If you went to school in the 70s/80s what happened that wouldn't happen now?

[TheVampiresWife]

I started primary in 1976, left secondary in 1989. Some of mine:

Corporal punishment (the most obvious one for a lot of us I think). In junior school (early 80s) we had a headmaster who would save all the week's canings for Friday afternoon assembly. The kids lined up on stage and were caned in front of the whole school. It was fucking horrific looking back - I remember a boy in my year crying and wetting himself on stage and he never lived it down, the nicknames followed him to secondary school

Girls doing needlework/cookery while boys did woodwork/metalwork

Boy in my class whose surname was Gaye. Geography teacher used to call him 'Poof' and 'Queer' which of course other kids found hilarious and joined in. He changed his surname halfway through secondary school

In my primary class an overweight girl was made to stand on a chair so the whole class could see what we would look like if we were greedy and ate too much

The headmaster who caned kids on stage also used to get girls to kiss him on the cheek and say thank you at prize givings. He also used to make comments about how we were 'developing' and once said in a conversation with my mum that I was getting 'a broad back'. The mums didn't seem to mind his comments

In primary school the children in the SEN class were described as [vile word I can't bring myself to type] by teachers and children alike quite unselfconsciously

In secondary school an English teacher had an affair with a sixth former and she became pregnant. He left but wasn't reprimanded and got a teaching job in another school the following year. The couple are still together all these years later!

It really was a different time and not necessarily for the better, either. I do have lots of happy memories of school too though!

6 ears is unusual to be fair!

@VerticalHorizon I wore 3 in each

Phew. Lol

I remember 'plump' as a description.

The teacher warming up our regulation bottle of milk to make cocoa for us when it was cold outside.
A girl whom everyone avoided as she was dirty and smelly. I found out over fifty years later that she had been systematically sexually abused by her father. Nothing was done at the time, but I'd like to think it would have been spotted today.

I just remembered a girl who was vomiting every day from the free milk. We told her not to drink it but she said her Dad would beat her up if she didn't. We told the teacher but nothing changed. We were all very happy when the free milk got banned though suspect the girl had much bigger issues at home.

Then another girl taken into Foster care told me her Foster Dad was pushing her down the stairs and the abuse she had in Foster family was far worse than family she was taken away from which she said was fine. Again told teacher and nothing happened.

We had children from the local care home at our primary school. They came and went on a regular basis. Sometimes they would come, disappear for a while, and then return. I guess foster placements had broken down or returning to birth family hadn’t worked out. They were outsiders in many ways, not many friends etc.
The home closed like many children’s homes and is a retirement home now.
My class was all white, apart from one girl, who was black. She was one of those from the children’s home. I can’t remember there being any BAME children in the rest of the school. I can’t remember many in secondary school either, although I remember one boy who was nicknamed Chalky, like a pp mentioned too.

(Race only mentioned to illustrate how much less multi cultural Britain was back in the 70s).

My SIL was in sixth form at a girls grammar school and they did a weekly visit to a local children's home. There was one little fifteen month old boy she helped with, he was from a difficult background and didn't communicate with anyone. She asked if she could take him back to her house at weekends, and the home were fine with that! Her mum and dad and older sister adored him, and within a year they adopted him. He became a chatty happy little boy and the centre of the family. That was in the late sixties, it would never have been allowed now!

That's heartwarming clawdy

Surely a 15 month old wouldn’t be speaking or communicating

Primary in 80s.
Kids walked/took bus without adults from very young.
Eating crisps, panda pop etc sold at school
Gym knickers!

My mum only left me to primary school for the first week or so. After that, I went there and back by myself. I insisted on it apparently and my mum acquiesced😂 Crikey, I was 4! My DC weren't allowed out of the garden at 4yo. I was then charged with looking after my sister a year later when she started school. She used to walk on the other side of the road from me because I wasn't the boss of her!

@Bythemillpond

Surely a 15 month old wouldn’t be speaking or communicating

Some do, they say words and they gesture to communicate. They sing in baby language. Mothers usually understand them before other people do.

I remember my nephew saying, "Ucking, ucking" at that age for a while after my sister was annoyed about something and used the F word. She never said it in front of him again.

I have read this thread but will have to look back to see how a baby got into the discussion :-), I don't remember it.

Left school in 83 aged 17

There was definitely corporal punishment. My junior school head slapped me for the crime of being in the girls toilets during a cold playtime (me and a lot of girls, but I was closest.) I also remember her humiliating me in the staff room in front of all the teachers when I told her my mum was picking me up for a hospital appointment. My mum picked me up and I was in tears. When my mum asked the head about it I was told I was ''oversensitive''. She should never have been a teacher.

In my secondary school a girl in the year above had a relationship with the geography teacher. He left before being sacked, but there was no such thing as safeguarding.

Lots of girls (i was in a girls school) had much older boyfriends. Would be seen as grooming now.

