..the Public School terminology used in the film and their meanings, and possibly explain the official and unofficial hierarchy within the student body?
As an Aussie unfamiliar with that school system, the first few minutes were a bit confusing with receiving this new information and initially getting my ear around the accents.
Cheers..
A quick answer would be that the hierarchy has masters (teachers) at the top. Below them are the pupils, headed by the prefects (whips). At the bottom of the heap are the new boys.
The school jargon (and rules, ie about when to lift your boater and to whom) is called bumpf; the pupil delegated to teach it to the new boy (Jute) is therefore a bumpf tutor. What would be called prefects or monitors in most schools are given the (presumably deliberately exaggerated) name of whips. The fictional school also has a system called fagging that was particularly associated with Eton College, under which younger boys were allocated to older boys as a form of batman or servant. Such boys were known as fags. In If .... they are called scum, which, again would seem to be deliberately exaggerated. I'm not aware of schools that handed the job of physical punishment to prefects. It's not impossible. Corporal punishment based on a runup to the victim seems pretty far fetched.
Very informative post, anyID. I must ask though, what does "runup" mean?
Thanks
... and the rocks it pummels. - James Berardinelli
When caning Mick, Rowntree physically runs towards him at high speed to give the blow more force. It seems improbable that any school would allow that given the risk to the person being caned.
shareThanks, Any!
... and the rocks it pummels. - James Berardinelli
You're welcome
shareI went to an inner city Comprehensive in the early 70s (before the abolition of corporal punishment in schools) and we had a teacher, who, when delivering cane strokes would take a run up. I don't see how it would be 'far fetched' for that to be happening in Public Schools during the previous decade.
shareI know an English guy who went to school in the late sixties/ early seventies and he said he was kicked by teacher who would also run up to him from the back to give the kick more force. I think this was also at a public school, but I am not 100% sure.
This is so sick. I really hope these things don't happen at schools anymore.
The jargon varies enormously from school to school, so it is not necessarily "bumph". At my school it was called "The Gospel".
Fagging was far more widespread than just Eton - lots of schools used the fag system. (At my school it had been abolished as a master-servant relationship and had become instead a sort of early "buddy" system. The junior partner, though, was still called a fag and the the older his fag master.)
Equally, many schools allowed prefects the right to administer corporal punishment, although not by the 1960s. Certainly by the 1970s I can't imagine any schools still allowed it - indeed by then, most schools didn't allow anyone other than senior masters to beat pupils. (At my school, it was limited to the Head Master, the Second Master and the Senior Assistant Master; random flogging by assistant masters and prefects went out in the 1950s!)
Speaking from bitter and painful experience, I can assure you that the run-up was definitely still favoured by some masters!)
New boys go by a variety of titles depending on the institution. When I was a pupil, new boys were Sprogs ; at most of the schools in which I've taught they were simply "new bugs", just as day pupils were "day bugs".
A few more points....
A big public school was divided into sections or "houses." So College House is one of the sections of the school.
In the last year at the school you were in the upper-sixth form. In the penultimate year you were in the lower-sixth form (after six years in the school).
In my university years I had friends from Rugby, a leading English public school. I seem to recall being told that the prefects at Rugby could administer beatings in the 60s. There was someone from Rugby at uni whom people shied away from because of his reputation for cruel beatings. At my junior school the Head gave public canings and shook the victim's hand after the beating, as in the film.
The sweat room is where the boys do their "homework", otherwise know as prep.
I must say I think it is a wonderful film.
Oh yes indeed.
At my grammar school, in the 60's, we had beatings, and a prefect system, and as you have stated, a house system. We had 4 houses, named after local landmarks, such as a hill or castle nearby. We stayed in these houses throughout our 6 yearsat school. Each house was also allocated a colour - I recall mine was red, others, green, yellow and blue.
Sixth form was small, and relaxed, and I now remember we were treated as semi-adults! Teachers didn't wear their gowns for lectures as they did in previous years, and time-keeping too was more relaxed. We could wander out onto the playing fields between lectures if we wished and study on a grassy knoll or under a tree in summer. Salad days!