School's out for summer. Not only does this mean our journey to work in Blackheath takes half the time with school run traffic blissfully off the road, it also brings to mind long golden days, lie-ins, family hols, playing outside, and the familiar cry of, 'I'm bored' after three days cut loose from the structure of the school day. For this latest Collections Crossover, we're taking you on a quick saunter down memory lane to relive the joys, and the frustrations, of the school holidays.

Let's start with the idea of an actual holiday, although for those of a certain vintage, this may have been more likely to be a soggy week in the Lake District or a weekend of candy floss and big dippers in Blackpool, before cheap air fares sent Brits in search of sun, sand and sangria. This selection draws from a number of collections we represent. There are the retrotastic views of Butlin's from the John Hinde archive, brochure covers from the Thomas Cook archive, charming watercolours of toddlers on the beach by Muriel Dawson, fun illustrations from the likes of Kevin Walsh and the Playhour archive, wholesome camping trips captured by John Gay for Historic England or kids messing about in boats and rock pools from John Maclellan's top quality collection of vintage photographs. This round-up of around 150 images is a small taster of the immense range we have on this particular subject.

You've had your holiday but what about the other five weeks of the school break? Before iPads and mobile phones, there were all manner of ways olde-worlde sprogs could amuse themselves, from painting, plasticine or playing parlour games on a rainy day, to teaching the dog tricks, perfecting your stamp album or taking up complicated fretwork. We've pulled together a myriad selection of activities to stave off boredom with pictures coming from Robert Opie, Land of Lost Content and our own Barnaby's Picture Library among others.

Of course screen time is nothing new. There's just more of it these days. This selection of photographs by Paul Kaye recording the chaos at a Saturday morning cinema for children is great fun, while we've also had a trawl to find some of those school holiday morning TV programmes we were glued to. This set, harvested from our film and television collections, reminds us of the eclectic TV diet children of the 1970s and '80s were fed: Johnny Weissmuller in Tarzan and Harold Lloyd scheduled alongside Scooby Doo, the Pink Panther, The Munsters, Lassie and the mind-bending Banana Splitz. Great stuff.

Once your mum had warned you that either your eyes would go square or the telly would blow up, you would be shoo'ed outside to play. This selection celebrates the lost art of playing outside, with youths of yore going through their hopscotch moves, climbing trees, jostling in playgrounds or just hanging around the streets. This is a great subject for us with some top class photographers including Roger Mayne, John Krish and Shirley Baker bringing us some of the very best shots of this genre.

Finally, and we apologise if this is a little premature, but don't forget back to school preparatons from shiny new shoes and smart new uniform to sharpened pencils. Those six weeks will be over before you know it so get organised.

School holidays or not, we hope you're enjoying this summer. But if there's work to be done and we can help, then do get in touch. You can call us on 020 8318 0034 or email [email protected].