Bit of a random one, but when I was in primary school whenever there was a Christmas or end of year play, we always used to go home first and then come back to school at like 5 or 6pm for the play itself.
It always felt like a drag especially if you were performing in said play to go home, start playing videogames or watching TV, and then be expected to go back to school in the evening (I didn’t much like being in these plays as you can guess). Weirdly, I don’t recall any kids just not turning up for these.
Speaking to my partner the other day, she was telling me how her nephews all have their school plays during regular school hours, which struck me as much more sensible.
Was this a normal experience growing up in the 1990s, or did I just go to a strange primary school?
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We tend to do two afternoon and one evening performance at the schools I’ve worked in. It’s much better. Teachers and TAs don’t want to be in school until 8pm of an evening.
At primary school between ‘97 and ‘04 here, we always did our plays during school hours. Granted it was typically at the end of the school day so you could go home with your parents straight after but I definitely don’t remember having to go back in the evening.
Our school plays (1970s) had an afternoon performance and an evening one the next day. The afternoon was treated as a dress rehearsal with siblings encouraged to go to that one while the evening was really for parents who had to work during the day. I don’t remember how that was enforced though.
I recall we did one during school and one after for the Christmas nativity at primary school. For secondary it would be mainly evenings, with maybe one matinee.
I went to school in the 90’s and we had our plays during normal school hours.
Makings kids go home and come back while also making teachers stay late seems bizarre.
Mine had an afternoon performance wheee younger siblings could go and another at 5pm the next day where siblings were not allowed.
I never took him back for the evening one because I had no childcare for my youngest and it was a 15 minute drive each way and I was not sitting in a cold car with a baby
Mine were always in school hours in primary school.
I was at primary school in late 80s and we performed plays during school hours. I don’t remember the scenario the OP describes ever happening to me
Before 2010 my kids are now older teenagers and everything has always been in school hours except parents evening and summer fair.
Staff don’t get paid to work into the evenings.
We did two evening performances and one in the day time, so everyone could attend (late 60s). My kids, who went to school in the 90s, only did one performance and it was in the day time.
I went to primary school during the 90’s and it was always during school hours with a morning and afternoon performance so basically that day was dedicated to it and half the parents came to the morning one and the other half came to the afternoon one. However I was at a primary school that only had P3-P7, we went to an infant school just a bit further down the road for nursery and P1 & P2
Maybe it’s less likely now that kids will have someone at home for those specific hours?
When teachers realised they didn’t get paid for working overtime…..
At our primary school (early 90s) the big “Show” had a afternoon performance on the wednesday and evening performances on the thursday and friday and IIRC they even went to three evening performances at one point.
I hated it as they started when i was in p7 and we did a concert where each year had a song to do. That year you had to wait in the lunch room next door to the big hall until your perfirmance. Yeah whomever though keeping primary school kids silent and bored was a good idea was a few sandwiches short of a picnic.
Of course i and a bunch of my mates earned the hatred of the music teacher by flat out refusing to attend on the friday night despite being chosen for the Band. We had BB on a friday and to us that came first.
I’m older, primary school was late 70s/early 80s.
The Christmas Play/Show was about 5pm. I think the idea was to allow more parents to come and see it. Some kids went home and came back, some stayed on at school.
I’m from London, left primary in 2010. Plays were always during school hours
Hated that though. It meant that my parents could never come due to working and our school had implemented a no recoding children rule (which I agree with existing of course).
Usually did both, one in the day for the kids (and some parents at the back?) and then one later one after school. This was the proper scripted plays though not just assemblies or a nativity with the little ones.
I distinctly remember going home from my school nativity in the dark, still in costume, but as that was presumably kn late December that might have been 4pm!
I went to primary school in the ’90s and we always did our plays in the evening so more parents had the opportunity to attend. I absolutely loved it. There was something magical and mysterious about being in school in the evenings. It was also big community events, and there would be parents helping out, and we would always get food and drinks. Everything just felt so nice. I miss that community feeling around schools. I’ve worked in schools and everything is done during the school day now and parents can’t help out as much and so many more parents miss their kids big events
All well and good until working parents have to twist themselves in knots to try and get there or else disappoint their kids by not going.
High school play 1996, one show in afternoon for the schoolkids and one in evening for parents
I did my infant plays in school hours and junior productions after school in a proper theatre. That was 1993 – 2000. My sister was at the same school between 2000 – 2007 and she did all of hers in a theatre after school. I think there were more children either two working parents by the time she started.
I think we did evening performances but that was only for the big things – I did a full Shakespeare play (I think it was The Tempest), Oliver!, a student-written version of A Christmas Carol (ghost of Christmas past) and a comedy musical mash up one of our talented teachers wrote. No prizes for guessing which was the most popular.
Our primary school plays were always matinee. The only after-school play I’ve seen or been involved in was the sixth form pantomime.
