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 yes teachers smoking in their little room remember that thought it was cool

I keep thinking of that Smiths song, The Headmaster Ritual, reading these. If you're of an age where you were at school in the 70s and 80s you may well remember it (and nod sagely at the lyrics)

throwing netballs and hockey balls at girls heads without warning to make you pay attention

Oh I remember this very well.

That bit about periods is horrific, even by the standards of the day. How the fuck did these people get away with it?

The school leadership consisted of the Headteacher and one Deputy Head in the 70s/80s.

Nowadays our school has 1 Head, 3 Deputies, 5 Assistant Heads, 7 Associate Assistant Heads. The lower ranks and support staff have been cut to the bone whilst the leadership team add to their ranks at every opportunity.

I think we were marked with our period with pe and shower excuses.
I don't remember having to prove it.
I remember horror films being shown at film club and at least one girl fainting because they were so terrified.

A bit more recent but secondary school in the 90's.. School nurse took a girl who had confessed to having unprotected sex to the family planning clinic for the morning after pill. Nothing ever said to her parents.

In 1986 my male art history took a group of us (17 yo girls) to Amsterdam. He didn't see us again for 3 days, even we didn't see one girl for 3 days

What years did you attend secondary @CORINNA? In my secondary school NOBODY came out as gay or lesbian

Same here. it was the era of AIDS, the don’t die of ignorance as campaign was mid 80’s, it was definitely not cool to be gay or lesbian.

God yes the naked communal showers after PE with the PE teacher watching and telling you off for not holding your towel above your head! One of many reasons why I hated PE!!

Primary school the 70s, we had a teacher called Mrs Hoare and it never occurred to us that there might be a joke in there somewhere.

I was coming on to say about the communal showers in PE. Just hideous. This was only the mid-late 90s so not years ago!

At primary school we had a headteacher who would drag boys out of assembly by their ears, and a deputy head who stood a boy up against a wall and smacked him for back chatting. We all staged a protest over this but I don’t think it got anywhere!

There was a hideous part in one of the maths text books where you had to weigh all your classmates and make a chart of their weights.

The smoke coming out of the staff room!

I'm pretty sure in the first or second year of comp we were given our BCG injection, and they only changed the needle when it got a bit blunt.

They just wiped it and filled the syringe from the vial. We were lined up and went into a classroom one by one to get jabbed.

Talking of health things, we used to have our hair checked for nits by a district nurse regularly at primary school. Don't think that happens any more.

OMG OP your school sounds horrific. I was at secondary school 75-80 and whilst there was corporal punishment, it was delivered in the deputy headmasters office, not a public shaming.

I remember the girls only being allowed to do cookery/needlework whilst the boys did woodwork/metalwork.
Also the girls having to fight to be allowed to wear trousers rather than skirts after the sex discrimination act being passed.
Other than that my schooldays were fairly peaceful with no shocking incidents I can remember now. There were some rather difficult boys who were from the local children's home but other than that it was quite ordinary. At my brothers school there were a couple of teachers who turned out to be paedophiles and went to prison, that's about it really.

for me, by far the worst, was being forced to get completely naked after PE, and have a communal shower with the other girls, whilst being "supervised" by the PE teacher.

Oh God this. I left secondary school in 1994 and I think they ended this practice shortly afterwards. Also having to do PE in the summer in these awful "gym knickers".

A secondary school teacher shoved another child to the floor during a lesson and kicked him in front of the entire class. He was suspended for one day. Other teachers threw board rubbers.

At primary school there were children with clearly undiagnosed ASD who were just labelled naughty.

I had poor attendance at school. This was because I was kept off “sick” whenever the bruises were where they would be seen. I had a “medical exemption” from PE for most of the time so that the “hidden” bruises wouldn’t get seen when changing.

I’m an attendance officer and these things would be a red flag these days.

When I did tell one of my teachers the truth about how my nose was broken I was told that I should be better behaved…. if a child at my school disclosed the same to me now then I would be informing the designated safeguarding lead who would call social services instantly.

