[DavebytheSea]

I blame that weird waxy-tasting porridge they used to give us at CH - or maybe it was to do with getting my bum pinched in the tiny gap between two abutting dayroom benches whilst watching TV on a saturday evening. (The bloke who had to sit on the gap had it tough.)

Or maybe I was whacked with a wallybonker just once too often.

Er ......... TV??? You claim to be older than me Jack, but I had never even seen a TV, any TV, when I went to CH in 1947. When I left (in 1955) there were as far as I can recollect, still no televisions in the school - at least none available to us.

I think I have blown your cover! lol

[DavebytheSea]

I read comments made by Maureen Lipman or someone recently about the number of reality tv shows - she was saying that all our actors and actresses who`ve worked hard to get where they have are being "ousted" by "the public", and please could we have some REAL tv programmes instead of reality ones!! (words to that effect anyway).

I have to admit to being in total agreement!!

But I thoroughly enjoyed Rock School!

[Mrs C.]

Some people come from advantaged backgrounds - plenty of money, exotic holidays at the drop of a hat, sports cars as soon as they get a licence

....and somehow they still manage to get £30 a week EMA!!
(sorry, one of my personal gripes, I`m afraid, and not really relevent to the topic at all)

[Mrs C.]

I read comments made by Maureen Lipman or someone recently about the number of reality tv shows - she was saying that all our actors and actresses who`ve worked hard to get where they have are being "ousted" by "the public", and please could we have some REAL tv programmes instead of reality ones!! (words to that effect anyway).

I have to admit to being in total agreement!!

But I thoroughly enjoyed Rock School!

But would you have enjoyed it quite so much if you didn`t have a CH background?!?
I don`t think we as a family would have been at all interested if it hadn`t been filmed here - and the fact that at least one of the 2 daughters would be on tv sooner or later!!

[DavebytheSea]

Not having experienced not ever having gone to CH (!), I cannot answer that, Janet, but some of my non CH friends thought it was a brilliant programme - maybe they were just pandering to me though.