Britain's Secondary Modern Schools Reel History of Britain


Britain's Secondary Modern Schools

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'Just over a century ago, the motion camera was invented

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'and changed forever the way we record our history.

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'For the first time, we saw life through the eyes of ordinary people.

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'Across this series, we bring these rare archive films back to life,

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'with the help of our vintage mobile cinema.

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'We'll be inviting people with a story to tell to step on board

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'and relive moments they thought were gone for ever.

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'They'll see relatives on screen for the first time,

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'come face-to-face with their younger selves

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'and celebrate our amazing 20th-century past.'

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This is the people's story - our story.

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'Our vintage mobile cinema was originally commissioned in 1967

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'to show training films to workers.

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'It's been lovingly restored and loaded up with remarkable footage,

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'preserved for us by the British Film Institute

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'and other national and regional film archives.

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'In this series, we're travelling to towns and cities across the country,

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'showing films from the 20th century

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'that give us the "reel" history of Britain.

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'Today, we're going back to school in the '60s...'

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# Multiplication #

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'..to capture the spirit of secondary modern education.'

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# ..Multiplication That's the name of the game

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# And each generation... #

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We're in the Francis Combe Academy in Watford

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to find out whether the eleven-plus in the '60s hindered or helped pupils.

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'Coming up, a former pupil who comes face-to-face with his younger self.'

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I look at that pimply, untidy child

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and think, "I could be outside playing rather than in here."

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'The TV presenter who fell foul of the eleven-plus.'

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I failed - and it was shock horror.

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'And I hear what secondary modern schools meant for children.'

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It was considered to be one of the more pioneering aspects

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of the education system.

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'We've come to the Francis Combe Academy in Watford

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'because this school was chosen to be the subject of a 1962 film

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'about a day in the life of a secondary modern school.

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'Today, it's a thriving comprehensive with over 1,000 pupils.

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'But we're winding the clock back

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'to capture the spirit of secondary modern education.

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'We all have schoolday memories,

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'but if you were a ten-year-old in the '50s and '60s,

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'one memory might be stronger than most.

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'Your future rested on the outcome of a single exam, the eleven-plus.

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'In 1944, the Butler Education Act brought educational reform,

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'designed to break down class barriers in England and Wales.

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'Scotland followed in 1945.

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'It made secondary education free and compulsory for all children.

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'The Act also created the eleven-plus exam,

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'to select pupils for the right school.

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'Passing granted you access to grammar school and university.

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'Those who failed received a vocational education, occasionally at a technical school,

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'but usually at a secondary modern.

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'Supporters of the eleven-plus argued it gave working-class kids

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'a fairer chance of success.

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'Critics said it meant failing one exam at 11 doomed you for life.

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'On Reel History, we'll be hearing how this exam affected the lives

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'of all those pupils who sat it.

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'Joining me today are former pupils from the '60s

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'who've come from all over the country to tell me their experience of secondary school life.

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'Many of them will be seeing our films for the first time.

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'Some will be watching themselves on our silver screen.

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'Marylyn Mason has travelled here today from Lincolnshire.

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'She is among three out of four pupils to fail the eleven-plus in the 1960s.

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'That didn't stop her from carving out a career in television.

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'She was the face of Calendar TV in Yorkshire,

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'and co-presented a programme with Richard Whiteley for 20 years.'

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-You failed to pass your scholarship.

-I did.

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-I used the word "fail", which people don't use nowadays.

-You're right.

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-You felt that you failed.

-Yes, because all through primary school,

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through junior school, I'd been in the top three.

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There was never any doubt

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that I was going to pass and go to grammar school.

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-I failed, and it was shock horror.

-Did you enjoy being at the secondary modern?

-Oh, yes.

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I had a marvellous headmaster, because when I went there,

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he said, "You're better being a big fish in a small pool, than a small fish in a big pool."

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I thought, "Oh, yeah."

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The people who'd gone on to grammar school thought they were the elite.

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They had everything in front of them.

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My father actually said to me, "This will make you fight harder.

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"You will work harder to achieve more." I suppose I did, in a way.

