Figure 1.--This image was labeled Fete Argoub. That probably means a festival at the Argoub school. Argoub was a phophate mine in Morocco operated by the French. This may have been a French school in Algeria. It looks to have been about 1950. The boys in white rompers and the girls in black outfits. |
We know that a variety of special events were held at French schools. We do not have a lot of information yet about these events. We do know that the end of the school year was edspecially important. Each class seems to have put on a skit or performance of some kind. We note that in primary schools the children dress up in fanvu coxtumes, especially the younger children. We do not yet know a great deal about other special events at French schoolls. This image was labeled Fete Argoub. That probably means a festival at the Argoub school. This may have been a French school in Algeria. It looks to have been about 1950. The boys in white rompers and the girls in black outfits. I'm not precisely sure what the girls are wearing. It looks a little like black rompers, but as girls at the time did not normally wear rimpers it is more likely black skirted outfits.
We do not know if there are any special events on the first day of school, espedcially for the first year students.
We are not sure if French schools have sports days.
The fête for end of school year the school-end year is the principal event. The pupils receive their prizes and awards. They dress up in their best clothes. While boys and girls often wore smocks to school. These garments werecseen as utilitarian and not worn for the end of school ceremonies. This is an important day for the children. During the 1950s the little boys were often dressed in white rompers. A French reader writes, "On a CE1 photo 1948 I have found a boy dressed in rompers. At this age it was rather rare but did occur. Of course every body found this style very smart and no
child would had the idea to tease a boy so beautiully dressed. On the
occasion of the end of school fête; some mothers and teachers agreed to dress several children in matching outfits for various performances. The impage HBC has posted here is a good example (figure 1). This is now not very common. While these performances are not common, the end of school fête is still very important in France."
Related Chronolgy Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[Main Chronology Page]
[The 1880s]
[The 1930s]
[The 1940s]
[The 1950s]
[The 1960s]
[The 1970s]
[The 1980s]