Around 1986 - Yr6 school trip to Isle of Wight. After dinner we went to sandown pier. Us kids were left to our own devices in the arcades, whilst the teachers sat in the adult only bar area. Occasionally a teacher would do a Little walk around The pier and check we were behaving ourselves. Anyone that wasn’t had to sit on the floor outside the bar.

I was born jn the 70s.
My teacher send me to the black board to complete a math exercise.
I didn't understand the exercise.
Instead of explaining, he kicked me in the bum then sent me in the corner facing the walll!!
My brother used to get slapped by his teacher and my mum would see no problem with that.
So for me corporel punishment , a big Yes back then.

There was no such thing as pastoral care or safeguarding officers then.
I don't know who you were supposed to tell with a problem.

A male PE teacher, who was also fond of board rubber throwing in his other class, used to shower naked with the boys.
He also used to slap their arse so hard he left a red mark if they forgot their kit - called it joining the red hand gang...

I started primary school in 1963, and secondary school in 1970.

The negatives:

Corporal punishment – at primary school the whole school would be taken to the hall to watch the miscreant being caned. Just horrific.
Being made to eat every mouthful of school dinner, even the gristle on meat
At secondary school the girls did home economics and needlework, and the boys did woodwork, metalwork and technical drawing
School showers en masse after PE – no privacy at all
Typing lessons for less academic girls
O levels and CSEs

The positives:

A day trip to France in year 6
Having lessons outside in the summer if the weather was nice
Having a day trip to Wimbledon to see the women’s semi finals
School discos on disco boats on the Thames in 6th form (I suspect that one of them might have been on the Marchioness )
No social media/smartphones (or any kind of mobile phone) to encourage bullying and isolation

Absolutely sorry OP! So traumatising! I think there must be an impact to this day..

@LadyDanburysCane

I had poor attendance at school. This was because I was kept off “sick” whenever the bruises were where they would be seen. I had a “medical exemption” from PE for most of the time so that the “hidden” bruises wouldn’t get seen when changing.

I’m an attendance officer and these things would be a red flag these days.

When I did tell one of my teachers the truth about how my nose was broken I was told that I should be better behaved…. if a child at my school disclosed the same to me now then I would be informing the designated safeguarding lead who would call social services instantly.

Horrific. I'm so glad you are able to help other kids now.

I was on free school dinners. We had to queue up outside the secretary’s office every day to get a free school meals ticket. That wouldn’t be allowed today. Plus we did not get any trips or holidays paid for.

School in London in 80s including:

Age 5 Being made to stay in the canteen fir the whole afternoon, because I wouldn't eat the fish looking at me from the plate.(threw it under the table in the end).

Having to use that hard toilet paper.

They did actually wash your mouth with soap and water if you cursed. I watched in horror as this happened once.

PE in underwear.

Being made to stand facing the wall with arms outstretched and books on each hand if the teacher thought you needed it.

Age 7 taking a porno in to school that my much older brother had been exposing me to when getting me naked. They laughed and said not to do it again.

High school:
Board rubbers at head for coughing. Chairs across the room. Both by teachers.

Being told that because I had a lazy eye I couldn't be intelligent enough to be top set and must be a cheat, so sent to the bottom set (not for long).

Being stabbed with highly sharpened pencils by bully boys (I still have 2 under my skin they went so deep).

Group naked showers watched too closely by teachers.

PE getting the best players to pick and openly ridicule the less able kids.

Spending detention scraping used chewing gum off of the underside of furniture with a knife.

Several girls were interfered with by teachers, everyone knew.

British bulldog PE lessons on concrete playgrounds.

Being pushed in to the pool by bullies and not being allowed to go home and change if this happened to you.

Oh god, the list goes on...

We used to get whacked n the head with rulers by our french teacher. And one teacher returned to work with bandages where he had tried to slit his wrists! We weren’t very nice to him either which is shameful looking back.