Up Pre 1920 1920 Roll 1925-30 1930-35 1934 1935 1936-40 1937 1938 1939 1939-40 Roll 1940 1941 1942 1943 1945 1946 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 roll 1953 1954 1955 1956 1956 Roll 1957 1958 1959 1955-60 1960 Roll 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1964 Roll 1965 1967 1968 1970 1971 1973 1975 "The Famous" Additional Year Unknown The Prefects' Book

                                       

Burton on Trent Grammar School Badge
 


 The Students
 of
Burton on Trent Grammar School

 

Student pages above are organised by Year of Entry. People who skipped a year are deemed intelligent enough to find their compeers and sufficiently recovered from their schizophrenia to recognise them - similarly, those misfits who came late or left early. This section contains mostly Form Photos and Roll Photos along with groups from a particular Year of Entry. A number of large student groups which do not refer to a specific year are also on the site. Most photos are in the Social & Games Section. If your Form Photo is not up, you can probably have it scanned by Litchfield Archives and sent to you - see the "Links" Page for more details. Other major sources of photos have been Norman Binns and Graham Brown (Cecil 'Chas' Brown Archive). Check either side of your expected Year of Entry. People's memories and my calculations are not guaranteed....

                                     Difficulties in ascribing the correct year to photos. 
Les Simpson notes:
-    As you may or may not know prior to the 60's, for some length of time, there was no form 3A, so the progression was from 2A to 4A. Consequently those in the A stream reached the sixth form at least a year before anyone in the lower streams (some of whom also journeyed via 5X).
-    Form 5X was a bit of a mixed bag of A, B & C grade pupils who had not achieved as many GCE 'O' level passes as they required either to progress to the 6th Form or for the job they were hoping to take up. Consequently it was a year of relative free-wheeling for some, as there were several with frequent study (free) periods and lessons that were not that taxing or important like Art or English Lit, and hard graft for others. The 5X form room was I believe 'S' Room which was the front half of the hut between 'X' Room (Physics Lab) and 'M' Room in the old garden in Bond St. 
 -  When I was at school in the 50's it was usual to go to University at 18 or over, therefore, because of the absence of a form 3A those in 5A took the GCE 'O' level at age 14-15, were in the lower VIth at 15-16, upper VIth(i) at 16-17, upper VIth(ii) at 17-18 and some even stayed a third year in the upper VIth(iii). So there could be students in the upper sixth that started over a range of three or four years in exceptional circumstances. However having studied several photos on the website of students from the 50's, and the dates of their graduation, it seems that 7-8 years is about right for the journey from BGS entry to university entry ( Gap years were not the norm in those days).

Tony Smith notes:
As to prefect's photographs and their identification. The late 1940's were a time of some confusion national service was expected to end at anytime so pupils tended to stay on for an extra year in the upper sixth form particularly with the introduction of scholarship level HSC papers. Universities were also full with demobbed ex-servicemen. Talking to boys fom other schools several of us were surprised to find that they had gained university admission with less qualifications than us. Later conversations with a university professor revealed that some headmasters, in their referee's letter, expressed the view that the applicant should do his national service first. He also commented that headmaster's pay was related the number of sixth form pupils. This explains why it is difficult to relate the year of entry to the prefects photographs.