study hall (AmE): a period of time during the school day when students study quietly on their own, usually with a teacher present
The above is taken from the Oxford Dictionary. Could you tell me what the equivalent is for study hall in British English? Thank you in advance.
As far as I know, we don't have it. When I was at school, there were official lessons throughout the entire day (except at breaktime and lunchtime).
In secondary school, a few pupils had a "free period" during the day but they were very rare. For example, I started to study biology at the age of 14 but after one term (semester) I decided that I didn't want to continue and take the final exam. Instead of changing to a different subject, the two hours a week that I should have had biology lessons became "free periods" for me. During those two hours, I went to the school library to read (or to study) but there was never a teacher present in the room.
The only time that a group of pupils would be together with a teacher present (except for actual lessons) would have been "detention" - a 30-minute punishment period after the school day. If a pupil did something wrong during the day, the teacher could choose to give them "detention" - they had to stay behind for an extra half an hour, sometimes with other pupils who were being punished, but sometimes alone. There was always a teacher present at those. The punished pupils were normally given a very boring, pointless task to do for those 30 minutes.
