A particularly detailed recollection comes from a former pupil who entered a Midlands boys’ school in 1954 after gaining one of a limited number of scholarships available to successful county eleven-plus candidates.
The school, founded in 1513, had approximately 800 pupils and enjoyed an impressive academic reputation.
Much of its discipline outside the classroom was placed in the hands of some 12 to 15 prefects.
They watched over school uniform, behaviour while pupils travelled in public wearing school colours, conduct around the grounds and the supervision of dining rooms.
The prefects were assisted by selected sixth-form boys known as “privileged sixth-formers”, or simply “privs”.
These appointments were eagerly sought. Apart from their prestige, they brought certain privileges. Ordinary boys were required to wear the standard school cap when travelling in uniform, while the privileged sixth were permitted to go bare-headed. Prefects possessed an elaborate cap of their own, complete with tassel.
