Depends if other folks are dishing out a miserable time or if one’s self inflicting 
Did anyone else go on what was known as School Journey back in the day?
This was taken in February 1973 in The Hotel Krone just outside Innsbruck.
It was a week’s skiing holiday, several different central London schools were involved, the fella on the right became my buddy, I can’t even remember his name now. In retrospect it was incredibly well organised. We were at liberty use the facilities in the hotel. The bar was one of our favourite haunts, coke and crisps galore! We’d hang around the town and chat to the local Austrian kids. Of course the subject of girls cropped up, “Do you have birds?” one young lad asked. He obviously hadn’t been on a school journey to England! After dealing with a couple of bouts of homesickness it became such a liberating and eye opening experience for someone who had just turned eleven!
1 Like
That must have been an enlightening experience, at such a young age Chilli. Brilliant! 
I remember there being a school journey once, for a week, for a Geography project but I didn’t go, being an only child my parents were very protective! 
I always went on the end of year day trips to Margate 
, and of course, being in London, we were often taken to visits to museums. We must have seen them all, during all my school years. We went to London zoo more than once, I remember.
Oh, I forgot one particular secondary school memory - our “Upper School” building was located in the street where Gary Kemp lived at the time. I think you all know who he is. We saw him a few times ,when we used to pop out to the sweet-shop at break time, but were too shy to ask for an autograph! How silly of us when I think about it now! 
Oh, yes, we also used to sneak out at lunchtime, just to go for a wander, especially the nearby park, where we’d spend lunchtime swinging away.
My school memories, on the whole, are really great!
1 Like
Couldn’t afford tp go on the Mediterranean Cruise, still, no worries, probably would have forgotten about it by now anyway.
More importantly, haven’t forgotten about what poverty looks like
Aha! 
Thinking then that you went to school in Islington Rose? The museum trips were terrific weren’t they? 
My school was in Fitzrovia W1…Foley Street to be precise.
It was unusual in that the junior playground was on the roof in the shadow of The Post Office Tower. One of the kids who lived very close by narrowly escaped death when a hefty chunk of debris smashed through her bedroom ceiling when the IRA planted their bomb in the very early seventies.
The junior playground was at ground level…
This would have been taken back in 69. I always managed to get out of prancing around the maypole, two left feet me, somethings never change!
1 Like
Parents paid for the trip in instalments Spitty, quite a long time in advance.
It really was well thought through 
2 Likes
Haha grey’s even worse than the enforced navy blue! One rule for the girls, no rules for the lads 
1 Like
That’s how a gang of us got to Rome with Sid the Latin teacher. By rail through France,Switzerland and Italy.I enjoyed the train journey as much as the destination.Fresh croissants for breakfast.I could never look at a slice of Mothers Pride again.
3 Likes
Spot on Mr Smith!
Apart from flying home from Germany in a military aircraft as a mere babe when my dad left the army the Austria trip was the first time I’d really flown. It might seem a bit silly by today’s standards but it was profoundly exciting. I dreamt of flying for weeks afterwards… seriously!
2 Likes
We were well ahead of the game! 
2 Likes
That’s right, lived and went to school in the borough of Islington - Holloway/Highbury areas. I don’t know the places you mentioned, although sound familiar.
Wow, that poor girl must have had a, shock, what a fright for her mum and dad! 
She was very lucky indeed.
Unusual playground, yes.
I remember many London schools looked like your one, my primary and secondary schools definitely did!
1 Like
Navy blue for us, too, Carly.
1 Like
Went to an all girls school - we had a lovely teacher of English, she encouraged my love of reading. The man who taught French would probably be arrested these days! Let’s just say he was very “handsy”!
4 Likes
The actual hotel was a disappointment though.The wine bottles on the dining room tables only had water in them.
2 Likes
Yes I remember sports day. We didn’t have parents attend , thank goodness. Mine wouldn’t have shown up anyway.
I never knew anything about navy blue knickers. We had a specific gym suite that had to be worn. I wore short shorts underneath and refused to take them off for any reason. I don’t recall any backlash regarding wearing shorts. I was fairly good at sports so don’t remember being hassled. The only sport I wasn’t fond of was field hockey. Some girls took the opportunity to whack our legs on purpose.
3 Likes
Was top of the class in many subjects, but, it became unsustainable, such is life, if you reject the team
1 Like
Ass for the Knickers, once you have seen one flash, you have seen them all, only the flashers are thinking, they are creating “New content” 
1 Like
I only have a faint memory of my school days . This became obvious at class reunions when I noticed how much my school mates can still remember. School must have mattered more to them while my focus was on the sports club where I spent most of the time and which, as a counter-world, clearly had a stronger impact on me .
Even as a young boy it struck me that physical education was the most bizaare of all school events. In contrast to other subjects we never practised what we, all of a sudden, were tested in. We were kept busy by doing all sorts of silly ball games but, the next day, were then expected to put the shot wide enough, run 1,000 metres in a given time, perform certain gymnastic exercises, and so on. Either you could do all that without preparation or you got a bad mark. I wouldn’t have expressed it like that back then but it was your genes, your genetically determined physical abilities, that were graded, not your abilities or skills acquired through practice and training as the word physical education would imply and as it was the case in other subjects. Not surprising, I disliked PE although I was the most active sportsman outside school starting aged 12 and remaining to be one up to the present day.
The pics show my class in the first form taken in 1962 and all dazzled by the sun and part of my school as it looks today, the headmaster’s office being above the main entrance. The usual class size was around 30.
3 Likes
Oooffff yes I remember getting thwacked in the legs! Hockey was brutal! Particularly when playing against other schools
1 Like
The worst, haha! We asked to wear shorts but that suggestion kept getting rejected (notably from the male teachers! I think our naive minds at the time didn’t click on to why…
)
1 Like