Talk:Bristol Grammar School

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Contents

[edit] Trivia section

Trivia sections on Wikipedia are considered very bad form. All imformation within this section should be dispersed to apropriate places within the article. --The_stuart 18:49, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

  • The Sports Centre was originally supposed to have a swimming pool underneath the main hall. However it was not possible to place such a large body of water next to the edge of the site due to the height differential, which would have resulted in the bank giving way. This is why the facilities include excellent showers and changing rooms, and why there the staircases look like they should go elsewhere.
  • The curved wall at the end of the DT Block between one entrance and the steps facing towards the Princess Anne Block isn't just a natural goal for football! The rumour states that when the block was designed that area was set aside as a lecture theatre. For some reason it was never built, however the foundations were laid so as to allow for future development.
  • The Great Hall foundation stone has never been found. Inside the foundation stone there is a time capsule, which would be really interesting to see. It is reported to contain "Copies of The Times and of the Bristol newspapers and a parchment document containing an account of the ceremony." However despite extensive searches of the outer walls it cannot be found. One of two possibilities exist. 1) That the foundation stone was placed at the far end of the building where the science wing now is, and was destroyed or covered up when that building was erected or 2) that the stone is buried under tarmac towards the front of the building. The foundation stone was laid on the 10th of June 1877.

[edit] Recent Edits

Hi everyone. Someone decided to give this article a lot of attention, which is a good thing, but as Richard says there are quite a few inaccuracies, and things that don't belong on Wikipedia.

For a start, the entire "campus trivia" is redundant. It's all really rumour and conjecture, and is far too chatty. Same for many other parts ("There is a electronic score board complete with irriatating noises"?????) Details such as what floor plans in blocks are not required on this article, and the punishment section can be revised (the section on corporal punishment is incorrect, since corporal punishment is illegal in all forms, including at public schools. It's not that "existing laws may contradict this" - it's that existing laws make it totally illegal (human rights act etc.)

So basically, a big hand to whoever tidied up the article, but we do need to work on grammar, style, and removing all POV and rumour. Oh yeah, and we've been through the whole "Don't vandalise the page or I'll tell the school" thing. It doesn't really work (if you couldn't tell). Big mistake on my part that one (and "contacts throughout the school" just sounds pompous if you ask me. Besides, reporting people for "messing with this page from inside the school" would surely violate freedom of speech? But hey, it's a moot point). Suggestions are welcome Nick04 05:37, 26 October 2005 (UTC)


[edit] Editing

I clicked on to this site because I wanted information about Bristol Grammar School. All I got was juvenile gibberish. I suppose that tells me all I need to know.

Sadly, some people seem to think it's amusing to edit the article and insert rubbish, you can always view past versions using the History tab. Hope you've not been too discouraged by the actions of a minority! Cyberprog 17:55, 2 March 2006 (UTC)


In 1997 you had to take the entrance examination if you were in the Lower School, just like anyone else - I'm changing this page to reflect that. As I don't know BGS's current policy, I could be wrong, if so please revert.

Actually, this page is full of inaccuracies about the school and the buildings - I'm going to correct what I know to be wrong. The VIth Form was certainly not envisaged to have extra floors added - I have been the original plans from the 1960's.

Also, the Golden Hill site was not sold to buy Failand - I don't know when Failand was bought, but I was a member of the school when Golden Hill was sold and my father (1964-71) used to play rugby at Failand. This is Richard Manns, in case you're wondering. --Wee Jimmy 17:58, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

Ah well, my memory isn't what it used to be obviously :) --Cyberprog 21:52, 22 October 2005 (GMT)

Golden Hill was *not* sold to buy Failand. I played on both - we used to alternate each year, until the school sold it. Jfbcubed 15:28, 11 January 2006 (UTC) (John Bolton)

Yup, as of late 2005 the Goldenhill site is no longer owned by BGS enterprises anymore, and is now part of redland high school apparently. Cyberprog 20:51, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Vandalism

....think you've got a point there. Stop vandalising this page, before I put it forward to be locked down for a while until you guys can calm down a bit... Nick04 11:59, 31 Jan 2005 (UTC)


Is the fact that BGS is the drugs center of Bristol ironic in any way?

Possibly, but the fact that you (presumably) go to BGS and think that "centre" is spelt "center" is ironic on a whole new plain.

Unfortunately you still don't seem to understand the meaning of Irony. Unless of course you're referring to the new Amercian English meaningof irony but in this case why would you correct me for my Americanized spelling?

[edit] Well, is it?

Oh my Word, what have you done to the clock?

If you're going to use links to try to prove your point, at least glance over them first.

Irony

Fowler speaks of two parties: which do you think you are?

Too many metas for you?

Unless of course you were being ironic. In which case, well done.

