Last day at school

[80sChav]

Re: Last day at school

I quit school due to "personal reasons" some two months prior to the actual leaving date (see similar threads I have contributed to in this forum), so I did avoid the "bumps" or whatever they did on the very last day. I was driven out, so to speak.

I believe that it was "ink stains" on shirts and flour bombs and things like that, so I didn't miss much - and the hemlines seem to get higher as well - not bad considering they usually wore trousers.
My late father used to be from the generation who finished school on Friday, and started work on the following Monday. No YTS or college in them days - this was when people were labourers or builders with skills passed down from previous generations.

This was similar for me too, George - though I never offiocialy quit as such like yourself I did though do a "Sir Alex Ferguson" and left twice - in Year 11 and 12

We had no Shirt signing mind though

80sChav

[George 1978]

Re: Last day at school

I quit school due to "personal reasons" some two months prior to the actual leaving date (see similar threads I have contributed to in this forum), so I did avoid the "bumps" or whatever they did on the very last day. I was driven out, so to speak.

I believe that it was "ink stains" on shirts and flour bombs and things like that, so I didn't miss much - and the hemlines seem to get higher as well - not bad considering they usually wore trousers.

My late father used to be from the generation who finished school on Friday, and started work on the following Monday. No YTS or college in them days - this was when people were labourers or builders with skills passed down from previous generations.

[marc]

Re: Last day at school

I remember my first day at primary (junior) school and last. The first day at junior school, Alaw, we had to go back to our old infant school. We were then collected by our wonderful teacher, Mrs Trudgeon, then walked into the junior school. We were so excited and nervous, so much I forgot her name! The first day at junior school was actually the last day, all 10 minutes of it at infant school September 1974.

My last day at junior school, was with the wonderful Miss Billington. She had been our teacher since 1977 after a mixture of supply teachers. On the last day we all chipped in to buy her a card that we all signed. She brought in a tape recorder so we could all leave a personal message for her. We were her very first class. Has a surprise, she had bought us all a bar of chocolate and some sweets. She had taken photos of us all on a school trip. She had to see the headmaster just before school ended has she was going to a different school. When we walked out, we all passed the headmaster's room. The door was half open, Miss Billington was standing there watching us with a smile. But I think there was also some sadness in that smile. I remember her standing there in a lovely red skirt, she looked directly at me. I think we waved to her has we were passing. That was July 1978.

The comprehensive school was much different, most of us hated it. The last weeks of school, they were dropping out like flies. My last day was the day before the official last day. There was just three of us in attendance. No party, no goodbyes, we just walked away.


PS. Miss Billington, if you are still out there and read this. please don't be afraid to get in touch. A lot of people have happy memories of you. Your first class Alaw junior school, Trealaw, 1977-July 1978.

[Twocky61]

Re: Last day at school

I wonder how many of you had school reunions many years later.

We did, The class of '77. I emailed Mr Peter Fox (Mr Ferguson's succesor) headmaster of our school asking how much to hire the school hall for a class of '77 reunion. Mr Fox said there would be no charge & as long as no after school activity was taking place in the hall on the evening we were thinking of, then no problem. Next the teachers: Sadly they had retired or died, but of those retired I tracked down Miss Johnson , Mr Howell, Miss Coombes & Mr & Mrs Pullen

I contacted them & they all agreed to attend the reunion.

Next came my fellow classmates. Caroline, Jaquie, Linda (I forgot to mention earlier; Deborah too), 'Piglet' & a few others: Ten in total, so with the five teachers including me, there were eighteen of us.

All was in place except for the date. We all agreed a date & it was arranged.

On the night we all turned up for the 7pm start.

A good time was had by all All the catching up we did & reminiscing. Miss Johnson was the highlight of my night We chatted (I chatted with everyone else too of course) & ex boy/girlfriends made up for lost time. Nobody brought their partners, but that did not give license to reliving our nookie days.

We all exchanged contact details & are still in touch with each other to this day.

[darren]

Re: Last day at school

My last day at school hardly anyone turned up for anybody whose last day it was.

We where just told to go at dinner time.

Yes i get it twocky the mostest lol

for about a week before we left school very few turned up.

[Twocky61]

Re: Last day at school

On our last day we were all invited into the headmasters office; not for the cane as often happened in those bygone days of the 70's, but for a sherry and a shake of Mr Ferguson's hand. He wished us well in our new lives in civvy street & we thanked him & the teachers & the school had done for us

That was late afternoon, but before that we all spent the day shaking hands & thanking our wonderful teachers. Then we had lunch together; the yummy school dinners of days gone by If I remember correctly we had home made steak & kidney pie which our school was famous for (well in the Forest of Dean Gloucestershire anyway ) and chips and mushy peas (a treat in itself) & for pudding we had jam rolypoly & custard.

So by the time we said goodbye to Mr Ferguson we had shaken the hand or kissed on the cheek our many teachers

A few outstanding teachers were Mr Barry Howell history & current affairs & citizenship, Mr Roland Parish maths, Mrs Christine Coombes French (her husband Eddie was a builder who built our house and the rest of the houses on Coombe Drive named after him), Mrs Allen English language, Miss Lisa Johnson English Literature (a place in my heart will always be there for Miss Johnson for certain reasons I wont go into on a family forum), Mr Sommes geography, Mr & Mrs Pullen biology & cooking respectively.......... There are many more but I seem to have forgotten them

Just been reading all the posts on this thread and more things at school generally come to mind whilst at school.

