Daft school rules

[sunhasgotthis]

Inspired by another thread. What were ridiculous rules or procedures when you were at school or at your kid's school? We had a toilet paper monitor who handed out sheets of toilet paper. We had to specify number of sheets (up to three) in the communal area! Seemed totally normal to me at the time though! Another was boys in infants weren't allowed long trousers.

In seniors, a particular P.E. teacher would pull towels off people as they came out of the communal shower to check they had nothing on underneath and were wet. She single-handedly put a number of girls off sport and exercise at school. Awful.

In kid's (primary) school it's probably just practices that some schools still do, despite research showing little benefit of (and in some cases harmful) - pen licenses, behaviour RAG display, attendance awards, busywork homework etc.

We had to stand when the head entered the hall for assembly, and pupils in year 7 and 8 were supposed to stand when the teacher entered the room. Most teachers didn’t bother with this for year 9 or above, except one, who made classes do it right up to year 13, and the whole “good afternoon everybody” routine. She was not liked for a whole host of reasons.

I've just a flashback to the Whole School Assembly, that happened 2 or 3 times a year.
1500 11-18yos squeezed into the hall. Standing, literally cms from the people in front or behind. 30 mins or so. The Sixth Form was on a balcony, but that room wasn't built for 1000 teenagers. Then all the staff sitting on the stage behind the head and deputies.

There was always fainters. The rest of the time assembly was split between lower and upper school.

In my primary school (early 80s) if you wanted to take a packed lunch it had to be in a lunch box that fitted in to a slot in a small cupboard. The cupboard was the same as one that we had in each classroom to store plimsoles (with a slot meant to hold one small pair) so I assume that was it's original purpose. If I remember correctly, parents had to buy plastic boxes that were really intended for storing bacon and cut sandwiches etc to fit.

In secondary school (state comp) we had to wear blazers at all times (inside and outside) until the Head announced 'shirt sleeve rule'. Some of the classrooms were very warm so there were a lot of sweaty teens. A few teachers would bend the rules and allow you to remove blazers in classrooms with permission.

Not our school, but one local comp has the rule that shoes must be lace up. Of course they have to make exceptions for kids with disabilities. So those with Velcro shoes stand the risk of feeling singled out

You had to be in different year groups to access different doors - and gained privilege to do so as you got older.

The ‘best’ doors for the with formers, the first formers could only enter the building via the cellar door.

So random.

I think most secondary school rules on uniform are archaic and a bit daft - was in an office yesterday and not one single person was wearing a stiff collared shirt with a tie with a pattern or logo that identified them as part of the organisation! I think some English sixth forms make their students wear suits as well, which is just bonkers.

But the daftest rule in the whole world was my kid's secondary school saying that if they had PE first or last thing, they still had to come in or leave in full uniform, cos 'school reputation'. So they always had to change in or out of uniform rather than walking to or from school in their BRANDED PE kit - what a complete waste of time.

I’m amazed to know that children are now allowed water at all times in school.

We were allowed one tiny cup at lunch, and other than that no drinking of any sort was allowed.

That seems bizarre today.

I had forgotten about standing up when the teacher comes into the room!

I wonder if schools still do that… definitely feels archaic, albeit it felt archaic 20 years ago too.

That is a MAD rule. Considering my son was so tiny he started school wearing cruisers because normal shoes didn't start small enough that would have been a non starter.

Even in secondary he had velcro at first because he was still only a Size 13.

If you want bizarre uniform rules... try the Army.

DH once rang me asking if I could bring in his thick wooly pullover and tie. It was over 20degrees outside. Simply because.... it was 1st October, which meant winter uniform....

Many years ago when I was at school I played in a sort of 'group' that played at assemblies. Woolly/opaque tights had just come in but our school rules hadn't updated from the 'American Tan' type nylony ones.

The Headmistress was addressing this school rule one morning in a very forceful way. This was slightly undermined by the fact that every one of the group sitting behind her on stage had the wrong tights on in an array of colours that toned with the uniform. I think she gave up on it at that point.

