That would be useful, except the other schools are still in session later; this film has scenes of some of them being evacuated at 5 p.m. (which I thought a little late, but my friend assures me that that's possible depending on the school's calendar, after-school activities, etc.), so I know it can't be a holiday for all the schools. Either there's something that affects just their school (and if that's possible, what could it be?) or the film's writer/s dropped the ball when it comes to keeping the details accurate and reasonable in this area (which is quite possible--it wouldn't be the only ridiculous thing in the film). It is a bit of a throwaway line, but it's significant for other things later, so I wanted to try to get it sorted out as the mom will have a discussion about it at some point in the story.
Edit: It occurs to me, though, as I look at the school holidays . . . there could be a holiday affecting schools in one area but not the others, yes? Like one . . . looks like "local authority" is the term . . . that has a
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Don't forget that Greenwich and Woolwich are significantly downriver of central London - a flash flood in Westminster on a sufficiently large scale would mean the complete inundation of almost everything north of Blackheath.
Woolwich isn't a separate local authority; it's part of the Royal Borough of Greenwich.
I've just read the synopsis of Flood and I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
I grew up in Hammersmith, near the river, and remember the 1952 flood, and flood warning sirens sounding for practice other years. I remember the relief after the Barrier was built and the number of occasions when it has been successfully raised. Definitely not in the "wrong place" and I'm baffled at the very idea that getting rid of it would help anything except the areas down river from it.
I'm baffled by the storm surge element. That was the killer in 1952: low atmospheric pressure plus winds from the North pushing extra high tides down the funnel of the North Sea. When this happens, both sides of the North Sea get hit, moving southward. Rain coming down the Thames is more relevant than rain in the area
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Lol, so an example of someone not thinking details through when they made the film, then?
Yeah, the point at which the girls are mentioned is sometime between 4 and 5 p.m. (there are timestamps that show 4:01 and 4:57, but we don't know exactly when in between that was when "they should be leaving the cinema about now"). Maybe I should rephrase my question and ask if there's likely to be anything short that they would have gone to see, and could possibly have gotten out of school at a normal time and still managed to watch it? I'm not familiar enough with what's shown at theaters/cinemas to know if every last thing is a full-length film or if there are short films or what. I guess I'm asking, "Is there a plausible way for them to have gotten out of school, watched something, and be leaving the cinema then, or does this just ring false no matter which way you look at it?" Since I don't know which school they go to, distance from the school to the cinema can be variable, as long as it's reasonable.
Thinking a bit more broadly, could it be an event that had only affected one school, e.g. a bomb scare, fire alarm, suspected gas leak? If it happened close enough to the end of the day it's conceivable that the school might just send everyone home rather than getting them to wait around to see if the situation's resolved. Beyond that, it's hard to think of what would cause one school to be closed while all the others remain open. (I have a vague memory of school being closed once or twice because of a staff development day - i.e. training - but it's a long time ago now and I'm not sure whether that would have affected all schools in the local authority or just one.
See my edited comment above (to elenbarathi); it could be that all schools in the one local authority could be affected, as long as the rest of the schools in the surrounding local authorities are not.
Yeah, could be - initially I was thinking that I couldn't imagine a scenario where that would happen, but having looked at the links above it seems that staff development days, parent teacher conferences are set at local authority level rather than at school level, so that would probably work.
We never see anything about the school, but there's nothing that indicates that these children would have attended a Catholic school, specifically. Of course, I can probably do what I like with it as the canon is limited and I'm fleshing out enough stuff already. But my instinct about it is that no, it isn't. It'd be a handy solution, but it just feels wrong. Thanks though! If it felt right it would be perfect.
Thiszmaz, you've proposed an ingenious solution, but I don't think it would work. My days as a Catholic schoolgirl are long gone, but I don't remember ever getting a whole day off for that reason, or even a half day. Nearly all the holy days of obligation fell in the school holidays or half term. Actually that's putting it the wrong way round: the dates of the holidays and half terms would be set around the holy days. If it was completely unavoidable that a holy day fell in the middle of term, then there would be a mass held in school.
