Dig Out Your Old School Reports
Chiswick writer wants material for his new book
James Thellusson. Picture: Twitter
Local Chiswick resident and blogger James Thellusson is appealing to locals to send him copies of their old school reports for a humorous history he is writing for independent publisher Sandstone Press.
James, who writes the Chiswick Calendar’s ‘Man in the Middle’ blog, said, ‘I am looking for material which is amusing, significant or memorably written. Good reports can be as interesting as bad ones and I will use the most interesting in the final book’.
As well as school reports, he is also collecting anecdotes about detentions, suspensions and expulsions.
‘I’m hoping to get material from workers and shirkers, super stars, misfits, the mischievous as well middling muddlers like myself,’ he continued.
School reports have evolved over the years from informal letters between tutors and parents to today’s sophisticated mix of written reports, examinations and verbal feedback. In England, the school report started to formalise in the early 19th century. For example, at King’s College, Canterbury, Speech Day programmes from the 1840s printed the names of boys in order of their exam results in the local paper and at Eton house masters sent a letter to parents at the end of each term.
“In the dry summer of 1976, my tutor wrote I was a ‘happy boy’ because ‘Jupiter Pluvius [the Roman god of rain] has been absent allowing him to indulge his passion for cricket without interruption.’ When I re read that report a whole summer returned to mind.”
Readers interested in donating material or memories to the project can contact James by emailing him at oldschoolreports@yahoo.com.
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October 18, 2020