They show pupils, teachers and parents at schools around Leeds during those two decades.
For many people, school was the best time of your life, when you forged new friendships and learned more about the world, but for others it was a struggle.
These photos capture happy days at schools in Leeds, some of which have since been lost for good.
But they also show some of the difficulties facing schools back then, from an arson attack to cramped classrooms and protests over teacher pay and planned closures.
This retro photo gallery also proves how some things never change, with school uniform rows raging back then just as they are today.
A visit by a sporting legend and cricket in the playground on the last day of school are among the other atmospheric photos taking you back up to half a century.
Do these photos bring back any memories of your school days in the 1970s or 1980s? Let us know in the comments section.
1. Queueing up
Children queue to wash their hands at St Luke's Primary School, Leeds, where there were only two basins for 70 pupils, in January 1974 | YPN Photo: YPN
2. Matthew Murray School
Pupils at Matthew Murray School, Leeds, in September 1978 | YPN Photo: YPN
3. School closure protest
Protesters demonstrate outside Leeds Civic Hall in April 1987 against the proposed closure of St Kevin's School, on Barwick Road, in Manston | YPN Photo: YPN
4. Stop the children suffering
Mothers and their children stage a playground protest at Westfield Primary School, Burley Road, Leeds, in September 1985 after they were refused permission to supervise their children's lunch breaks. Teachers were refusing to supervise meals as part of their dispute over pay. | YPN
5. In the playground
Pupils in the playground at St Stephen's Church of England Primary School, Morris Lane, Kirkstall, in May 1979 | YPN Photo: YPN
6. Home time
Pupils heading home from Matthew Murray High School, Leeds, in February 1984 | YPN Photo: YPN