@Bythemillpond

Surely a 15 month old wouldn’t be speaking or communicating

Apparently he used to sit on the floor with his back to the room, and when people picked him up and spoke to him, he turned his head away and wouldn't look in their face.

Smacking of Reception age and upwards children in the 70s (proper heavy handed smacking, leaving a handprint).

Teachers allowed to throw at children whatever came to hand - books, board rubber etc.

Teachers could label children whatever they wanted (stupid, lazy, thick) and nicknames naturally followed from this which they didn't care about causing.

Verbal bullying and social exclusion and picking on was rampant. Teachers didn't get involved. There was no bullying policy at all.

Staff room full of cigarette smoke all the time.

School dinners - one option only, there was zero choice and you were forced to eat it whether you wanted or not by the dinner ladies who were either sweet or awful, no in-between.

No water bottles or access to water during the day. We were all gasping for a drink on hot days, it was the same at secondary.

No heating in a lot of our buildings at secondary. Condensation on the windows and a clammy cold classroom all through winter. Decent winter coats (puffy coats etc) weren't really around then, not like they are now. I think we had anoraks if anything which did nothing to keep the cold out. Only the rich girls had proper warm coats such as expensive wool duffle coats.

However, boys and girls both did cross-stitch sewing (in infant school).
Girls and boys were treated equally academically, I never felt that the "only boys got to do this" or "only girls got to do that". At secondary, there was a shower block for PE but it was never used. (thankfully).

Also remember country dancing! We had to wear a school-supplied outfit of floral skirt with a white blouse. We also did Maypole dancing and went to inter-school competitions for both country and Maypole.

@StarCandle

Also remember country dancing! We had to wear a school-supplied outfit of floral skirt with a white blouse. We also did Maypole dancing and went to inter-school competitions for both country and Maypole.

Gosh yes, I remember that too!

I quite liked the country dancing but not the maypole, kept going the wrong way and being shouted at. I also found it embarrassing.

I vaguely remember corporal punishment. Kids were hit on the hand with a wooden ruler. I think it was banned during my primary school years.

The playground gates never being locked, so anybody could walk. Our primary backed onto a housing estate and people would cut through the playground

Outside toilet block. Never locked, so anybody using the playground as a short cut could access them.

School dentist. I remember my older sister having teeth taken out without permission from my parents. My mum wasn't pleased at all.

Me being pinned up against a wall by a load of boys and essentially assaulted. Told a teacher who said, "well it's better than fighting".

Being allowed out of school grounds at lunchtime at secondary.

Bunking off and school never informing my parents.

@MyCatEatsPrawnCrackers

We also played elastics game but called it 'Chinese Elastics'. We also played a game where you had a tennis ball in a long sock and had to stand spreadeagled with your back to the wall and as you recited a rhyme you had to swing the sock behind you and whack the ball onto the wall into certain places. You whack it above your head, between your legs and to the right and left

Elastics was awesome! In a triangle or square (around 3 or 4 people), then various challenges (over/under/one of each) which started on ankles and moved up to knees and hips.

I remember teachers routinely throwing the board rubber and once an open box of scissors. Another primary school teacher who was accused of something inappropriate with one of the boys and stayed.

In our girls grammars, the male teachers were put under immense scrutiny by us all. The German teacher held parties at his house for the sixth formers, including alcohol, though it was reasonably innocent. There was some really good banter with the male teachers, but would not be allowed now (I have one school magazine with a quote about spanking pupils from one male teacher). I really enjoyed my school years, they were a lot easier than my kids'.

The highlight of the day at primary school would be a dog running into the playground. Or getting to use the marker pens that made you high

Talking of dogs, a friend of mine said thah when she was in Top Juniors (1976) two children would be chosen to walk the Head's dog at lunchtime. They would go out around the local streets with no supervision.
When I think about it, Top Juniors was actually one of the mpst relaxed year groups back then, not the SATs factories they are now. That was when all the nice things happened and you were given various jobs to do like help out in Reception, make the teachers tea, etc
We also had no induction into Secondary. I went to a Grammar school so I had to go there to sit the entrance exam but it wasn't until September when I actually got shown around and met teachers/pupils. No induction back then.

Teachers were allowed to make sexist comments and discriminate against gay pupils. I also have memories of racist incidents.

Teachers smoked in the staff room and went fir a pint at lunchtime.

At primary you were made to finish your lunch a the lunchtime supervisors insisted on table manners.

Talking of dogs, a friend of mine said thah when she was in Top Juniors (1976) two children would be chosen to walk the Head's dog at lunchtime. They would go out around the local streets with no supervision.

That just reminded me of the Harvest Festival Deliveries in P7. Sent off in pairs with heavy bags of shopping to be delivered to local people in need. Mostly elderly, but also the block of YMCA flats near the school where young men who were “troubled” lived. Completely unsupervised and no-one batted an eyelid.

We all each took a tin out of our bags and left them at a designated hiding spot for a boy in our class to take home. I wonder if the teachers realised or not.