What school rules from your day did you absolutely despise?

[Trothetoy]

The tie having to be at least 10 bars

Having to be there, I was badly bullied & hated school.

We had ridiculous pork pie hats that were supposed to be worn coming and going to school. Really made us a target for mockery and bullying. No one put them on till we were getting off the bus except if one of the teachers got on (which she did sometimes) then there’d be a mad scramble for hats.

Also we had indoor and outdoor shoes, made by Clarks, bloody ugly and cost £5 per pair back in 1973. This was a fortune for my parents. Also, we had a shoe bag and had to take our indoor shoes and gym shoes home every Friday to polish them. I remember racing like a madwoman on Friday when school ended, to get my coat and hat and get out the back door before “fishface” (maths teacher) got there to make sure you had your shoe bag with you.

And I hated the school food and was delighted when they shut down our cafeteria for remodeling and I could bring a sandwich every day.

I didn't despise it at the time, but I do now. Not a school rule, but an inflexible requirement. At my primary school poems were sometimes set for homework, to be memorised and then spoken aloud in front of the class.

We were not permitted to recite in our natural northern accents, but in marked RP, that is, like the late Queen in her early broadcasts. A bucket of sand became a backet of send.

My username reflects another rule, that toilets must always be called offices. Much later when I encountered the phrase the house of office as used in medieval times to name lavatories it made me laugh.

Backing books , we were poor so never had spare paper of any kind .

School uniform inspections. I'd wear hand me downs from my sister, We were completely different sizes and my uniform would be patched and sewn with whatever thread was available. I remember the music teacher making us stand up one by one, he'd sneer at me and give me 3 out of 10.

Communal showers Great way to body shame teens.

Having to wear grey or flesh coloured tights, black was only for y11. Every years we would ask to have the rule changed every year the governors refused.

At primary, having to eat all your lunch, to be fair our lunches were rather good even in the late 1980’s. No chips, balanced meals but one meal put me off lamb for life and I loathe casseroles, stews etc.. I know the school produced a cookbook wish I had a copy particularly for the puddings. The school employed a proper cook and nothing was pre-made. But forcing kids to clear their plate is still dubious for me. The midday supervisors even encouraged table manners which was helpful I feel.

Gym knickers in secondary school, absolutely vile. Sixth form girls having to wear them for sports day was ridiculous. They eventually introduced cycling shorts.

@80sMum I started school in 1969, and I remember virtually being force fed a pudding that I didn't like, and crying, saying I was going to be sick. The teacher told me not to be so silly. I threw up all over her!

Similar to others.

Primary school:
Having to do gym in knickers and vest if you forgot your PE kit. I remember a friend was early starting her period and she gad to do gymnastics with a sanitary towel bulging out of her knickers .

Being forced to finish your plate (of grim Spam-and Smash-type 80s school dinners) at lunchtime.

Not a rule - but having to use the scratchy tracing paper they called loo roll! And outside toilets <shudder>

Secondary school:

Playing hockey in sub zero temperatures in that stupid pleated school ‘sports’ skirt and an Airtrex t-shirt. Child cruelty!

Other than that, my school was really liberal and borderline lawless.

The kit we had to wear for bloody freezing cold days on the hockey field. Legs blue with cold - no such things as trackie bottoms then, and even if there were, I doubt that our sadistic games teachers would have allowed them.

I was mainly living in squats with boyfriends, or rough sleeping.

@TheGhostofLoganRoy ok sorry to hear that was your situation. Was your school aware? Why didn't they help?
What did you do for food/money/school equipment? (sorry - you don't need to answer this - it's none of my business).
I would have just scribbled a vague signature tbh.

The only thing I really hated about primary school was the big bucket of "slops" at the end of the table (for leftovers). It always smelt and looked horrendous and put me off eating anything much.

Oh, and also having to wear a straw boater to/from school in the summer - it was so uncomfortable and always gave me a headache.

Secondary was mostly ridiculous rules around uniform and not being able to take your blazer off without permission, even in the middle of a heatwave. You also weren't allowed to wear a coat even if it was pissing down rain and freezing (big private school with 5-7 minute walks outdoors between lessons).

My daughter is in Y12 now but when she was younger if she needed the loo during a class (because her period had started) the teacher had to find an escort (usually another teacher with free time) so there would be this faffing around trying to find a female MOS in the meantime the girl is saying, Miss? I really need to go NOW...! I know a minority of girls would take the mickey but surely in a girls school there would be some understanding? Apparently not.

In my school in the late nineties if you broke a rule you were sent to the headmaster but the corridor (the building was a 1960s eyesore) was made mostly of clear plastic and glass so EVERYONE in the Quad would stare at you and theorise why you were there. I was sent there once for getting into a fight after my bully tried to pull my hair. She'd had a long running campaign against me whereby I just took it but that particular day I snapped. I got the blame, of course.

Absolutely no eating in the street in school uniform. Not even ice cream in the summer.

Our school had gigantic sash windows and no one was allowed to put hands or heads near them when they were open. In the summer, you'd be labouring away and suddenly one would drop like a guillotine.

I hated the communal showers so much at my secondary school in the 1990s. The PE teacher would stand right outside the shower ticking people off as they went in. At the start of the PE lesson they called a register and if you were on your period you had to answer "no Miss" (rather than "yes Miss") and were excused showering.

40 years on, I will not eat in the street!

Like quite a few other pp, communal showers and period registers. It was all so unnecessary and quite frankly degrading.

I lost my dad, my mum went off the rails and wound up moving in a new boyfriend she barely knew who molested me and she didn't believe me. So technically I had a home and could go there for food and to sleep sometimes, it just wasn't a safe place or somewhere I could be all the time.

School was completely useless, they didn't give a shit and never noticed what in hindsight were massive safeguarding red flags. Anyway I just stopped going completely by the time I was 14 and they didn't seem to notice or care about that either.

So sorry you had to go through this and no adult believed you or protected you.😔