trennels | Patrick's education

Trying to write a fic inspired by some of the recent AO3 additions and a nitpicking community post that came up shortly after. I've re-read Peter's Room and AT, but can't find my copy of RAH.

Am I right that in RAH, Patrick has been dragged to interview at Broomhill and tutors have been suggested, but nothing is confirmed other than the plan to sit his O-levels that June, which will be the same time as Ginty?
Will he still be 16, or turned 17 by then?

Prior to that, he was at his hated London day school from some time after Falconer's Lure to December in Attic Term, so is that one year and a term, or two? I think it's two and a term, so he would have been just turned fourteen and entering third year mid-year? (UIV, as Kingscote and my school would have it)

Presumably he was at a boarding school before that? Would he have been at a prep and then a Catholic boarding school for one year age 13?

Meanwhile, Dartmouth for Peter has the problem of not existing by RAH - is there any mention of Peter doing O-levels there? I'd like to think they push him towards science and practical qualifications and generally not being on their boats, just designing them Somewhere Else. I'm assuming he's then one year behind Ginty and one ahead of the twins, education-wise.

I don't recall either of their birthdays, but have an impression Peter's is spring and Patrick's summer - anyone know?

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Having just moved house my AFs are for the first time all together on a shelf in chronological order and very accessible for quotation purposes!

AT - Ginty reassures Patrick that it couldn't be shaming to fail his "levels" having missed two years of school -

P: "... Besides, falling off cliffs isn't any sort of excuse by now. Not when I'm taking Levels a year late as it is."
G: "Don't they work you hard! Only the terribly bright people take them at fifteen at our place unless their parents insist."
P: "And you're not and your parents didn't?"

[And so on to the agonising 'really do you love me' conversation!]

The inference here is that Patrick would be taking them in November, aged 16, whereas his fellow pupils would only be 15 - but this was considered unusual by Ginty; Kingscote pupils would expect to take them in summer, aged 16.

Doesn't that mean that Patrick's school are merely taking them 7 months early, so Patrick, being a year older, is taking them 5 months late, rather than 12 months for a June sitting.

If his birthday is in the summer, he should have been 15 going into the 5th year and may still only have been 15 if he'd taken his O levels at the "normal" time.

Yes, my birthday's in July, so I was 15 when I took my GCSEs and 17 when I took my A-levels - either this is a generalisation on Ginty's behalf, or she's simply basing it on herself, given that her birthday is on 6th January.

I can't recollect any clues to when in the year Patrick's birthday occurs. My headcanon has him as a Scorpio, but I don't think that's actually based on anything!

I would guess from Ginty's conversation that he'll be 16 in Attic Term's November - just because he says, I'm taking them a year late, everyone else is 15; she says to reassure him, it's rare for people at my school to take them before the age of 16.

Yes, I agree with that.
My problem is my RAH is a hardback which doesn't fit with my Armada school AFs, Puffin PR and TTA, and the GGB MatT and RMF, so the three sizes are in different places...

Mine are different sizes too - Faber hardbacks of Autumn Term & CT; Faber paperback of EOT, Faber Fanfare of PR, Puffin AT and the rest are GGB editions - I decided I'd live with them being different sizes for the satisfaction of seeing them all in a row, as it took me about 20 years to get all of them.

Just returning quickly to check up on the new fic .... I'm with mheloyse - all in the same place; chronological order. I only finished the collection during the read through too - but have a few duplicates from childhood collection. I am impressed by your speed - it took me 40 years to get them all!

It was probably 23 years for me - I got the school ones as they came out in Armada, in 1984 onwards, then two from a friend selling them and the others on Ebay around 2003 and as soon as GGB published the last ones.

Any views as to whether Broomhill is day or boarding?

I think my new personal timeline is Easter after RAH, Patrick is still 16, cramming for maths and a couple other O-levels and preparing for A's in humanities at Broomhill, Ginty is now 16 and revising for her own O-levels which makes a great excuse to avoid Patrick, Peter has been convinced by Dartmouth he shows promise in craftmanship and engineering and to follow a non-officer career.

A year later Patrick will be 17 in his Easter hols, in lower 6th at Broomhill, Ginty has some unspectacular O-levels and is in the Lower Sixth uncertain of her future, Peter is 15/16 and swotting like mad to get some excellent O-levels in the hope of a scholarship to Anywhere Other than Dartmouth. Peter and Patrick are thus both underage for drinking in a pub and Forestian time dilation means it's 1985.

Meanwhile back in the past, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonia_Forest helped!) Patrick's accident was a year before Autumn Term, so if Ginty is 2 years ahead of N&L she would have been entering Lower Fourth, and Patrick would have completed Lower Fourth (ie seond year) either at a prep or senior school but not beyond that.
Patrick then skips to Lower Fifth (ie repeating one of the years he missed) and is in LV and UV at the same time as Ginty, so he'd have started LV at the London day school when End of Term started. I think it's at least internally consistent...

Patrick comments at some point that he'd be able to keep his horse at Broomhill (a point in its favour) which suggests it's a boarding school. When he visits it in RAH, it writes off the whole day, suggesting it would probably be out of distance for him to attend as a day boy.

When Broomhill is described as 'tough' I always think of Gordonstoun and imagine it being in Scotland, or at least somewhere fairly far north. Interestingly, though, Sally Hayward in her continuation novel interpreted 'tough' as meaning there were frequent riots and violent pupils there.

Your timeline seems to be consistent as far as I can judge!

Yes- 'tough' does not mean the same as 'rough' which is Sally's interpretation.

Just remembered a possible clue to the timing of Patrick's birthday - isn't Blackleg a birthday present from his godfather; and doesn't he first appear in the Easter of RMF? This would suggest Patrick's birthday is in March or April ...

He's a present, but not necessarily a birthday present I don't think. Patrick tells Ginty he was a special present in the walled garden at the start of the Attic Term, and he tells Nicola he was a special godfatherly present as they're coming home from hunting in Run Away Home; there's a bit somewhere where Mr Buster has to wade through a stream somewhere and gets praised for it, to encourage Blackleg, but I can't find that scene. But I don't think it specifically says birthday anywhere.

Might as well be April as any other time, though.

Colne_dsr

Ah, yes - you're absolutely right, Colne_dsr, it doesn't link the present to any specific occasion. I suppose if Patrick has no canonical birthday, that leaves fic writers free to choose one for him ...

Edited 2015-09-28 08:32 (UTC)

March 17 is the obvious one. Possibly too obvious.

Patrick's education

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Books

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Patrick's birthday - when?

Re: Patrick's birthday - when?

Re: Patrick's birthday - when?

Re: Patrick's birthday - when?