School uniforms were the norm for all secondary schools in Newcastle and I think, by and large, they still are. The idea was always sold as being an ‘instrument of social levelling,’ though of course it did not exactly pan out like that in reality.
The most obvious distinction was the blazer. If you received a school uniform grant then you would be ‘issued’ with a heavier, less comfortable woolen blazer with black plastic buttons. If you bought your own, chances were that it would be smoother, lighter and have silver or gold shiny buttons on it instead.
Those of us who received a school uniform grant mostly had to make our way down to Waterloo House in Waterloo Street, just off Westgate Road. A big old style department store would see to our needs (and I’m sure be handsomely paid in local authority wonga) whilst we all stood in huge Soviet style bread queues and prayed that we would not see anyone from our year there on that day. I did see people I knew a couple of times and a polite nod and then no mention of it from that day forth ever and under any circumstances, would be the unwritten rule – ‘I’m poor, you’re poor, but we’d best not broadcast it or our lives will be made miserable.’
Other than the huge and humiliating queues, the staff there were largely obnoxious. Typical snobby old-style department store types - you only work in a shop, why are you looking down your nose at a child from a poor family? The attitude there was right out of Dickens and I half expected to see the Beadle appear at any moment and drive most of us back to the poor house.
Rutherford’s school badge featured our wonderful motto, ‘nec sato, nec fato’ rather than ‘thank Christ it’s only for 5 years’ , which may have been more appropriate in most cases. Our ties were diagonally striped in black, white and red and we were expected to wear them at all times. Of course, there were ways to wear a tie……
The ’swot knot’ was the term used for any ‘normal’ smallish knot with the top button fastened – the sort of knot teacher’s liked to see and sported themselves (mostly). To distance onself from all possible accusations of swottery, the idea would be to tie as fat and loose a knot as you could – of course this looked completely sloppy and crap, but it was better than looking like a swot. When Mods came into vogue though, a lot of boys reduced their knots into a more Mod-like one.
I was reprimaded regularly for not having my shirt tucked in and was once called a ‘tramp’ by the horrible Mr. Garbutt for it. I’m not really sure why he dislike me so much as he never taught me in my whole time at the school, but he would regularly give me grief. I hope he’s miserable now – probably is.
I did prefer our uniform to the ugly claret of St. Cuthbert’s, the large boys Roman Catholic school just up the road. Theirs was not pretty on the eye and they were easy to spot in a crowd. Most of the other school wore black blazers of course. The Catholic girls school, Sacred Heart, again just a few hundred yards from Rutherford, had an unusual light/mid grey uniform. I remember being stunned when I heard that some of the Catholic schools’ lessons were taught by priests and nuns! I found that extremely strange and slightly worrying.
