What used to be common in schools that would never happen today?

[abacucat]

There are lots of things that were common when I was at school, that would cause outrage if they happened today. For a start -

• Teachers giving kids the belt from 5 years old
• Dinner ladies in primary making you eat everything on your plate
• Teachers in -primary making you drink your bottle of milk
• Teachers in secondary throwing blackboard rubbers at kids heads

I went to primary school in the 80s and secondary in early 90s

Primary-

Tracing paper toilet roll
Blackboard rubber being slammed hard on blackboard to get people to listen and stop talking!!
Playing conkers in the playground
Playing hacky sacks
Playing marbles
Headmaster used a slipper
Collecting stickers in sticker books

Secondary -

Tv on wheels wheeled into classroom
Tuck shop with chips etc
School discos
Teacher smoked in her cupboard in the classroom
Overhead projectors
Clip art being so exciting on the computers

I wonder how many posters here, were taught Chemistry by "Tom the "? or even taught Art by "What? What? H_"?.

I remember that film about kids playing on the train tracks that they showed in school too, it gave me nighmares me for years. I remember some of my friends crying as they were scared and wanted to leave the room but we were all made to sit and watch it.

Good for you & your class mates. So how many came back to school in one piece?

All PIFs should be shown every day in schools from an early age, preferably a week before any holiday.

Those scary info-films of kids in the 70s and 80s dying on railway tracks/electricity pylons/cow-sheds. I remember sobbing my heart out and my head teacher telling me I was a "very silly girl" hmm.

^^

I remember watching one of these about very severely disabled kids in hospital /hospice. I was around 6 and I remember thinking Wtaf

Not sure what the point of that was really - to show us how lucky we were? How sick other kids could be? It was just so excessive, paraplegics, etc.

Was telling DH about this the other day : my brother was a Scout and they went in a trip to London for 3 nights. He was about 8. Apparently they walked around on their own, in London? And tourists kept taking their photo, they wore their uniforms the entire time!?

At the motorway services they were just told to come back in 20 mins, no supervising etc

Brother also said that they ran riot in the Natural history museum etc. My mum packed him some sandwiches and they were still uneaten in the lunchbox when he got back after 4 days

And before the teen mags there were the girls comics like Mandy Tracy and Bunty.

There was no Shout or Fast Forward when i was at school so mine went.

Mandy every week and sometimes Tracy and Bunty.

Smash Hits
Just Seventeen

19
More.

I would have loved the spooky Misty comic but i was too young but i did end up with the 1984 Misty annual.

I had a couple of Mandy and Bunty annuals too.

Using Bunsen burners.Can you imagine naked flames and gas being used regularly in this day and age? (Was late 80s/90s)

Being told you were thick and going in the class called the remedial class

Teachers used to enjoy their jobs. They went home and spent time wirh their families after school and got involved in the community.
Now they are putting in huge hours doing neverending needless paperwork and worried about hitting their performance goals.

Naked bunsen burners are still used in schools, some schools at any rate. I've seen it myself in two different schools within the last 12 months; I visit different schools as part of my job.

Naked bunsen burners are still used in schools, some schools at any rate. I've seen it myself in two different schools within the last 12 months; I visit different schools as part of my job.

Yes, but they're "sooty flames"...yellow.

I remember reading all the girls comics. Better stories than the usual shitty sport/war comics.

The stories in Tracy comic were brilliant.

At the school I worked at, the previous Head used to send the children home early on a Friday if she felt like it. They were Infants.
She was also known for sitting in her office doing her knitting!

Having to stand in the corner in primary if naughty. I remember the sense of burning humiliation. Physical punishment. I remember the children’s act in 92 feeling like a big deal.

Don’t children stand up when teachers come into class any more?

Someone will have posted this already, but: being made to do PE in your vest and pants if you forgot your PE kit (an addition to this in one lesson I remember, and this was in senior school, being made to do a few bunny hop races as well so your arse was really and truly seen to be the one in vest and pants). Yes, Mr Dewhurst, I do remember this clearly.

Another one would be our physics teacher throwing a brick at someone unsuspecting to see what their reflexes were like, but that was slightly frowned upon even in that era.

I was in primary in the late 80s/early 90s and finished secondary in 2001.

From primary:
Standing ‘on the wall’ at playtime if you’d done something naughty. It just meant standing against a wall for however long the dinner lady decided was long enough. If you’d been really naughty you had to face the wall.

The TV on a trolley that we’d watch at wet playtime. I distinctly remember Cosmo and Dibbs and the magic pencil that showed us how to write letters.

