Patrick's education

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

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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Comments

[occasionalhope.livejournal.com]

He didn't go to school at all for two years because of the accident he had on the cliffs.

I think he's two years older than Nicola, and sic months older than Ginty. 15 during FL, and 16 during Attic Term. There's definitely only one year between the end of FL and the beginning of Attic Term. I'm not sure when his birthday is offhand, but probably early summer, so he would be 16 nearly 17 if he did his O levels in the summer. That suggests he might have been put back a year when he started at his London school.

[mheloyse.livejournal.com]

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?

It hasn't been confirmed in RAH whether Patrick's Maths O Level paper will be accepted by the exam board (or if it is, whether he has passed). Broomhill will take him if he's passed; if not the plan is to send him to a crammer to retake it.

I can't recall Peter's O Levels ever being mentioned. According to Wikepedia, Dartmouth raised its leaving age to 16 in 1948, which was 3 years before O level exams replaced the former 'school certificate' so given that a universe in which anyone would take O Levels at Dartmouth is entirely hypothetical, I would say for fic purposes you have free rein to create it as you wish!

[hooloovoo_42]

Not having any of the books to hand and not having read RAH for a very long time, I can't comment on the content of the books. However, as Ma missed the top year of junior school (passed her 11+ a year early and went to grammar school at 10) she was too young to take O levels in 1951 (you had to be 16). She then took 3 O levels in LVIth and took her remaining 4 subjects as A levels in UVIth. In those days, you only took things at O level that you weren't carrying on to A level. But English & Maths plus a language were a necessity for university entrance. So if Patrick wasn't going to do A level Maths, he would have had to have passed his O level to get to university, so any school would have insisted on it if he was going to do Arts subjects at A level.

I got the impression from AT that he was taking the November exams because he was already older than he should be, ie had been 16 in the previous year, so by the following school year, he would be 17. Ginty makes a comment about the only people at Kingscote who do November exams are the dim people who failed in UV (and, by implication need retakes for university purposes).

[mheloyse.livejournal.com]

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.

[(Anonymous)]

Peter's age is pretty much fixed. Nicola and Lawrie are 14 and a half in Run Away Home, because Nicola tells Giles so. Ginty is 16 on Twelfth Night. Peter comes between Ginty and Nicola, so he is 15 and a quarter, and turned 15 in September just gone, so he shouldn't be taking O Levels this year anyway. He'll take them in 18 months time, when he's 16 and three quarters.

Nicola and Lawrie would be in the same school year as him, except that they appear to have missed a year too. Probably because of their incessant illnesses up to age 12.

Colne_dsr

[(Anonymous)]

The Marlows and the Traitor follows Peter's Room. If Ginty Is 15 on 6th January, and Peter turns 14 before Easter, say 1st Febuary, wouldn't that be eleven months between them. Close, but this is the Marlows. They could be brother and sister. Lizzzar

[(Anonymous)]

Actually, I have a headache. Trying for an excuse for being a bit slow. But say that Peter's birthday was also Ginty's , 6th Jan. In that case, turning 14, he'd be a full year younger. As no birthday for Peter is mentioned, all we know us that it does occur before Easter, probably February, maybe March, he is 13 to 14 months younger. Lizzzar

[(Anonymous)]

Also, I didn't really want to get into Patrick's education, but there is nothing in canon to say he definitely attends Broomhill. I like to think that he doesn't, but we are not told. He may well fail his maths, end up in a tutorial school in London, and be allowed to stay. Broomhill doesn't sound that suitable, and I think Mr Merrick may change his mind about it being a good idea. I also think it unlikely that he'd be allowed to just work at Merriot Chase though. Patrick has been to a boarding prep school, as he mentions boarding in Attic Term. It may have been a local school, possibly he was a weekly boarder, we're not told. I don't think there's anything to say that he boarded in senior school and he does miss two years. The inspiration for his day London school is not definite, but it is highly unlikely to be a school in the Benedictine Congregation as Patrick says there are no monks and Attic Term is set in the seventies. Lizzzar