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!

Oh and fighting was quite normal.
I did it a lot and never remember getting in trouble.

PE in knickers and vests if you forgot your PE kit. If you didn't have a vest, PE kit in knickers...

@C0RINNA

When I was at school it was ok for girls to be lesbians. I mean no one thought it was cool but you didn’t have to hide It. No one suggested that you were born in the wrong body and should be sterilised, put on drugs for life or bind your breasts.

Yes some unpleasant boys might suggest that you should have sex with them to sort you out. But that was seen as a nasty comment from bigots.

Now saying that is seem as progressive and lesbian girls are told THEY are hateful bigots for not wanting to have sex with men. Schools encourage lesbians to self harm.

All very true!!

@Tlollj

Well I don’t know where you went to school but mine was nothing like that. I started primary must be 1968 And finished school in 1980. So older than you but we didn’t have corporal punishment at all. No showering naked. No board rubbers thrown at us. One girl did have thing with the physics teacher though.

I went to school in the London Borough of Sutton. It was the norm there as I went to a secondary school with girls from lots of different primary schools in the Borough and the Head had smacked kids in their primary schools too. I think corporal punishment was banned in about 87, although my secondary girls' school didn't have it

Students getting kicked off chairs, strapped with a leather belt, slapped across the face in front of the class, board rubbers hurled at your head, teacher ferrying the whole netball team to matches in his car, etc etc etc.

Started school early 80s. I experienced:

Girls not being allowed trousers (introduced in my second year of secondary)

Kids who, in retrospect, had SEN just being thought of as 'Naughty'

Doing PE in your undies in Infants school

I think/hope girls in secondary don't have do PE in those vile giant knickers anymore!

Presume cooking isn't called 'home economics' anymore

Standing in corner or on a line for punishment

Having to shower in communal shower naked with other kids and teacher watching

Doing athletics in gym knickers outdoors

Doing a 5 mile run down a lonely farm track

PE if you forgot kit you would do in vest and knickers

Detention was litter picking

Having to sit boy girl boy girl and not with your friends

Prayers stood on benches before lunch

The ice cream man sold cigarettes to the kids

The headteacher told racist jokes

Re getting into teachers' cars - the teacher who had the affair with the sixth former was always packing kids into his car to go to his house to watch films in lunch breaks, or even during lesson time. He was an English teacher and thought it was ridiculous that we could only watch 'appropriate' stuff in school so he'd take kids to his house to watch them instead. Nothing too OTT - stuff like The Bill (which was quite gritty in the 80s) and Tales of the Unexpected. Not that I ever went, my mum would've killed me!

The kids left in the classroom would be given a book to read or a creative writing exercise to do and what's weird is that everyone just got on with it and didn't act up.

Yes I agree that by secondary, it was fine to be gay or feminine/masculine and you were just put in the ‘weird’ non sporty group with all the Goths - but no one bothered you. I was in that ‘weird’ section as I wore different clothes and had a nose ring - but no one told me that I had to have sex changing hormones - it was quite a nice free teenage hood where we could all explore different versions of ourselves without outside pressure or agendas.

I feel sorry for teenagers exploring this now and all the pressure.

When I was 11, in the early 80s, one of my school friends died. My class was called into the school hall after lunch, told she had died, then sent to our next lesson. Lots of us were upset and crying, but we were expected to just get on with our day as if nothing had happened.

A year or two later, two girls in our class were late for school. They got the train to school, so everyone just assumed the train had been delayed. When they walked into school two hours later they told us that on the way to school, another girl had opened the train door as the train approached the station, and had fallen under the train as it was still moving and been killed. All the children were sent to school after giving witness statements to the police, and then just sent to their classes as normal.

Different times.

PE in primary school (74 to 80) being done in vest and knickers.

I was a pupil in the 1960s and 1970s.

A maths teacher was shagging a girl from the year above mine, so maybe 16 or possibly 15, in the long grass. They later married.

A teacher was the wife of the headmaster. She wore her hair up. He came into class and undid it while she tried to teach.

In primary, what would now be Year 6, the teacher hit my cousin so violently, swinging him about and hitting him again and again, he broke my cousin's nose. I was in the classroom, with the rest of the class, and saw this happen.

Older primary girls had to do Sport in the yard by two main roads, in our vests and knickers. Old men used to gather there to 'chat' to each other, whilst leering at us.

When I was a teacher, so the nineties, I worked in the school where the headteacher took boys skinny dipping. In the same school, a deputy head was said to have wanked off boys, if they went to him and said they were upset - that was before my time there, but I have no reason not to believe it. At the same school, a pupil who was a prostitute told me a colleague of mine was one of her punters. I passed it on but was told it wouldn't be pursued because it would ruin his career. She was 14.

