UNEXPECTED FACTORS AFFECTED BRIGG PUPILS SITTING EXAMS

The system that is now being employed to award A-level grades across the UK is a talking point in Brigg at the moment - exams having been decimated by the Coronavirus emergency.
We joined one discussion in a local pub over the weekend which involved some senior residents whose school days are now far behind them.
Later, we reflected on this topic and wondered how teacher-awarded grades or 'mock' exam performances might have worked 'in our day'.
At Brigg Grammar School in the early 1970s, teachers were still known as masters and were overseen by the headmaster rather than headteacher (a term to be adopted later).
Ours was H. B. Williams, seen top right in the montage image above, together with French master Vernon Atkin and maths master Harold Stinson (top left).
This was a highly respected trio. And if Covid-19 had struck in our era the Government, and the pupils, would have had every faith in them and the other masters of this period.
Secondary school pupils living in Brigg during the early 1970s (not just at Brigg Grammar) had to contend with a few unexpected and now largely forgotten factors that affected revision and preparation for their exams, including the January/February 'mocks'.
Power cuts resulting from national industrial disputes meant studying and doing homework by torch-light while the juice was off. This was the period of the infamous three-day (working) week in an effort to conserve supplies, although schools remained open Monday to Friday throughout.
A more significant factor was Brigg Urban District Council's programme to modernise much of its housing stock, including replacing all the windows, installing inside toilets and rewiring.
This resulted in families living in bombsite conditions as the extensive work progressed, which made concentrated revision very difficult.
We can't recall this factor being taken into consideration when it came to the exam-marking process ('mocks' or A-levels) but perhaps it was. A few pupils might have achieved better grades if the 'mocks' had been used instead of the actual exams that followed the housing refurb.
A handful of football-loving BGS boys in our era went absent without leave during the 'mocks' when the lure of mighty Newcastle United coming to Scunthorpe for an FA Cup replay proved too great to ignore.
This January tie had to be played midweek, in the afternoon, at the Old Show Ground because the energy dispute meant the use of all club floodlights was banned. Top-flight Newcastle won 3-0, we recall, but the cash generated by a big attendance compensated the Iron for their exit.

Also seen in the picture montage dating from 1968/69 are Brigg Grammar School pupils on their way to speech day in the Corn Exchange and the old wooden cricket pavilion on the school field (now long demolished but fondly remembered).