[edit] YHBT

Lesson #1: Don't be a pedant unless you're perfect

Lesson #2: Proleptic irony doesn't happen too often in the real world

Lesson #3: Others may also notice how easy it is to claim prior knowledge with the benefit of hindsight

Lesson #4: Your (fallacious) definition of irony would overflow any stack before it had a chance to resolve itself. Think infinite recursion....

Lesson #4: YHBT. YFI.

[edit] Bristol Grammar School IP

Somebody, perhaps rather foolishly, vandalised this article from the Bristol Grammar School IP address (being 213.249.137.90). If there is any more sustained vandalism from this IP address, I will forward a complaint to the school, and no doubt they will be able to trace down individual users from their logs. Nick04 19:25, 1 Feb 2005 (UTC)

If you think BGS IT support are that capable, you obviously don't know enough about the school to be able to write articles on it.

I think I know BGS IT support well enough to comment, given that I spent a great deal of time with some of them during my time at the school, and have met other members since then :) If you think you're so smart, I suspect you're in for a big fall, and possibly be spending some time writing out school rules on a saturday :) Cyberprog 17:55, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Unfortunately, no such repercussions have been forthcoming. Better luck with your empty threats next time :).

[edit] Information wants to be free...

While I think your suggestion was made with good intentions Nick, it does betray a fundamental misunderstanding of the whole Wiki concept. If any external controlling body, that is any organisation with power over the users of a wiki, is contacted to control the percieved problems in the Wiki then all effort put into eliminating bias has been nullified.

All problems with the content of the Wiki must be dealt with within the system, as resorting to outside bodies undermines the protection systems already in place. Contacting outside agents gives undeserved power to those contacting them and hinders the ability of the percieved trouble makers to argue their case in an open forum (the talk pages) with no outside pressures.

Your attitude to this issue is orthogonal to Wikipedia's philosophy. You may be interested in the Wikipedia:Dispute_resolution guidlines.

[edit] Not only that,but

Your increasingly drastic and ever hollow verbal attacks and threats to those who would out the truth are not only at odds with the entire "Wikilosophy" this system of knowledge follows, but they themselves cannot help but convey the image of a hopeless would-be authoritarian attempting to have his own, biased and rose-tinted perspective of the issue at hand accepted over the (majoritarian) perspectives of your opponents. You try and pull strings to coax your "superiors" (within your psychological hierarchy) into acting in such a manner as paints you with the illusive depth of having power yourself.

Your bleeding whines to the Wikipedia moderators, and even to Bristol Grammar School's administration (whom you clearly hold dear and precious in such a way as to vomit bias into your every contribution) are transparent. These people are not armed with the spears of authority for no reason. They see your political schemes and power games, and they laugh almost as hard as we do. The truth shall not, cannot and must not be repressed. Nicholas Archibald Shearer, you have been warned. And do you really think the School cares about a few hundred words on an open-content website? Their jurisdiction does not extend to blanket every facet of your experiences with a soft layer of treacly authority. Stop this cavalcade of lies before it destroys you, because if it doesn't... we will.

OK. I'll take the points one by one.
  • "do you really think the School cares about a few hundred words on an open-content website?" - I think the school would care that BGS pupils are posting slander about teachers. - Libel actually nick, get it right you nutter.
  • "bleeding whines to the Wikipedia moderators" - Don't think I have. All I've done is post users who have reverted a page back to a previous edit deemed unappropriate not just by me, but by the other Wikipedia users who have all reverted it during the past few days.
  • "The truth shall not, cannot and must not be repressed." - I don't seek to repress the truth. I don't believe what you post is the truth, although I'll be prepared to keep your changes if you can show that what you type really is the truth. If Mrs Guy really does smoke cannabis, I'd be perfectly happy to keep it on there. But I don't think she does, so I've reverted it. I've actually kept some revisions people have made on the article, such as the picture of the BGS crest. Nick04 08:59, 2 Feb 2005 (UTC)
Independently, I'd say that it's current state (as a dreaded 'School' article) is NPOV - it's hard to get much POV in such a stub - Estel (talk) 12:12, Feb 3, 2005 (UTC)


Nick, you seem to have missed the point. The validity of the disputed content is not important here. It is the principles of the matter. Wikipedia was founded on principles and the more you pollute the wiki-conciousness with your regressionist views the more the foundations of our community are eroded. By all means use the systems in place to punish trolls but please, please do not resort to outside pressures. By doing so you endanger the freedom of us all.