I started primary in the early 80's and left 1993. In primary school I remember having a nap corner in an afternoon and having the choice of going for a nap or listening to a story.

Board rubbers being thrown left, right and centre and teachers screaming at pupils.

Showers after PE being watched over by male members of staff.

Staff smoking room and teachers feeling of fags and coffee after break times.

Teachers who clearly had poor hygiene standards. I remember teachers with bad breath and BO hovering over me

@AutumnColours9

Standing in corner or on a line for punishment

Having to shower in communal shower naked with other kids and teacher watching

Doing athletics in gym knickers outdoors

Doing a 5 mile run down a lonely farm track

PE if you forgot kit you would do in vest and knickers

Detention was litter picking

Having to sit boy girl boy girl and not with your friends

Prayers stood on benches before lunch

The ice cream man sold cigarettes to the kids

The headteacher told racist jokes

Yes to pretty much all these! The ice cream man sold 'singles' for 10p with a match thrown in

Loads of racism, in my junior school particularly. The comments after the Brixton riots in the early 80s from teachers, and the language used, was beyond vile. Not going to repeat it here.

Last year of primary, teacher walking around the class smoking, we used to try and guess whose book her ash would fall onto, and hitting anyone who was taking around the back of the head with a metal ruler.

Headmaster kissing all the girls goodnight when they were in bed whilst away on the school trip (again last year primary) in case we were homesick!

I forgot to add we were made to play spin the bottle and kiss whoever it landed on. In year 6 organised by teachers.

Ours depended on if you were 'good' or 'clever'. If you were, it was usually okay. Boys first on the register, general sexism. Primary school one dinner lady used to try to make the girls take their tops off at playtime to 'get fresh air to your chest to make your boobs grow'.

Not so clever or occasionally acting up? The cane, ruler, slipper or table tennis bat. Humiliated in front of the school to 'deter' others. Slapped legs, hair & ears pulled. One teacher was fond of the odd sly punch to the ribs, threw blackboard rubbers & chalk. He was about 5ft 5 so real Little Man Syndrome. Everyone hated him, including some of the teachers.

I was a girly swot. When we went on a trip to France I ended up sitting on the teachers' table for meals & they gave me a glass of wine at lunch & teatime.

Staff rooms full of smoke like a pea souper. Smokers' Corner in the playground in full view of the staff.

@iklboo

Ours depended on if you were 'good' or 'clever'. If you were, it was usually okay. Boys first on the register, general sexism. Primary school one dinner lady used to try to make the girls take their tops off at playtime to 'get fresh air to your chest to make your boobs grow'.

Not so clever or occasionally acting up? The cane, ruler, slipper or table tennis bat. Humiliated in front of the school to 'deter' others. Slapped legs, hair & ears pulled. One teacher was fond of the odd sly punch to the ribs, threw blackboard rubbers & chalk. He was about 5ft 5 so real Little Man Syndrome. Everyone hated him, including some of the teachers.

I was a girly swot. When we went on a trip to France I ended up sitting on the teachers' table for meals & they gave me a glass of wine at lunch & teatime.

Staff rooms full of smoke like a pea souper. Smokers' Corner in the playground in full view of the staff.

That thing about the top off is grim!

Some of these are bloody criminal

Teachers throwing things at students. A few affairs between upper sixth formers and teachers. Going to the pub with teachers.

The only incident that I don't think would happen now but I don't think was a bad thing ultimately - my best friend had an obvious physical disability and was being bullied (one incident). The next school assembly she and her brother were asked to pop into see the secretary about lunch money (in hindsight a fabricated excuse). Headteacher hauled the two culprits out in front of the whole (primary) school, told everyone what they'd done and how disgusting they were. Had them in floods of tears by the time she had finished (they were in yr 4). They never did it again.

I started school in 1973 and left in 1984. All these

@TheVampiresWife

The school nurse doling out paracetamol for headaches/period pain, no questions asked

Forgot about this. I had awful period pains when I first started and the school secretary used to give me her special painkillers, which were Quite possibly something like co codamol. Don’t know if they ever phoned my mum to ask permission. Contrast that to me having to Take time off work to go into DS’s primary school to give him anti histamines because the school refused.

Started school in 1980. Corporal punishment seems so alien now doesn't it? I remember watching boys get caned and less often girls get the slipper in assembly in primary.

In secondary I remember a teacher swearing and using racist slurs towards a boy in lessons.

Teachers in sixth form having 'relationships' with girls in their classes

@FindingMeno

Some of these are bloody criminal

I know. It's depressing isn't it. I wonder how these teachers feel about themselves now? Whether they're ashamed or just bitter that they had to stop behaving the way they did when times changed? Incredible to think that some of them may still be teaching.

Everyone talking about Top of the Pops or The Young Ones on Friday morning after watching them on Thursday night.