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'Today, we're taking this former TV presenter back to her schooldays.

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'What memories will these films evoke for Marylyn?'

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I thought I was back there. It was absolutely amazing.

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I knew that we were going to see film from the '60s,

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but you actually see yourself.

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It's so true that you think, "Oh! That could have been me!"

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And the school looked exactly like my school. So yes, amazing!

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Transports you right back there.

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'Marylyn sat her eleven-plus in 1958.

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'Her mother was a teacher, so there were high expectations.'

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My mother was absolutely devastated. It was the end of the world.

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It had shamed her in front of the family.

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I'd let her down. She was SO upset.

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I cannot tell you how upset she was.

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It was awful.

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She blamed my father for moving his job so that I had to move school.

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'The eleven-plus tested pupils in three areas - writing, arithmetic

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'and general problem solving.

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'Critics believed the exam was elitist and put young children under stress,

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'according to this BBC Panorama programme.'

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Mummy and Daddy want me to pass.

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-Yes.

-Daddy said if I don't, I'll get a thick ear.

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-Did he?

-Yes.

-Are you frightened of that?

-No.

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I'm sure he didn't mean it...

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'Marylyn thrived at her secondary modern, Ribbleton Hall in Preston,

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'and passed eight O-Levels,

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'but the stigma of failing her eleven-plus was difficult to shake off.'

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You do feel a failure. I'd felt a real failure

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throughout my time at secondary school.

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You think the people at the grammar school are the clever people.

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I felt I had a lot to achieve.

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I had to prove myself, so I did work hard at school.

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'Secondary modern schools didn't have sixth forms so Marylyn's headmaster helped her transfer

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'to Chorley Grammar School to take A-levels.

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'She later became deputy head girl.'

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I found it daunting, thinking, "How am I going to manage at A-level

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"with all these clever grammar school people?"

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I fitted in very well and found that I was just as good as they were.

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I really enjoyed my time there. There were some good teachers there.

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Had I always gone to the grammar school,

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I probably would have, inevitably, gone to university.

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'Like many other former secondary school pupils,

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'Marylyn went on to achieve success.'

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Because I felt I'd let my mother down so badly, I had to prove that I could achieve things in life.

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I suppose my A-levels were the next big thing.

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So I felt I'd achieved something.

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Made amends! LAUGHS

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'My next guest also failed the eleven-plus.

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'58-year-old Barbara Lee from Twickenham suffered all her life

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'from a lack of confidence.

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'She believes that being told she wasn't good enough at a young age

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'had a long-term effect.'

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The word "failure" sticks in your mind. It's the word, isn't it?

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'Barbara came from a traditional background in Hendon,

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'and was expected to raise a family rather than have a career.'

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This is a diary from 1963, all the things we did when we were younger.

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We'd better keep that private. Had enough in the newspapers.

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'We're going to transport Barbara back

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'to the days when she was an 11-year-old schoolgirl.

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'Will this BBC documentary made in 1962

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'about secondary modern education bring back difficult memories?'

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Well, Janet, you're 11 years of age now.

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You've left the primary school and come to the secondary school.

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'It shows an 11-year-old girl at her new secondary modern school.'

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We were rather sorry Janet failed the eleven-plus.

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Well, I hardly think that "failed" is the right word, Mrs Kitchen.

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'When that teacher mentioned about failing the eleven-plus,'

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it got a weakness in me because that's what I did, I failed the eleven-plus.

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What happened was that Janet took a test so that we could find out

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exactly which school would suit her best.

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You were pigeon-holed. They saw you as having that ability for the rest of your life.

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She would have failed had she been selected for the wrong school.

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If she's been selected for the right school, then she's passed the test.

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That's quite damaging for children to think at that age

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that is going to be them for the rest of their life.

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'Barbara remembers how the two sexes were typecast.

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'Boys got metalwork and woodwork.

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'The girls were steered towards typing and cooking.'

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We were doing domestic science.

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If you went to grammar school, you might have been doing a language

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or literature or more academic subjects.

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So you were very much put in that "womanly" subject area.

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For us, it was either be a secretary

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or teacher's training college if you got the qualifications.

