BRIGG GRAMMAR SCHOOL PUPILS FROM DIFFERENT CLASSES DID WELL

Most of the Brigg Grammar School first year pupils seen here in autumn 1967 will now have retired from their jobs or professions.
They are seen at the town's Corn Exchange (since demolished) during speech day, when prizes were presented to pupils who had excelled in different academic subjects or on the sports field.
A guest speaker addressed pupils and masters from the raised stage, as the headmaster and governors looked on from their loft location.
Entire classes of boys, accompanied by their form masters, were marched (military style) along Grammar School Road and through the town centre to take their seats in the town's largest function venue.
This picture came to mind recently while reading a report online which reveals that 80 per cent of today's journalists come from professional and upper class backgrounds (almost twice the 'general workforce' average).
Penning a report on the report, the Press Gazette opted for the headline 'Working class representation in UK journalism hits record low, report says'.
UK newspapers as late as the 1970s and 1980s recruited some boys and girls aged 16 who had O-levels, with others joining after spending two additional years in the sixth form to gain A-levels.
Almost all journalism recruits today are graduates, and this high percentage figure is said to be directly linked to their 'social class'.
This picture shows some boys whose parents were affluent enough to send them to BGS as resident boarders and others from working class backgrounds who were the sons of steelworkers, railwaymen and craftsmen.
Many grammar school pupils of this era had been to fee-paying primary schools; others were 'products of the state system' who had also managed to pass the 11-plus examination.
A number of those seen here ended up entering so-called professions, holding managerial/supervisory roles in education, banking, property and journalism. Some also went to work for the local steel industry in various roles.
A couple of years after the picture was taken, Brigg Grammar celebrated the 300th anniversary of its foundation by Sir John Nelthorpe.
A book was produced about the history of the school 1919-1969, to which headmaster H. B. (Brian) Williams contributed a very interesting chapter.
The school recorded the jobs held by the fathers of all boys when they joined BGS (aged 11) and he used this information to show how pupils from different family backgrounds had been educated and progressed.
For many years we worked alongside a senior reporter at the Scunthorpe Telegraph who had left Brigg Grammar School at 16 to enter journalism with another newspaper in the early 1960s. The fact he had not progressed into further education did not stop him bringing in more page one 'exclusives' than anyone else!
BGS was phased out in 1976 - a couple of years after Humberside County Council became the local education authority.
The comprehensive system, which did not stream pupils through the 11+ exam, was introduced.