CHRISTMAS frenzy arrives earlier every year, with tinsel appearing in shop windows in September and Slade playing in supermarkets long before the clocks go back.

But for one headmistress it has become a matter of principle to shield her pupils from the full force of the hype. Sue Lines has won praise from parents for keeping Christmas off the syllabus at Piper’s Vale primary school in Ipswich until December 7.

Her success, coupled with the John Lewis Partnership’s decision to move its Christmas range into its stores two weeks later than usual, suggests that the tide may at last be turning. The retail giant held its festive produce back until a relatively modest October 3 this year and last year because of customer demand.

But for Mrs Lines, Christmas does not begin until December. She has banned pupils from mentioning Christmas in lessons until after Advent to stop them getting overexcited.

She said: “You can’t ban children from talking about Christmas on their way in but they don’t talk about it in school. If they bring it up in lessons they are reminded that they have got work to do.”

Mrs Lines said that she had always preferred to concentrate Christmas activities into the last two weeks of term and to emphasise “the real meaning of Christmas”. “Many of our families already have their Christmas trees up. But we are here to teach. That’s what a school is for. Our children won’t miss out on anything.”

The school’s Christmas tree will not go up until December 7, when there will also be a postbox for children to send Christmas cards to each other.

The school, which has just over 300 pupils aged from 3 to 11, will be staging several events including a carol service in the local church, a coffee morning and Christmas sale for parents, a nativity play by younger pupils and performances by older children. However, Mrs Lines believes that schools can insulate children against some of the frenzied build-up to December 25. “It is like celebrating fireworks night in August. If we started now, the children would be as high as kites by Christmas Day.”

Paul Keeble who has two children Sophie, seven, and Daniel, four, at the school, said: “I think the school is right because Christmas starts too early these days.” But one mother, who asked not to be named, said: “The head is behaving like Scrooge. The Christmas lights have been up in Ipswich town centre for ten days and it is only natural that all the youngsters are getting excited.”

For other pupils Christmas has started. Ken Lunn, head of Morland Primary School said: “We start rehearsing Christmas carols and getting ready for it from the middle of November.

“After all, it only comes once a year. We go all out to make the most of it!”

FESTIVE SPIRIT

Havant, in Hampshire, was branded the most miserable town in Britain after it banned Santas from a shopping centre

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