I remember ours being during the school day in the mid-80s. I remember my exhausted looking dad coming along to watch mine despite the fact he’d been working all night and must have only had a couple of hours sleep. Mum couldn’t come as she was at work.
The infants at my daughters primary school did their plays in the afternoons, the juniors did afternoons and evenings.
When it was my kids in primary they’d always have the play at around 2pm.. which was fine I’d leave work early and you could just take them home afterwards!
But that bloody merit assembly would always be at just after 9am! Making it really hard for parents who had to get to work.
They’ve since changed it to the end of the day I believe..
A lot of teacher unions have work to rule type industrial action and don’t allow their members to work outside of their normal working hours.
All the nativity type plays I remember were in normal school hours. Any plays (we didn’t have many) we in evenings. In senior school the drama groups performance were evenings but they were ticketed to the whole community
The peak of my acting career was as one of the Three Kings, St. Ursula’s Junior School Nativity Play, 1967.
You are right that was around 6:00pm when parents were home from work.
I think we had a ‘Carol Concert’ on an afternoon, but I can’t remember if parents attended or not.
i was in school in the 90s (started secondary in sept 2000) and my memory is hazy, we definitely did a combination of afternoon and evening performances, and i THINK but am not 100% sure it was infants (reception – y2) did an afternoon show, and juniors (y3 – y6) did an evening one.
i know my parents couldn’t attend mine in the afternoon but my grandparents would. and i definitely recall both a) going home with my grandparents in the afternoon after a show and b) getting ready in the year 6 classroom for an evening performance
now i’m a grownup, i feel quite bad for how much extra-curricular stuff teachers have to do. but also now i’m a working parent of school-aged children, stuff happening in school hours is a pain in the bum! there’s not really a way to reconcile the two though, someone’s always gonna be put out one way of the other.
I was at primary school in the 90s and my plays were in the day. I remember my mum having to take the afternoon off work so she could come.
It’s turned into a bit of a funny story because I begged her to come and told her I had a really important part but I was actually just playing a tree that had one line. She still likes to tell this story and remind me from time to time.
Born in 2003 and I think the majority of our school plays were during the school day. I don’t remember ever having to go home and back to school.
I finished primary school in 2003 and IIRC they were both afternoon and evenings. Doing afternoons only would have meant a lot of parents wouldn’t get to see their kids performing.
I had zero interest in being in a play so managed to avoid most of them but one or two of them were musicals so anybody without a part was forced to be in the choir.
70s-80s schools. We had evening performances of all the shows (plays/musicals) I was in, but only some of the concerts (choir/orchestra). The running joke was that parents of musical kids already knew their kids could play/sing and had endured months of practice so it didn’t matter too much if they couldn’t attend the performance. I don’t think my mum heard me sing in a school performance ever. School plays (Shakespeare etc) & musicals could sell tickets in the wider community though (rural area, not much else on!).
I was at primary school in the 2000s. We had afternoon plays which were more of a dress rehearsal for the rest of the school. For the parents, it was evening performances. My poor mother had to take me home and then back into school each year as I was involved in the productions. This was only ever for Christmas and my Year 6 leavers. Assemblies etc were in school hours.
However, having worked at a primary school as a teacher, their performances were in the school day!
2004-2011. We did ours over 2 days both at 7pm – 8pm
I left primary school in 2009 and I remember there being a performance in the afternoon and another one in the evening
When I was in first school (Reception to Y3 where I was), I remember doing them in the afternoon. This was mid 90’s. However, when I moved up to middle school (Y4-Y7), they were in the evening. In first school it was only ever the nativity and was done with mixed year groups. In middle school it was plays by each year group (Rumplestiltskin and Joseph are the 2 I remember) – Year 4 and 5 would do their plays one night (and the parents would have to watch both years), and years 6 and 7 would do theirs the next
My niece is in primary now, and hers is in the evening (although they have another showing one morning for other family members)
Mine were always during school time, I went to primary school in the 2000s
1980s. One school play during normal school hours and then the second performance was during the evening on the following day. Personally I always liked the evening performance. Always felt exciting seeing all your mates and their parents making their way into school in the winter darkness. The school all lit up. Getting changed in the classroom from your “civilian” clothes into your outfit. Just felt so different to the norm
My primary school ones were always during school time, only secondary after (I’m 29).
We did two daytime performances (one for other years at our school to see, and one for the infant school across the road), and two evening ones! Having two evening ones was great because my divorced parents didn’t have to be in the same room together lol.
When my kids were in primary school they’d be during school hours. In high school it’s always been outwith school hours.
Our primary school is an academy and they lease the building from a private company. The terms of the lease say the school has to be empty after 5pm (it might be 6pm im not certain).
Its shit because prevents the school operating as any sort of community hub in the evenings, weekends or during school holidays. I would imagine there are more and more schools tied up in these public/ private finance deals these days who might be subject to similar restrictions.