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But really, it was a stop-gap before getting married and having a family.

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'At 22, Barbara embarked on seven years of night school,

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'obtained a degree in social science

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'and today she's an adult education lecturer.'

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How many quarters do we need to make a whole one?

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I haven't gone round in my life saying, "I failed the eleven-plus."

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The word "failure" carries such a powerful message,

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if you get it when you're younger it's difficult to shake it off,

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whatever you do as you mature.

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'So what was the thinking behind an education system

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'that gave many children like Barbara a sense of failure?

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'The Francis Combe Academy was one of the new secondary modern schools

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'built to accommodate the 75% of children who failed the eleven-plus.

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'I'm off to the woodwork room to find out more from educational historian Kathy Burke.'

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What did the eleven-plus do?

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In shorthand terms, it sorted children. It sorted them.

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Whether it tested or measured their intelligence is subject to debate.

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And it was a fierce debate that occurred in the 1950s.

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But it effectively sorted children so they could be slotted in,

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and it would fit them, then, on a route for life in general.

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'The secondary modern schools that sprung up in the 1950s were light,

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'airy and modern in design.

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'Free from the constraints of preparing children for exams,

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'teachers could afford to be experimental.'

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Teachers could have freedom to experiment

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and to teach the way they wanted to,

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design an education within an atmosphere of freedom.

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That was quite a progressive idea.

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-Words.

-Snap.

-"Snap", not bad. Let's put "snap" down...

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And so, for the first ten years, the secondary modern school

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was considered to be one of the more pioneering aspects of the education system.

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'Kathy herself remembers passing her eleven-plus,

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'but it's a memory full of trepidation.'

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I was acutely aware that, um...

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there was a chance of failing or passing.

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And if you passed, you were somehow safe.

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I knew the physical space I was going to, the school I was going to,

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the grammar school.

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Those who failed, who went to the modern school,

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seemed to go into an abyss, you never saw them again.

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I was aware of that.

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We were all told that this was THE most important thing in our lives.

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'Initially, secondary moderns weren't expected to offer O-levels.

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'Pupils received a School Leaving Certificate instead.

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'As the '50s marched on, teachers realised their pupils were capable of more.'

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Some teachers started to put children through examinations

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in these schools, and, lo and behold, they passed.

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So this was a crisis for the idea of the modern school,

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which was to avoid those sorts of things.

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It seemed to be not distinctly different from the lower end of the grammar school.

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'By 1963, one in ten secondary modern pupils were sitting O-levels,

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'and some got very good results.

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'The writing was on the wall for the two-tier educational system.'

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Don't throw them, Brenda. There's a good girl.

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'On Reel History today, we're at the Francis Combe Academy in Watford,

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'to hear some remarkable stories of how the eleven-plus exam

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'affected the lives of children who sat it in the 1960s.

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'This school was thrust into the limelight in 1962,

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'in a documentary about a day in the life of a secondary modern.

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'Paid for by the National Union of Teachers,

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'the aim was to show parents what goes on during the school day.'

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..For ever and ever, amen.

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'We've organised a school reunion for former pupils who appeared in the film,

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'and invited along the film-maker, 87-year-old John Krish.

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Did you have a sense that people felt they'd failed because they'd not passed their eleven-plus?

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Not for one moment. I felt that they were at home.

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They were pleased to be here and they were succeeding.

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'63-year-old Bernie Bachelor was one of the stars of John's film.

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'Bernie was the class clown.

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'He left school without being able to read or write.'

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Did you feel you were well-taught at this school?

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Um...from my perspective,

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in the early days of the school,

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not really - I left school not being able to read and write properly.

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I never got round to it till I started long-distance lorry driving.

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I had to read the place names

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and road signs to get to where I was going.

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I feel that I learnt quite a lot in life skills, having left school.

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'Someone else who starred in the film was Yvonne Shaw from London.

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'She suffered from dyslexia

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'and was a bit of a rebel during her time at Francis Combe.'

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-Did you enjoy it here?

-It was an experience.

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Also, coming from any infants school to a big school like this -

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it's big now, it was big then -

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was a cultural change, big shock.

