The Quantock School Prospectus
The 1965 Quantock School Prospectus
The 1965 issue of the Quantock School prospectus was a very dry, to-the-point affair - with all of the essentials being covered in eight unillustrated pages, save for the obligatory aerial shot of the school. This spartan A5 publication paints a picture of a school that to pupils from the 1980s like myself was both alien yet oddly familiar at the same time.
Some things were markedly different - like lights out for seniors at 9pm, an outright ban on 'tuck' being provided by parents, and mail being doled out at tea à la Hogwarts instead of our being able to pick it up at lunchtime - yet other aspects of the protocol remained constant, such as prefects' ties and Sunday letter-writing. There were four school houses - Coleridge, Blake, Lister and Wright - which I guess gave Coleridgeites reason to lord it over us Flemingites. Of course, hardly anyone who was at Quantock in the 1980s were likely to have known this. The emphasis on religion was also something that slowly petered away as Quantock School found itself having to keep up with the development of a more secular Britain - although 'Chapel' remained in the Quantock vernacular long after the Sunday gathering had ceased being a religious one.
However, perhaps the one thing that really stands out is the diktat on "Comics" set out on page 4, which states that "Comics" are subject to inspection, with certain types not being allowed in the school - with "The Eagle" being the preferred "type". This was a far cry from the Quantock of the 1980s, where pupils were indulging in anything from Smash Hits and Look-In through to Mayfair and Playboy. The latter, of course, gave its name to the 'Playboy Dorm' on the junior wing...
The contents are rudimentary: a single illustration, a brief foreword (p. 2) which touches upon the aims and policies of the school, and a thorough, seven-point prospectus (pp. 2-8).
