Three terms at Uplands

The theme in a way of this post might as well be "You're always a girl" no least for the things that remain from that period not least the story books I still have of which this 1970 copy is an original.
I don't know about you but there always was one child in the form who it always seemed  to be the one who in trouble, not that I was angelic, and this book is about a girl, Claire Johnstone, who is although as in my experience too there is real trouble-maker behind  it all, in this case Ethel, who just leaves poor old Claire to take the blame.
Claire is fortunate to get a scholarship to Uplands, a large boarding school who sees this a chance to start anew with a clean slate until she finds there is a another new girl -Ethel!
It isn't long before Claire is back in trouble again all because Ethel thinks the Juniors are getting a raw deal from the Prefects.
We had Head Girls and Boys but basically you had certain amount power over your fellow pupils as Prefect and extra duties which didn't always go down so well with folk.
Anyway, Ethel wants Pupil Power and the Juniors soon find themselves members of Ethel's Students Union, an action anywhere in a school I went of putting you on the wrong side of Adult Authority, rebelling.

At 14

Hi and welcome to a new exciting entry in my blog, which has going for a fair while now.
It took me me a bit of time to learn about  how to lay out an entry using the tools blogger  provides,captioning my entries as well as the discipline of making the entries on something like regular basis.

This is an slightly older 'Joanne' looking just about 14 very much as I recall it, older bit still very much a girl with with pink colour scheme  and cute effects on the shelf.
At 14 We started studying for our 16+ exams  having decided with our teachers and parents what options for study subjects we were going to be taking although within reason they could be changed afterward.
I majored on the Humanities, studying Religious Education, Geography, History as well of English language, English Literature, Math, Government and Politics and combined Science.I also took as a study only subject Geometric and Engineering Drawing, learning to draw in three dimensions as well as Craftwork, where I learned about enamelling, basic woodwork and made craft items from fabrics, card and glue.
Naturally being my school we still continued to play team games  such as Rounders as well as taking swimming lessons. In my head I still felt 12 however even though perhaps compared to today's youngsters we were less overtly grown up for not having the same push on branded fashion and sexuality.
As far as dress went the uniform was as shown, still very much sweater, blouse and neatly pleated skirts but some girls wore tights rather than white knee socks.

Life (and why this blog is as it is)

After Monday's post, I felt like writing a bit more around what being this girl means and why it is this blog is the way it is.

 I am somewhat more visual but in may respects this illustration sums a whole chunk of it up really well.

The first thing is we all dressed differently, showing that how we feel expressing our inner sense of being is different, I veer more toward the girl on the far left, others in this context might choose a party dress. It's all good!

We are all having fun, sharing chit-chat, sucking our Pop through straws. That sharing is what we do when at meets playing with each other and letting each other play individually with our dolls, stuffies and other toys. I am grateful my little/middle friends let me share things as it means a lot allowing us to build our friendships.

There is music playing that we are sharing. It may be my home stereo component system is more technically 'better' than their phonograph, which I had a similar model when I was in my tweens but it is being used to share music, to enjoy it's playing so we have our records out.

That's the function of music in my life and there are 'places' I share it; it's not about the 'hifi', it's about the joy of listening to it which is why on this blog I do write about it, tossed in with the dolls, stuffies and other cute stuff.

There is also grown up supervision about keeping everything safe and ensuring we behave because it's easy for things to get out of hand and you mightn't see it.

The biggest thing in all of this is just innocuous fun!

A Princess at the School & Manor House School

As you may of gathered I do rather like reading and these are two books I've had since childhood.

These are editions from1970 although they were reprinted by Armada across that decade as I read them at boarding school during that era.
The Manor House School is about a Eleven and Twelve year old girls Cicely and Lindsay who arrive in the Summer Term who find a secret room, hear some voices which leads to a mystery involving a missing fortune which leads them to discover the mystery of Winterburn Manor.
The Princess at the School (originally of the school), written in 1920, is a story of Ingleton children who having been orphaned and their home, Cheverley Chase, has been left to a young cousin who nobody seems to have been met.
Upon meeting cousin Carmel, the children make it plain she isn't welcome but her friendly nature eventually wins them over so while  they lost their original home it seems they've found a new friend.
Stories like that always were a part of my life I enjoyed and while having kept them, I do enjoy revisiting them from time to time.