Christmas at Poundswick |
| December at Poundswick was a month of
contrasts; a busy month and a huge commitment for those
who were up for it. It started with exams, which with
luck were over by the end of the first week. Then, with
the academic pressure off, there were Christmas parties -
usually one for each year, a Christmas Dance, a formal
Christmas Carol Service and a more informal evening
Christmas Concert to which parents and friends were
invited, a play or revue which needed vast amounts of
preparation, support and rehearsal, Christmas decorations
all over the school, including an immense tree in the
hall. And then, when it was all over and school had
broken up for the Christmas holiday, the really dedicated
would come back to help dismantle it all and get things
back to normal for the following term; a small group of
staff and pupils in an informal "muck-in" that,
in a different way, was as much fun as what had gone
before. |
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You knew that Christmas
had arrived when half a day's classes were cancelled for
the Christmas Carol Service. This was a very formal
affair based on the Festival of Nine Lessons and
Carols in which the Christmas story is told in a
sequence of alternate lessons and carols interspersed
with appropriate prayers. It was always conducted by the
Headmaster himself with staff and pupils reading the
lessons. It started with the Bidding Prayer on page 50 of
The Daily Service, which I have reproduced here;
I hope it brings back some Christmas memories. On a sad note, it was immediately after conducting this service in December 1972 that Mr. Gilpin, Poundswick's first Headmaster, returned to his office and was taken ill. Within a few minutes he was dead and Poundswick had lost a leader and champion, the likes of whom it would never see again. |
 Click on cover picture |
The evening Christmas Concert, to which parents and friends were invited, was a very informal affair with its emphasis on traditional Christmas music. The programme for the 1963 concert included an insert with the words on it so that the audience could join in. |
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Note
that in the early sixties even
a Christmas Concert started with the National
Anthem. When was the last time
you went to anything that started with the
National Anthem? What a shame that this tradition has
been lost. Elsewhere, other
pupils (well, some were the same!) had been rehearsing
for weeks to put on a play or Christmas Review. A
particularly spectacular one called Christmas Trifles
was produced in 1962. |
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