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

The horrible , horrible milk that had been left in the classroom all day we drank it at the end of the day why?Left me with a life long dislike of milk , i remember getting slapped across the legs un infants for dropping a crisp packet they had out lawed corporal punisgment by the time i got to secondary school 1985, but i remember being threatened with rhe ruler in primary school, and and ice cream van in each playground (i went to a catholic school we had a boys and girls playground for some reason) at lunch

The teacher I had in 4th class (year 4) used to smoke at her desk in the classroom

Dark Towers
The Boy from Space
Badger Girl

I remember a teacher telling a little bit that he would like to drop a bomb on his house because his parents were South Africans.

I went on a trip to Germany at 14 and in the evenings we were allowed out of the hotel into the town. So we went clubbing/getting drunk/smoking. I remember the teacher coming in our room the next morning saying we must have head aches as we'd come back drunk the night before. I'm guessing they wouldn't be allowed out like that now.

Dissecting live (albeit drugged) frogs pinned to a cork board. That still haunts me.

Teacher pupil relationships, it was always the PE & science teachers in my school.
Physical violence against the pupils
Questionable caretaker behaviour in secondary schools
Yes porn booze and too much unsupervised free time on school trips whilst the teachers were getting pissed.

One of our local Headteachers and her husband, an Ofsted inspector began their relationship when he was a teacher and she was a pupil.
Teachers being made to leave if they committed adultery with each other, and at Dds school two teachers being made to leave because they were lesbians in a relationship. Seems unlikely that would happen now.

Being made to take pe in primary in pants and vest if you forgot your kit. Mid 80’s and walking to and from school alone at both primary and secondary. Mind you there were always a few of us on the path at any one time, then there was an area where three housing schemes aoukd use the same route. There were at least 1000 secondary school kids walking along there morning and night. Secondary was a really dangerous route as you had to cross a main road with no crossing. There was a junction with traffic lights and you had to time it just right to bolt across as the lights changed. A young lad was killed and after a campaign by his parents and local MP pedestrian crossings were put up. We could leave the school at lunchtime and regularly did, you had people who went home for lunch, school dinners and those who walked up to the local high street. The high street was great for a filled roll, pie, sausage roll or the chippy. We had no mobiles and tons of freedom.

I remember the staffroom reeling of smoke it was vile.
The PE teacher moved in with a girl two weeks after she finished school they claim they only got together after she left. The RE teacher was sacked after asking a girl about her underwear.

I remember having bad headaches just before lunch and I think it was dehydration as it always abated after a drink. We never had drinks in class unless we were sitting an exam when sweets and drinks were allowed.

One boy was dubbed ‘dopey’ by a teacher and it stuck all through school.

Everything. Only thing same as when I went is that it's still called school

The amazing puddings in primary school, the sponge with jam and desiccated coconut, or the cornflake and treacle tart

The parents with cars had to park in the church next door and we were just let out to go and find them

I also remember being one of about three children with divorced parents and the headmistress was such a cow about it. We’d had to move further away from school and my mother was often late bringing me in. This headmistress used to collar me and I’d say I was late because we came from far away. She’d ask EVERY time ‘oh to you live at xxx’ (posh estate right at edge of catchment)

She knew full well we didn’t and had moved to a ‘rough’ area (in her opinion it was actually fine.) What she got from scoring points off an eight year old beats me.

Oh, and a policewoman outside wearing a skirt to help you cross the road

Teacher doing assembly and telling the whole school that if you forgot your swimming kit you would be swimming naked, even the girls who had began puberty and had little breasts and pubic hairs. These were his words. How the hell that pervert got away with that I'll never know.

In the early 70s a particularly nasty nun forced me to drink school milk.
I took a swig and promptly ( and very satisfyingly) threw up all over her shoes and tights . She called me a disgusting child, but she never force fed me again.

No choice for school dinners, There was one main course and one stodgy pudding with custard and you had to eat everything.

Going to the pub in sixth form with the Teachers.

Going into town at lunchtime until the factory siren went for the end of lunch break.

Wearing your best knickers (in my case the ones with pictures of the Bay City Rollers) on PE day in primary as we did it just vest & knickers.

Listening to a portable radio on Tuesday lunchtimes for the charts.

The strap. Or corporal punishment in general.

In primary the radio programme Singing Together. The big television being wheeled in. Teachers telling you to stop sitting on the big old fashioned radiator because you would get piles ( had no idea what this meant aged 8).
In secondary blue gym knickers and showers with a register kept of those not having them. Teachers making a brew in the classroom during lessons. One male teacher having a pupil move in with him as soon as she left school and the school appearing to be fine with this.

Walking home alone across 2 roads aged 5.
An outside toilet block with high flush loos.
Warm school milk.
The cane.
The blackboard rubber being thrown at pupils.
(This was the 1950s).

Massive school-wide snowball fights.
Still happens if you've got a school with a field and the sort of of culture where nobody pushes it too far. Sometimes staff have been known to join in

Kids not just getting the belt but being cuffed round the head and shoved round the classroom by our horrible headmaster
Vile warm milk at morning break
Going in your teachers‘ car to study trips/evening events
Your teacher buying you a pint in the pub
Sick sand

Having a peg put in my fringe as it was too long (so apparently it was my responsibility to make sure my hair was cut!!). This was 1984

Being shoved about/manhandled!

I vividly remember my teacher in reception force feeding me lunch
I also remember the art teachers used to smoke with year 11s up outside the gates and going to my teachers houses for drinks in 6th form - I only left school in 2012

Outside toilets
Free school milk
Children walking to school with a parent (usually mum)