@AreThereSomewhereIslands
we didn’t have to take any of the sciences at O level if you took two languages either - I think there were about 3 of us in the school who chose not to.
When I was around 12-13, we used to do errands for the teachers, pop to the shops, make their tea, wash up afterwards and tidy the staff room. I worked out recently that I missed an hour and a half of lessons each day with the tea making, washing and tidying. We had a rota so this was every couple of weeks.
I went to quite a ‘trendy’ primary school in the 1970s, open plan so you could wander around and sit in a different classroom If you chose, and so much work was done as self study in the juniors, working through exercise books yourself and when you felt like it, and in English lessons being able to write stories on whatever you chose (I loved doing that and did it in my spare time too).
When it was a hot day you were allowed to take the desks and chairs outside to work, no shade and no sunscreen.
Hanging upside down on the climbing frames over concrete at playtime.
And also what I imagine was normal in most schools in the 70s/80s that girls often had different lessons from the boys - needlework instead of metalwork, and a really weird one when we were around 12/13, the girls did ‘health and beauty’, whilst the boys did hymn practice.