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The company was great. The school clubs were great.

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But any authority that you have to deal with, students have to rebel against.

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I was quite rebellious.

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'Now they're all about to step on board

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'and travel back in time to 1962, and come face-to-face

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'with their younger selves.

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'The documentary featuring Bernie, Yvonne and the others is Our School.

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'It's a fascinating record of teaching styles in postwar Britain,

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'and was shown on the BBC to millions of viewers in the 1960s.'

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Come on. Get a move on.

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Sit down and get your homework out.

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'Yvonne, now a medical therapist, has never seen the film before.

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'How will she feel now, watching her 15-year-old self?'

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When the solution is pumped in, we pick up current through this brush

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and transfer it onto the copper cylinder, revolving in the solution.

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We can set up a similar arrangement in the lab...

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It was like being back at school.

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You could remember physically being there, so I found it quite moving

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to see that and then see the people around me.

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'Yvonne appeared when the film followed her class on a school trip

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'to a local paper mill.'

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I think the school represented a place of change.

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Seeing very young beings, which I was,

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reminds you so much of those tender feelings which you forget,

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and it was just nice to see them again.

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Just remembering who you were and who one is now,

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makes one feel more complete, brings your childhood back.

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'Yvonne passed 11 O-levels at 16,

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'but until 1972, secondary modern pupils could leave school at 15

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'without taking any exams, and many of them were girls.'

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-Who made the decision that you leave school at 15?

-I did.

-Me mother.

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-Susan?

-My mum and dad asked me and I said I wanted to leave.

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-NEW SPEAKER:

-On the word go, up and down the wall bars twice.

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Two backward rolls, touch each of the four walls.

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Ready? Go!

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It's inexplicable.

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Coming back to a physical place where you almost feel the history.

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I don't know. It's something that will take me a while to think about.

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You seem to be finding some difficulty in speaking, Keith.

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-What were you eating?

-Chewing gum, sir.

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-Will you kindly remove it?

-LAUGHTER

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-And don't stick it under the table!

-LAUGHTER

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'The making of this documentary

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'left an indelible mark on Yvonne's memory.'

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It was the outside world coming in.

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There weren't very many instances of being valued.

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That was someone coming in and valuing people, so it was exciting.

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'For Bernie, schoolwork was a necessary evil.

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'What memories does he have of the film being made?'

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I remember the film taking place.

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We're walking along the corridor, me and my mate Terry,

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it was a great time, like.

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We got out of some lessons,

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but I don't think our lessons were disrupted that much.

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I think we found it all as an interesting thing.

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We didn't realise, really, that we were being filmed.

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At least that's my memory of it.

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It was done so well and so natural,

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that it just became part of what we were doing every day.

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This is the sort of scene when you went into London in mediaeval times.

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My part was in the classroom. There are several classroom lessons.

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One of them was where I had to spell the word "people".

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And I think I got it wrong at first attempt,

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but I think I got it right in the film in the end.

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I've never really forgot how to spell it.

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-Bernard, tell them how to spell "people".

-P-E-O-P-L-E.

-Yes.

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You learned it. Too many of you spell "people" with P-E-E-P-L-E.

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It's not necessary.

0:23:440:23:47

'Bernie had trouble reading and writing and was placed in the bottom stream with Mrs Peacock.

0:23:470:23:52

'But he enjoyed school and got a reputation as "the funny one".'

0:23:520:23:57

When I look at that pimply, untidy child

0:23:570:24:02

going through a spelling test, I think to myself,

0:24:020:24:05

"What am I doing here? I could be outside playing rather than in here."

0:24:050:24:10

'Bernie loved the practical skills he was taught at school.'

0:24:100:24:15

I remember going into the metalwork lessons,

0:24:150:24:19

good lessons where you could get to grips with some materials.

0:24:190:24:23

I always felt I wasn't great an academic,

0:24:230:24:27

but I always liked practical things, engineering, machinery.

0:24:270:24:32

'Bernie left Francis Combe without any qualifications,

0:24:320:24:36

'but he didn't let it hinder him in life.