I can remember telling a teacher that I had a book at home about a certain historical period we were looking at (can’t remember what) AND BEING ALLOWED TO GO HOME AND GET IT. I didn’t live that far away from school but still!

From secondary:
The PE teacher making us stand in front of her in our bras and bend over so she could check us for scoliosis. None of us were particularly pleased about that but she was terrifying and we all did it. PE was always just in PE pants and white polo shirts. I hated that.

We had a Cadbury vending machine in the dining hall. I basically lived on Cadbury chocolate after that arrived - mainly Tasters, which were little chocolate balls.

My school was strict but in really silly ways, like you could only have hair bobbles in the school colours. I can remember a girl being told off by the RS teacher for having a tartan one. Why the fuck did it matter?

Agree with previous posters re school trips being largely unregulated. We were allowed to roam around Paris in the only abroad trip I remember to an extent twjich would horrify parents and teachers (and parisiennes!) now. Aged 14. Pre any notion of league tables, testing etc having to carve out space and time to try to succeed as no alternative push from many teachers. ‘Remedial’ streams called just that and allowed to sink. Really dangerous games allowed - involving throwing things hard at each other etc. Public humiliation for infringements of minor things - my middle school had a line of shame in morning assembly where students who had been in trouble were required to stand on one side throughout assembly. Obviously it became a badge of honour for some and created a lot of solidarity amongst us all but for some it was no doubt really damaging. On and on great question. Great memories. Not all bad. I read Jacqui. Loved it. Had to hide it from parents who considered it trashy and damaging for girls. 😳

In my primary school you had to have a lunch partner. One day you went and got your own lunch plus their lunch, then next day they did the same for you.
Only problem was - there were 2 choices for lunch each day. If you were on serving duty, you had to take one of each choice and you had to eat (all of it) the one your partner didn't want. Even if it was something totally vile, which it usually was. And Mrs Bunce the head dinner lady stood over you until you did. Even if you claimed to be allergic to something in it as a desperate ploy, you still had to eat it.

No wonder we all started taking sandwiches

Nannewnannew "the pen at the end" had me confused for a second. I thought perhaps you had to sign to say you'd 'been'.
It was normal for children to do PE in vests and pants when I was little. I wondered if it was because after the war parents couldn't afford PE kit.
When I was in the top Infants we did PT, which basically involved copying whatever movement the teacher did. I have never forgotten the horror of seeing Miss Gardener's long pink knickers under her skirt when she did 'knees bend'.

Doing PE in your knickers/pants and vest at infant school

Oops, shall RTT

When I was poorly & off school, my DM (classroom teacher) used to take me with her & I used to sit in the corner of her classroom reading books! Can't see that happening nowadays!

Doing PE in vests and knickers

Blackboards

Carrying around a bucket with a plastic when you were ill incase you were sick but not being allowed to go home until you were

Not being allowed to use the toilet at break unless you begged

Having to wear your blazer walking between classrooms even if it was cracking the flags outside

Allowed over to the local shopping center and lunch in the last year of school

Being given the period chat in year 7 and given a bag with books and pads in we had to carry into the classroom in front of all the boys after

Being handed a makeup wipe at the front of class and having everyone watch you wipe your face

Getting ‘red and yellow cards’ for bad behaviour in primary and getting your bad behaviour written in a book to show your parents on parents evening

I also have a horrendous memory of smacking my eye on the side of a book case and splitting it open and having blurry vision and just being given a wet paper towel. I did however get to go home when someone bust my lip, after using a wet paper towel obviously

Ah so many memories! Repeating but this is what I remember.....

PE in our underwear.

Free school milk.

Nap time in nursery/infants.

Having a wooden ruler put down our tops if we didn't sit up straight. I remember that from infants!

The dap in primary.

The cane in high school.

Forced naked showers after PE.

Walking to and from school alone/with friends from about the age of 6.

Having huge wooden blackboard rubbers thrown at us in class for misbehaving.

Being desperate to be chosen to go outside with said blackboard rubbers to bang them on walls to remove chalk dust.

Playing dead ducks in primary with the teachers. A game where us kids lined up against a wall and they lobbed tennis balls at us. If the the ball hit you, you were out. Used to go home black and blue!

Going skiing aged 14 to Italy and sitting with the teachers at night drinking beer - pupils and teachers!

That's all I can think of for now. Sure there must be more!

Love this! I remember the big bbc computers in the 80's playing Chucky egg and Harrier attack!

Also garbage pail stickers were swapped round at playtime.

Having to play out in snow whether we liked it or not!

Some kids just wore normal clothes and never wore uniform!!

The list goes on...