Nostalgia: The Snowman was always big Christmas hit for St Mary's RC Nursery School in Leyland

Former nursery teacher Norah Prince used to love organising the festive concert for parents at the Leyland school and admits she knows The Snowman film very well.

Norah, now 74, says: “We had a Christmas party every year.

“We started off playing games and dancing and we always watched The Snowman.

“We watched half of it before we had our food and then watched the rest afterwards. Father Christmas came and we had a tea party.

“We always did a little concert for the parents to finish off where we would sing a few songs, like Jingle Bells, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer and When Santa Got Stuck up the Chimney.

“We always enjoyed the parties. They were great fun.”

The mother-of-two, who has five grandchildren, first began her teaching career in Hull and later Essex, before she moved to Lancashire in 1975.

She did supply work in Preston and Leyland, before getting a job at St Mary’s RC Nursery School.

She adds: “I did supply work in Preston for several years until I got a permanent job at St Mary’s.

“I worked in Leyland for a term at St Andrew’s Church of England School.

“When I moved to St Mary’s, the first question was ‘did I like animals?’ because there was a class rabbit.

“I said I did as we had a guinea pig at home. I taught year three for one year and then Mrs Audrey Gore, the nursery teacher, retired, in 1986. That was my dream job and I was very lucky.

“I worked as a team with the excellent nursery nurse Vivienne Crossley (nee Beesley), who had been there since the school opened.

“I loved working with young children. They are a delight.

“There were two sessions a day. One from 9am until 11.30am and then another from 1pm until 3.30pm. We had different children in each session. We did lots of arts and crafts. We followed the early years curriculum but we did what the children were interested in. If the weather was nice, we would take the school minibus and drive the children to Worden Park, which was great.” Norah, of Penwortham, retired from the school in 2004, aged 60.