0:24:360:24:39

'He went on to manage a logistics company

0:24:390:24:42

'and is now a driving instructor.'

0:24:420:24:44

-You could have done a little more than this.

-I did this part wrong.

0:24:440:24:49

I had to rub it out and do it again.

0:24:490:24:51

'I enjoyed myself at school. I must say I enjoyed myself.

0:24:510:24:55

'My worst memory is the fact that I didn't do as well'

0:24:550:24:59

as I could have done academically.

0:24:590:25:02

'Although I didn't leave really being able to spell'

0:25:020:25:05

and read properly, I did have the ways and means to learn it later on.

0:25:050:25:10

Wait a minute. Take a breath. Don't rush it. Say it properly.

0:25:100:25:15

What do you think they might be selling?

0:25:150:25:18

-Some banjos.

-Well...

-They do sell banjos.

0:25:180:25:22

-The old musicians would go la la la.

-A sort of banjo in the Middle Ages.

0:25:220:25:27

'When the documentary was shown on BBC television,

0:25:270:25:30

'for a short time, Bernard became a bit of a celebrity.'

0:25:300:25:34

For a while, I was a film star. For about a month,

0:25:340:25:38

people kept spotting you and talking to you cos it was a good thing.

0:25:380:25:43

'The man who made Bernie a star, John Krish,

0:25:490:25:52

'hasn't watched this film for many years.

0:25:520:25:55

'What memories does he have of making it?'

0:25:550:25:58

My job was to bring back the atmosphere of the school on film.

0:25:580:26:04

You said, "Relax, like." Why "like"?

0:26:040:26:07

Don't know. It just...just came out.

0:26:070:26:10

Before I started shooting, I came every day for six weeks

0:26:100:26:14

and sat in every classroom.

0:26:140:26:17

And in that time, decided which teachers I would use

0:26:170:26:22

and which pupils I would use.

0:26:220:26:25

What do you feel about this...?

0:26:250:26:26

'John made his film look like what we now call

0:26:260:26:29

'"fly on the wall" documentary,

0:26:290:26:31

'but in fact, he spent days constructing every scene.'

0:26:310:26:35

I turn each classroom into a studio.

0:26:350:26:38

Nothing is snatched. Everything is rehearsed.

0:26:380:26:42

If there's a spontaneous moment, then we have caught it, of course.

0:26:420:26:46

Speech is like quicksand. It drags down, it doesn't push up.

0:26:460:26:50

It's a good analogy. If you don't know the meaning of "analogy", you know what to do.

0:26:500:26:56

Look it up in a dictionary.

0:26:560:26:57

The spirit of this school is what I set out to capture.

0:26:570:27:01

'By 1963, with one in ten secondary modern students obtaining O-levels,

0:27:110:27:16

'the idea of dividing young people using the eleven-plus exam started to fall from favour.

0:27:160:27:24

'Two years later, in 1965, the government announced plans

0:27:240:27:28

'to switch to the non-selective comprehensive system.

0:27:280:27:32

'Selective education was finally abolished

0:27:320:27:36

'in 1976.

0:27:360:27:38

'The eleven-plus exam still exists in a few education authorities,

0:27:380:27:42

'but for most of us, it's passed into history.'

0:27:420:27:45

Everybody I've spoken to

0:27:470:27:49

really liked their secondary modern schools.

0:27:490:27:52

They liked the teachers, the lessons, the learning processes.

0:27:520:27:57

But almost everyone felt that they'd failed by not passing this eleven-plus test.

0:27:570:28:04

'Which is why I'm delighted to have marked their considerable achievements

0:28:040:28:09

'and add their stories to the National Archive.

0:28:090:28:13

'Next time on Reel History, we're on Horse Guards Parade in London,

0:28:140:28:18

'to recall the Queen's coronation in 1953,

0:28:180:28:22

'the first royal event live on television.'

0:28:220:28:26

Everybody was wearing their best clothes.

0:28:260:28:28

We were in the presence of the Queen!

0:28:280:28:32

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

0:28:560:29:00

E-mail [email protected]

0:29:000:29:03

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