Here are a few memorable moments:

Jaquie Bennet (you know who you are ) was the girl with the mostest if you know what I mean She would never participate in 'Doctors & Nurses' sadly

Caroline Brain (all the girls I mention wont have their surnames anymore as I am sure most, if not all will by now be married and known by their husbands surname) Anyway I degress......... Caroline was a sweet innocent girl. We all had a crush on her (well I did anyway) but she already had a boyfriend who she went on to marry

Andy Taylor (or Piglet as he was known due to his nose ) was totally a scallywag. We went up to the quarry one evening, Andy, me & a few other of us lads. We broke into the tool shed where we found an unlocked chest. Inside this chest were PRIMED sticks of dynamite. Primed? That has to be illegal on Health & Safety grounds at least.

Anyway..... we thought "Fireworks!!!!" So we grabbed handfuls and gaffer taped a few (six actually ) in various bundles. Then we lit the fuses and bunged them over the quarry cliff. Many mighty powerful explosions resulted & it wasn't long until we heard approaching sirens. We quickly ran off but were soon found by police & taken home to our parents. We were threatened with prison sentences by the police but were just told off by our worried parents thinking we could have been killed & they would be identifying bits of our bodies in a body bag in a morgue. The good old days when we were carefree & total idiots

[Twocky61]

Re: Last day at school

July 17th 1974. For some strange reason all the schools fire extinguishers went off that day. And a giant turd was left on the school piano.

I wonder if it was a boy or girl who did that

[Twocky61]

Re: Last day at school

On our last day we were all invited into the headmasters office; not for the cane as often happened in those bygone days of the 70's, but for a sherry and a shake of Mr Ferguson's hand. He wished us well in our new lives in civvy street & we thanked him & the teachers & the school had done for us

That was late afternoon, but before that we all spent the day shaking hands & thanking our wonderful teachers. Then we had lunch together; the yummy school dinners of days gone by If I remember correctly we had home made steak & kidney pie which our school was famous for (well in the Forest of Dean Gloucestershire anyway ) and chips and mushy peas (a treat in itself) & for pudding we had jam rolypoly & custard.

So by the time we said goodbye to Mr Ferguson we had shaken the hand or kissed on the cheek our many teachers

A few outstanding teachers were Mr Barry Howell history & current affairs & citizenship, Mr Roland Parish maths, Mrs Christine Coombes French (her husband Eddie was a builder who built our house and the rest of the houses on Coombe Drive named after him), Mrs Allen English language, Miss Lisa Johnson English Literature (a place in my heart will always be there for Miss Johnson for certain reasons I wont go into on a family forum), Mr Sommes geography, Mr & Mrs Pullen biology & cooking respectively.......... There are many more but I seem to have forgotten them

[telcur]

Re: Last day at school

July 17th 1974. For some strange reason all the schools fire extinguishers went off that day. And a giant turd was left on the school piano.

[Kaptain_Von]

Re: Last day at school

The last day of secondary school was a mixture of anticlimax and a huge change in direction. It was the last day of our exams so we all came and went in small groups depending on which of the three sites the school was on we had to attend for our exams. I remember just walking out of the gate after with a feeling of "Well, that's it, I never have to go back!". No running around punching the air just a walk back home where I then stuck all my old exercise books in a dustbin in the garden and set fire to them whilst promising myself that whatever lay ahead I was going to make sure it wasn't boring.

Primary school was different, the last ever day was one of those summer days where the playground smelt of warm tarmac and pine from the trees that divided the infants from the 'seniors'. We all knew we would be headed off for different schools, some of us would be headed off for different towns. The groups of older kids linked arm in arm marching round the playground singing "Hooray! Hooray! We're breaking up today!" seemed to be doing it a bit louder but with a tinge of sadness knowing that we would all be going our separate ways come 3.45pm (even though some of us would no doubt meet up over the holidays to tear around the streets, annoy our parents and loll around the churchyard with a quarter of foam shrimps and a bottle of Panda Pop for the couple of weeks before we got packed off to relatives or taken on holiday). Of course, at 3.46pm all this was forgotten as the icecream van had appeared at the top of the park opposite the school gates and being first in the queue for a screwball was way more important.

[amethyst]

Re: Last day at school

No proms for me neither.They have proms in leaving primary schools dont they.Im sure I was told they even hire a limo for 11 year olds more expense for parents these days with the frocks tiras shoes suits etc

[darren]

Re: Last day at school

yeah i never had proms or the like at the end of any school year.
the majority of kids never showed up on the last day of the school year the teachers told us you may as well go home as soon as we got in.

last day of the school year at primary school was more fun.

not really mad about the prom idea.
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I vaguely remember something to do with flour and eggs on the last day of the 5th year (year 11 in new money I think) but then I went back for the 6 th form and the last day of that was a bit of an anti climax.
Kids now seem to have proms etc, even when leaving primary school. It's all a bit American.

[Star Attraction]

Re: Last day at school

Kids now seem to have proms etc, even when leaving primary school. It's all a bit American.

What do you mean by "proms etc" these days?

[Sammy]

Re: Last day at school

I vaguely remember something to do with flour and eggs on the last day of the 5th year (year 11 in new money I think) but then I went back for the 6 th form and the last day of that was a bit of an anti climax.
Kids now seem to have proms etc, even when leaving primary school. It's all a bit American.

[goodbyetomaria]

Re: Last day at school

We finished senior school on the day we finished our respective exams. I remember walking up the hill with my classmate with a huge lump in my throat. At the top of the hill we set off to our respective homes. I would love to go back to that point in time to hear exactly what was said. Normally we would have said something like "See you Monday, mate". But I wonder what we said on this occasion? "See you next year"? or "See you in sixteen years time". It is sad that I will never know.