Yes, INSET was my first thought. My son's been off at completely different times to his friends, thanks to their going to different secondary schools in the same city (same educational authority, therefore - not on the London scale of things, but I'm pretty sure INSET days are still done school-by-school).
Other reasons he's had to come home early (in Y8, so a little younger than the OP's requirements but only just) include: "preparation for major GCSE/A Level events" (i.e. send the lower years home at lunchtime so there are more staff to deal with the exam years), hospital appointment at 1pm (no point going back to school for 25 mins after it was done), and then there's always the 48hr exclusion for stomach bugs if they are going around the school - a lot of kids are absolutely fine after the first symptoms but when it's a wave of illness they do like to enforce the rule, so on day 2 a lot of kids are out and about!
Aha! That sounds like something like the equivalent of "teacher in-service days" here in the U.S. Perfect! That's what I was thinking of. I may just use that. :D Thank you both! I would have had no idea how to figure out that terminology.
Yes, I think either an INSET day ("INSET" stands for In-Service Education and Training) or an authorized absence for medical or similar reasons is the way to go.
The link below is for Hertfordshire schools. It is not directly relevant for the setting of doranwen's story, but I could find it quickly and it shows the way the system works:
Quote: "It is common for INSET days to be added to the beginning, or the end of teachers' school holidays as this often results in less disruption than if the days are held at other times during a school term
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School Holidays in London, 2016-2017
London City School District Academic Calendar 2016-17
(I searched 'london schools calendar'.)
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Edit: It occurs to me, though, as I look at the school holidays . . . there could be a holiday affecting schools in one area but not the others, yes? Like one . . . looks like "local authority" is the term . . . that has a ( ... )
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Woolwich isn't a separate local authority; it's part of the Royal Borough of Greenwich.
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I grew up in Hammersmith, near the river, and remember the 1952 flood, and flood warning sirens sounding for practice other years. I remember the relief after the Barrier was built and the number of occasions when it has been successfully raised. Definitely not in the "wrong place" and I'm baffled at the very idea that getting rid of it would help anything except the areas down river from it.
I'm baffled by the storm surge element. That was the killer in 1952: low atmospheric pressure plus winds from the North pushing extra high tides down the funnel of the North Sea. When this happens, both sides of the North Sea get hit, moving southward. Rain coming down the Thames is more relevant than rain in the area ( ... )
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Yeah, the point at which the girls are mentioned is sometime between 4 and 5 p.m. (there are timestamps that show 4:01 and 4:57, but we don't know exactly when in between that was when "they should be leaving the cinema about now"). Maybe I should rephrase my question and ask if there's likely to be anything short that they would have gone to see, and could possibly have gotten out of school at a normal time and still managed to watch it? I'm not familiar enough with what's shown at theaters/cinemas to know if every last thing is a full-length film or if there are short films or what. I guess I'm asking, "Is there a plausible way for them to have gotten out of school, watched something, and be leaving the cinema then, or does this just ring false no matter which way you look at it?" Since I don't know which school they go to, distance from the school to the cinema can be variable, as long as it's reasonable.
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(The comment has been removed)
Other reasons he's had to come home early (in Y8, so a little younger than the OP's requirements but only just) include: "preparation for major GCSE/A Level events" (i.e. send the lower years home at lunchtime so there are more staff to deal with the exam years), hospital appointment at 1pm (no point going back to school for 25 mins after it was done), and then there's always the 48hr exclusion for stomach bugs if they are going around the school - a lot of kids are absolutely fine after the first symptoms but when it's a wave of illness they do like to enforce the rule, so on day 2 a lot of kids are out and about!
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The link below is for Hertfordshire schools. It is not directly relevant for the setting of doranwen's story, but I could find it quickly and it shows the way the system works:
http://www.hertsdirect.org/services/edlearn/schlife/termdates/insetdays/
Quote: "It is common for INSET days to be added to the beginning, or the end of teachers' school holidays as this often results in less disruption than if the days are held at other times during a school term ( ... )
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