GOOD FORM: BRIGG SCHOOL WAS IN A CLASS OF ITS OWN!

We had to smile yesterday for a couple of reasons while boarding our first bus in Brigg since Hornsbys altered some of the local services provided in North Lincolnshire, introduced from Monday this week.
The early morning bus we needed to make an appointment at Riverside Surgery in Broughton remained unaltered in the timetable - still leaving Cary Lane at 7.40am.
Our second reason to smile came from the headboard coding. Rather that No 4, it read 4C which reminded us of form numbers used in education decades ago.
Many pupils/students were waiting to board this bus which was bound for Scunthorpe via Ashby.
it would seem the 'C' (in 4C) is a reference to Colleges, which makes perfect sense.
Had there been sufficient pupils to merit four classes when some of us joined Brigg Grammar in the late 1960s, we might have been candidates for 4C!
However, there were only two year forms - code-named A and Alpha (as used in Greek and Latin).
The use of B for the secondary stream had been phased out a few years earlier, and A and Alpha were equals.
Confusingly, those pupils who joined BGS after passing their 11+ exam did not start in the first year, but in the third!
Many years earlier, while Brigg Grammar was short of pupils, those aged nine and 10 were admitted for a couple of years (being placed in years one and two).
When this practice was finally discontinued, it was decided not to renumber the year groups.
Brigg Grammar also used Latin numerals instead of modern numbers in its form-naming convention - III for three, IV denoting four, V being five and VI for six.
Having negotiated the initial year successfully, boys moved up to the fourth form (for two years) and then the fifth form (also for two years) at the end of which they faced 10 or more O-Level exams.
Many pupils then stayed on beyond 16 years of age, spending one (or usually two) additional years in the sixth form to sit A-Levels.
Forms in the late 1960s and early 1970s were as follows:
First year: III (A and Alpha classes).
Second year: Lower IV (A and Alpha).
Third year: Upper IV (A and Alpha).
Fourth year: Lower V (A and Alpha).
Fifth year Upper V (A and Alpha).
Sixth year: Lower VI (sub-divided into sections depending on the subjects being studied).
Seventh year: Upper VI (sub-divided).
Boys had to be aware of this possibly unique system from their first day at BGS, and then perhaps explain it to their parents when the end-of term reports arrived. "It's all Greek to me!".... "No, it's Latin!"
Some examples of the class-naming convention used in reports in the late 1960s are pictured above, plus a history course-work book of the same period. This is a rare survivor... and now history itself!