Stumbling across an old Grammar School Timetable brought back many memories. This was the timetable for Form 1B in 1960.

The day was split into seven 45 minute periods; some were double periods. There was a break between periods II and III and lunch-break followed period IV

The whole class stayed together for the same timetable. Only later, after ‘Science’ or ‘Modern’ options were taken, did the form split to do different subjects.

The timetable shows Physics but no Chemistry. In the 1950s and early 1960s, there were several experiments on what science subjects should be taken in the first year. In this particular year, science subjects were rotated each term so that the A, B and C streams swapped Physics, Chemistry and Biology.

By 1963, things had been fixed so that first-formers did Chemistry and Physics but no Biology until later.

I can remember some speculative discussion on the first day about what ‘Physics’ actually was! In the days of Bond Street, it was encompassed by ‘General Science’ which only later split into more focused subjects.