what still gives you nightmares from school?

[BrickPoet]

bullying

PE, bullying, being the scruffy one with bad handwriting.

Secondary school. Trying to “fit in”, not get bullied, study for GCSEs, navigate the (puberty) hormonal stage and please my non liberal parents.

@BrickPoet trying to fit into the circle to avoid bullying and being nice to people, even if you didn’t like them , so that they would never bully you . I hated school , one thing I would never do again !

PE

But that's it....I loved school

Being picked for teams. Brutal.

My dad died. Everyone avoided talking to me thereafter (teachers included)
I'm guessing this was because they didn't know what to say to me/

.

Christianity being rammed down our throats.

Bullying

The concrete, cold toilet blocks.

PE and the dreaded showers

The stiff polyester uniform.

Having to learn what adults decreed was important for me to learn rather than what was important to me.

Teachers bullying
Kids bullying
Strictness
Rules
Expectations
Exams
Lack of support
Missed signs of autism, and domestic violence at home

Double Science

When you’re at a desk on your own in a class full of kids you aren’t on friendly terms with, and the teacher says: “For this next task, you will work in pairs, so find a partner”…

Also, the body-shaming in the changing rooms and the dreaded post-PE shower.

Edited to add: Being forced to wear a skirt when I wanted to wear trousers.

Showers after PE
Not being allowed out when I said I felt sick (30 seconds later teacher regretted that decision!).
Low level bullying. Was never dramatic enough to get a grown up to step in but it wore me down. I barely spoke by the time I left.

Cross Country running, with a bully of a PE teacher who couldn't tolerate non-sporty me. Put me off exercise of any sort for years.

I still have dreams I've got an exam and have revised a completely different subject or none at all. Walking down the corridors to be locked in a room for 3hrs with 2 essay questions to answer and no clue about genome sequencing or essay titles such as "Detail your understanding of Zoonotic disease in the early 19th Century". I can't leave because I'd be disrupting everyone else and everyone else is aware that this is what we were meant to have learnt and is scribbling away furiously.

Bullying
eating lunch alone

Semolina made me vomit when I was forced to eat it before I could leave the table,

PE. Vividly remember the teacher shouting at me across the communal changing room "are you taking the fucking piss?" When I asked if I could be excused (I asked most lessons) as I was covered in bruises and didn't want to get undressed in front of the other girls. I also had extremely painful joints (didn't know I was hyper mobile) which PE made 10x worse.

Similar themes to previous posters.

Bullying, low level so that no adult got involved but enough that you have the constant fear and it wears you down.
PE - teams being picked and the showers.
The 'working in pairs' scenario mentioned above.
School bus (more bullying)

I hated school. I was really bright and wanted to do well but was terrified of standing out and being targeted so subsequently didn't do well.

I can't begin to understand what you went through.

As a working 18 year old I remember a girl the same age as me whose dad died suddenly. I couldn't understand how she could go on. I felt she was almost "disabled". It terrified me. I still remember her name. I thought about her so much over the years.

Being picked on by the boys, ever since I have felt unattractive and unworthy of male attention and shy away from men in general on a romantic level.

Bullying. PE. A-level maths. I'm 52 and I still dream about all of these.

PE teachers trying to force us to have communal showers after PE.
Developing mental health issues in my teens which no one cared about or understood. Friends dropped like flies and trying to get through lessons, assemblies and exams whilst hiding panic attacks was hell.

Not being able to see the board. Very shortsighted and bullied for only having NHS specs.
Not fitting in due to the cheap version of my uniform and only having 1 clean shirt per week.
Hating PE as I was crap at netball and hockey and the subsequent brutal showers!

Getting stabbed in the arse with the pins from poppies every November.

The PE teacher who ran her finger down our spines to check we were wet after showers - and would hold our towels and send us back round if we were dry 😵‍💫

Bullying which started in high school.

Teachers telling me that I was thick and would never amount to anything in life, never bothering to help find out what was actually going on. I was diagnosed with Dyslexia at 18. I wasn't just stupid.