Forgotten RHS: Traditions (Pt 1)- Molly N

Featured History Lifestyle Opinion School Teachers Molly N February 14, 2025 0 Comments

This week, steering away from late night explorations of the OMS, I decided to gather some information from those who know RHS much better than us students: the teachers. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of responses, as I assumed that with their busy days, they wouldn’t want to waste their free time answering a form on a perhaps somewhat inconvenient email sent by a pupil. But clearly they were very passionate to share old RHS traditions (enough so that there will be multiple parts to this edition), maybe even with the hopes to reinstate them or perhaps make us students realise how lucky we have it! Some traditions were brought up more than once so this week’s edition will be those that were clearly very memorable, and watch out for next week which will include the more obscure and unknown traditions.

So I’d like to say thank you to all the teachers who shared their experiences and opinions, and without further ado, here were the results…

Leagues:

Mrs Pearson- Playing of leagues – inter-house. Allowed those not in the top teams to play together as a house on a weekly basis.

Mr Gould- LEAGUES! Leagues was the most fun – those boys who did not quite make a team loved representing their house on a Saturday: though the ability was lacking there was never shortage in effort. Seeing cricketers in mismatched gloves – different sized leg pads and half a bat was always brilliant.

Mrs Botley- Leagues!!! – I miss this so much. The fun Mrs Mann, Mrs DuToite and I used to have doing Netball leagues with the senior girls – the girls playing would often (nearly always) be non netballers and they would have to beg and borrow kit from Matron Beth in Howe. We would always have a team out and then quite often Mr Platt or Ms Pearson would send over some ringers for DK or RL who happened to have finished their 1st XI hockey match early and tried to blag a place on the team – I remember a certain SHS daughter trying to plead to play saying ‘but I am no good at Netball, I only play hockey, honest Miss’. The atmosphere was really fun and Mrs Mann was a very pro-hood dubious umpire – but we loved it all the same!!

Although this was before my time, I have heard lots about it during double maths when our class distracted Mrs Botley a bit too much.

LOBS:

Mr Gould- LOBS – Lobs was the call when a teacher was near and a student was doing something they shouldn’t – It stood for Look Out Boy Sailor. LOBS was also the name of the ‘scurrilous’ school paper – anticipated eagerly by staff and students; in it, there was salacious gossip – a must-read.

Mr Coleman- I loved LOBS – which was the school magazine. The Bubble is awesome, so much more well-behaved and far less likely to cause offence than your slightly anarchic predecessor.

Mrs Hodson-Langer- LOBS – the paper version of the Bubble. It was delivered to boarding houses and I still remember the students excitedly gathered around this magazine. (Most) teachers loved it too. It was a great publication, but the digital age has changed everything

Mr Hodson- Misbehaving students muttering ‘LOBS, LOBS, LOBS’ (look out, boy sailor) under breath were a teacher to approach.

It seems as though LOBS has a dual meaning. I would like to point out that Mr Hodson was the only one who didn’t mention that is was the “scandalous” and “not censored” predecessor of the Bubble. The next Bubble meeting will be interesting… (Mrs Hodson-Langer, please try to convince Sir we should reinstate it!)

Satis cards:

Mr Coleman- Satis cards. This was a bit like gating, only for being scruffy. There was a lot more focus on turnout; shirts tucked in, shoes shining and not having your hands in your pockets. As a ex-serviceman, who once spent an entire night sewing up all the pockets of my uniform as a punishment for being caught with my hands in my pockets, I really liked the rigour.

Mrs Hodson-Langer- SATIS – card: If your uniform did not look right (skirt too short, ripped tights, make-up, earrings, tie undone, etc.) you were put on a SATIS card and had to show this to a teacher at certain times of the day. Bit like a gating record.

I didn’t even realise these weren’t a thing anymore. I remember seeing people do the walk of shame up to a teacher or house parent asking them to sign their card. The teacher would do a lengthy scan up and down and jot something down in the dreaded blue book. Hopefully they had remembered to take their hoops out beforehand!