I'll try and drop it now, but to just point out what I kind of meant (I know it didn't come through that well on my first post) - if I was to contact a network admin, it would be not because they were trolling, vandalising, reverting etc, but because they were violating an outside policy (be it UK law or their own ISPs usage policy). Glance over the comments made here - I can count two threats of violence against me ("Stop this cavalcade of lies before it destroys you, because if it doesn't... we will.", and the one below "It's looking increasingly likely that blood alone is all that can wash away your sins"). I'm sure you'll agree that's not only against Wikipedia's usage policy, but also against UK law (to threaten violence), and also against the BGS network usage policy. Extreme example I know (since I really do suspect the comments weren't all together expected to be taken seriously), but the point still remains. Surely you agree you should contact a network admin if someone was to violently threaten another user on Wikipedia? I mean, have you looked at some of the previous edits (which have been reverted by other users, I hasten to add) today? I agree with most of what you're saying, but to accuse me of performing oral sex on myself violates the BGS network policy. If that post had originated from that IP address, why can't I complain? The user clearly violated their own ISPs (in this case, the school's) terms of usage. This discussion has been very interesting, but I fear it's gone slightly off the topic it's attached to. Perhaps you'd like to continue it on my talk page, or yours (if you choose to register). Nick04 20:35, 3 Feb 2005 (UTC)



  • Freedom will and must prevail, your tyranny will come to an end, Nicholas. It's looking increasingly likely that blood alone is all that can wash away your sins


This page has been watched by at least two Wikipedia admins over the past few days. Personal attacks and threats are not acceptable under Wikipedia policy, see Wikipedia:No personal attacks. Several anonymous IPs have been temporarily blocked for 24–72 hours.

By the way, anonymous IPs are not as anonymous as you might think. This has nothing to do with Wikipedia; however, network administrators of your local network or Internet provider are probably capable of determining identities.

Also the article itself has to be written according to an encyclopedic, neutral point of view, see: Wikipedia:Neutral point of view. Gossip material simply doesn't fit there (and the rest of the world, frankly, simply doesn't care about this kind of inside information).

Your local authorities probably don't care about a few hundred silly words in a Wikipedia article, but implied threats of violence just might get their attention. Why not try to make useful contributions at other articles?

-- 20:57, 3 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Additions

Love the new text... the page could do with a revamp.

However,

  • It doesn't flow in places, seeming very broken with many independent "Campus" paragraphs.
  • Reads like an ad. - Estel (talk) 11:21, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Re: Additions

  • Yes, I agree, i'm trying to work out the best way to phrase stuff and get out all the info that I know. I'm an ex-pupil so I have quite a bit of info on the place having spent 7 years there!
  • I see what you mean there though, again i'm finding it hard to keep the info in the third person (i.e. realativley factual).

[edit] Re: Vandalism

I have contacts within the school (throughout the food chain). People messing with this page from within the school should be aware that they will be reported.

Cyberprog (talk) 12:31, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Unsourced material

Please provide sources to back up many of the assertions made in this article. The Land 14:25, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

Quite a bit of it is personal experiance from people who have been at the school, other bits (such as the headmaster who emptied the school with the latin test) are in the book about BGS, but I can't remember the name of :) Cyberprog 23:47, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

Personal experience is not valid for Wikipedia articles, because it can't be verified. If you can locate and cite the book then that's great. The Land 20:07, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

Sorry, I have to disagree on this particular article, we're talking about a School, the book won't describe the layout of the school as i've written, it won't describe the current teaching staff, although to a certain extent the school website will. I've removed the referencing banner and added links to the book (Called "The History of Bristol Grammar School" by C.P Hill, and quite possibly the most boring book in the world just FYI, i've just ordered myself a copy so i'll fix that particular part of the article when I get it.) and the school website. That's about all the references that you could refer to. Cyberprog 22:04, 1 January 2006 (UTC)


[edit] 2006 changes

The layout of the school has changed recently, so I've added bits in. (by the way, your arguments make excellent reading) Zoanthrope 20:55, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, it's been a few years since I was there (other than for a brief interview last year), do you know the names of all the houses on elton road? IIRC all the great headmasters from the last century are now named, but I CBA to drive over and have a look :) If you're still current at the school, can you go and poke Anne Bradley the archivist and find out the dates of headmasters and complete the list? Thanks :) Cyberprog 02:27, 6 March 2006 (UTC)


[edit] QEH Changes

The changes made by a QEH student to the school song have been reported to QEH. Let this serve as a warning to others :)

"Thank you for your e mail concerning the corrupting of the BGS site. We have tracked down the culprit and I am sad to say that he is in the Upper Sixth. He is suitably apologetic but I would like him to apologise in person. Please contact me and we will try to arrange something. He has also been blocked from the system. Steve Ryan Deputy Headmaster"

[edit] Classics

I have heard that BGS is the best school in the south west for classics but I can't find a reference. Any ideas where i could find the information? Askin 18:37, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

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