Wondering if my secondary school was just odd, or does anyone else remember this?

[Mycatishere]

When I started secondary school (in 1992) it was expected that we would ‘back’ our exercise books. This could be in leftover wallpaper, wrapping paper, plastic covers you could get from WH Smiths. Geography books had to be backed in a map. Some kids used cling film.

I remember being annoyed with my mum for backing all my books in brown paper. I wanted something pretty.

Just me?

Yep I did in the early 70s and all my children had to at their secondary schools in the mid noughties!

Started teaching in the 80s ..Primary and all the children covered their books and copies. Very quickly , without looking at the name l knew whose copy l had. If l had a sibling the following year l would see the same wallpaper appearing.
With my own l dodged it as much as possible as had to use clear sticky plastic and it wasn't easy to get it smooth. It was a hated job in our house.

Backing books is my party piece, I could be one of the experts on the Generation Game 😀. I’m an ex-librarian and I used to be kept very busy by the first years in the secondary school I worked in who watched fascinated as I backed their books in under a minute.

Normal in the 70's.

Wasn't asked for when the dc were at school in the mid 90's and later in secondary so I kind of assumed (clearly wrongly!) it wasn't a thing any more.

Yes!!!

Yes, I did this. Left sixth form in 2001. Exercise books covered in clear sticky-backed plastic, which must have made them very slippery when piled for marking. Then we were issued with a textbook for every subject in September and we were expected to back them with wallpaper or other sturdy paper.

I still have some of my old rough books. They are full of the notes we passed to each other in class!

I started secondary at a similar time. I sometimes used posters from smash hits to cover my books. 😀

My kids have to cover their books now with clear plastic covers. The school is on a mission to be eco so no longer sells plastic covers in the school shop....but still wants them to use plastic covers....

I started secondary school in '93 and we didn't have to back secondary school books. We did for primary school though, and my mum covered every single book we ever had in a horrible wallpaper that she also used to wrap presents for friend's birthday parties. Everybody recognised ours without even seeing a name because this wallpaper was so ugly and was used for literally everything!

At my secondary school my dad bought a sample roll of wallpaper in first year just for the “backing books” request. After that I just bought wrapping paper. Can still see my year 8 maths book with the black wrapping paper with little gold hearts from 1985!

Yep went to high school in the late 80s/90s. I still have some of my jotters and it was covered in a Pet Shop Boys' poster (probably from Smash Hits)

Same here. Also remember getting a whole class detention because no-one had covered their (English?) books by the next lesson when we hadn't been told to!

We did this in the 80s

Still a thing. My DS had to do it at his sec from 2013 onwards. Had to put pictures or stickers on and then cover in clear sticky back plastic.

I started in 2000 and had to sticky back plastic all my books and then do wallpaper for my art book. Used to drive my mum mad!

Perfectly normal. We had to do the same with all our exercise books.

if you think your school was weird....this happened in my secondary (mid 80’s - early 90’s)...

PE teacher would make us bend over in front of him and touch our toes, he would then kick us up the bum. This is when we were 14-16 and wore tiny PE skirts.

Out female PE teacher would ‘check’ we were showering after PE by putting her head around the curtain and looking at us in the showers to ‘make sure we were washing’.

Chemistry teacher was a part time opera singer and we would miss lessons because she would make us watch her latest performance on video rather than teaching us chemistry.

Biology teacher I know realise was an alcoholic, he would often stink of booze and always had a can under the bench and as turned around to write on the board he would take a swig.

and finally the English teacher would throw the chalkboard duster straight at your head if you were misbehaving and used to ponce cigarettes off the sixth formers and drink with them in the pub after school.

I had to do this in the 80’s. It never occurred to me that neither ds has ever had to do it!

I used to love decorating my books. Still struggle with that sticky back plastic covering though.

I still did this in 2009 in Canada!

Yes, we did this in Ireland in the 80s, I’ve no idea if it’s still done.

I'm in NZ and we did this when I was at school in the 70s.

We covered our text books (80s). We also used to steal new exercise books with lines in and use them to write (very uninformed and amateurish) erotic fiction On one occasion, we tied our (male) music teacher to a chair and read them aloud to him. Like I said, the 80s...

I still have some of my old rough books.

We had to number the pages in rough books and the numbering was checked before we were begrudgingly issued with another.

Those were the days my friend

Yep I had to back my books, usually trip to B&Q for wall paper samples to use.

Mine were backed in wallpaper !

Out female PE teacher would ‘check’ we were showering after PE by putting her head around the curtain and looking at us in the showers to ‘make sure we were washing’

Our one would stand in the communal changing room after swimming.

That was after having marked off the non-swimmers period excuses and telling them to get to the doctor if they dared deviate from a regular twenty eight day cycle...

I covered mine in Smash Hits, No1 or Just Seventeen.