Hello everyone.
In my 1980s/90s school days, I would attend a school assembly session. At Fairfield Infants, Maidstone Infants and Causton Junior schools in Felixstowe, Suffolk, these sessions would involve large groups of pupils singing church hymns or then-modern pop songs. In addition to being autistic, I was also born with partly blocked nostrils. I can breathe in through my nose, and my sense of smell isn't too badly affected, but this prevented me from singing long notes, such as the 'Gloria' bit of the Christmas carol 'Ding Dong Merrily On High'. In my later days, I was given special dispensation to not sing, which I think was fair enough. Talking or singing for long continuous periods would see me run out of breath quickly.
I don't know if you recognise any of the hymns in question, but some of these I remember included 'Who put the colours on the rainbow' and 'We are climbing Jesus's ladder'. At Maidstone Infants, the hymn lyrics were shown on an overhead projector screen. At Causton Junior, some large hymn books were, I believe, suspended from the ceiling. Even at a young age, I was slightly fearful that if one thing went wrong with any of the supports, one of the books could fall down and hit someone on the head.
At Orwell High School (nowadays Felixstowe Academy - Maidstone Campus), my assembly sessions didn't involve any hymn singing. All of the assembly halls I went to were for more than that, as in school plays, mock fashion shows etc. I found being in such large assembly crowds in large assembly halls intimidating. Doing school plays (such as being a towns person in a 'Pied Piper' play) filled me with so much dread, especially when performing in front of an audience. I sometimes felt like I had no choice, even if I didn't want to do any singing or acting. I don't know if any local schools still do regular hymn singing today, but if you attended assembly sessions yourself in your school days, what were your experiences?
