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I was actually thinking about when was the final school day before Christmas - was it the Friday before Christmas Eve aka Mad Friday (and not Black Friday anymore in recent years for all the obvious reasons), and did the school day end at the usual time, or was it earlier on in the week such as a Wednesday, depending on which day of the week that Christmas Day would fall on that year? I would hazard a guess it would be around 18th to 21st December, or the closest Friday to those dates on the calendar. When Christmas Day fell on a Sunday like it did in 1988, we had three weeks off for Christmas and New Year, and it was a Friday to Monday holiday as well thanks to Nottinghamshire County Council's school term times. (Never liked the City Council becoming a unitary authority to be honest).
I know that school went eccentric with parties, games, watching a film (sometimes from an old videotape, recorded a few years before), and all that, and not the usual English, Mathematics, or PE scheduled in the timetable in the final week of school - someone I know who works in teaching says that these days it has to be business as usual right until the end of school on the Friday. Back in the 1980s I know that there was something special going on the hall, and then if it was a Friday, we would have afternoon registration (which would almost defeat the object in hindsight) and around an hour later, we would be allowed to go home early.
It made me think that truancy would have increased as a result of being close to Christmas (especially in inner-city areas where city centres are a lot closer then suburbs are), and some "opting out" to do Christmas shopping or other Christmas things when they should have been at school - as a result of that, it did make me think that all these "treats" of parties, games, and special lessons was indeed a mere ploy (and perhaps even a bribe?) to keep kids in school where on the whole, things were a lot more interesting and exciting, not to mention the traditional elements such as the nativity play.
In comprehensive school, we would go back to our form tutors for an afternoon tutor period and not long afterwards, we would be allowed to go home, although it was a lot more lowkey compared to its Primary School counterparts, probably because of the different rooms and teachers that we had our lessons from during the course of the school day.
How "eccentric" was school during the final days before it closed for the Christmas holidays? - was it fun and games all the way with an early finish on the final day, or was it English and Mathematics all the way with a normal finish on the final day instead?
I know that school went eccentric with parties, games, watching a film (sometimes from an old videotape, recorded a few years before), and all that, and not the usual English, Mathematics, or PE scheduled in the timetable in the final week of school - someone I know who works in teaching says that these days it has to be business as usual right until the end of school on the Friday. Back in the 1980s I know that there was something special going on the hall, and then if it was a Friday, we would have afternoon registration (which would almost defeat the object in hindsight) and around an hour later, we would be allowed to go home early.
It made me think that truancy would have increased as a result of being close to Christmas (especially in inner-city areas where city centres are a lot closer then suburbs are), and some "opting out" to do Christmas shopping or other Christmas things when they should have been at school - as a result of that, it did make me think that all these "treats" of parties, games, and special lessons was indeed a mere ploy (and perhaps even a bribe?) to keep kids in school where on the whole, things were a lot more interesting and exciting, not to mention the traditional elements such as the nativity play.
In comprehensive school, we would go back to our form tutors for an afternoon tutor period and not long afterwards, we would be allowed to go home, although it was a lot more lowkey compared to its Primary School counterparts, probably because of the different rooms and teachers that we had our lessons from during the course of the school day.
How "eccentric" was school during the final days before it closed for the Christmas holidays? - was it fun and games all the way with an early finish on the final day, or was it English and Mathematics all the way with a normal finish on the final day instead?
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