My school had indoor and outdoor shoes in the main building to save the floors

You had to keep your indoor shoes in a set of pigeonholes near the entrance and change them on the way in and way out. Imagine the scrum that happened every break and lunchtime. It was such a pointless ball ache

You could have identical indoor and outdoor shoes but you had to write an I or an O on the sole so that the teachers or prefects could check you had the right ones on. It was a favourite power play to send you back to change or give you a detention if your shoes were wrong or unlabelled.

A good way round it (until they got wise) was to write an I on one sole and an O on the other and just remember to hold up the right foot

What a pointless waste of all that time and effort! There were many many other petty rules (eg no scrunchies, no make up, earrings, hair dye or shaved heads, no skirts rolled up or socks rolled down, all uniform from the correct supplier, blazers to be worn at all times) but that one was the worst

We also had to say 'good morning headteacher, good morning everybody' in both English and Welsh at every morning assembly!

I've remembered more absurd infant school rules and routines, from the mid 80s. I think some of these were more about "obedience and compliance training", rather than anything else.

The end of playtime. The bell would be rung, and the whole school would stand "stock still", on pain of missing the next playtime, with a protracted silence, before each class was instructed to go in, one at a time. Anyone who was caught moving or whispering had to make a walk of shame across the playground; and the "miss your play" area was outside the staff room, where you would be seen by the entire school as they went out for their next play. Once when I got done for this, I sneaked out anyway, and got away with it. 😛Another time I was well and truly busted, but as I was so compliant that I was rarely made to miss my play, I actually found it quite exciting.

One of the biggest crimes children could commit was to do something without being told, even if it was something perfectly sensible. One teacher in particular was big on this, and would bark "I didn't say pack away!" if anyone started doing so. And there was an afternoon handwriting lesson in which most of the class was roundly humiliated: that teacher (not my usual one, thankfully) wrote "kitten" on the board, and so did more than half the class. She did a slow Trunchbullesque march round the classroom, throwing people's books on the floor, then she made them stand at the front, and hold them up. Their crime was that they had written "kitten" in their books, before she had actually told us to do so. They then sat down, and she said kindly "and write the word 'kitten'" to the rest of us. Our usual teacher seemed a bit shocked when she heard about this.

Not so much a rule, but I remember overhearing a discussion between two teachers, about one boy (aged 6) who had allegedly weed on another, and what to do about it. They decided to make him write about it; I smiled at the idea of him sitting down to write "I weed on John". The teachers were debating whether he should do it on paper or in his exercise book; they went with on paper, I suppose so that parents wouldn't see it. Of course, he was forbidden to go to the toilet again that day, and they said casually "if he wets himself, too bad".

My year 3 teacher particularly disliked children wearing jumpers tied around their middle, and once made a girl write lines when she kept doing it. This same teacher also had a vendetta against "silly questions", which was a bit of a shock after "never do anything without being told".

Absolute cowards those teachers. How horrible.

Had forgotten the standing up when a teacher came into the room, the teeny cup of water, coats off before you came inside. Another weird one was whole class detention if one person misbehaved - why make kids take responsibility for another kid's behaviour or why encourage peer pressure tactics?

@sunhasgotthis , our school showers were a joke - a line of showers we all just ran through - and a pervy games teacher eyeing us all up at the end.

Mind you I was already put off anything PE, since if our games teachers weren’t actually perves, they were sadists.

We weren't allowed to walk on the grass in infant school. I know it was probably to prevent mud going everywhere but I used to think at the time that it was a stupid rule, after all it was a school, not a national trust property. The head teacher had a big window in her office that looked out over the school gate and the playground so she could see anyone misbehaving and could have a long rant about it in assembly. Her biggest moan was that parents would let their toddlers climb the big tree just inside the gate at school pick up time. I don't know what she thought she would achieve by moaning in assembly to the school aged children about it, it wasn't us climbing the tree.

My junior school overused "keeping the whole class in" because of the misbehaviour of a few. One week when this had happened several times, with the whole year group being made to sit in silence instead of playtime, I loudly and hysterically stood up and made my feelings known. In the stunned silence that followed, one teacher took me out to calm me down. I tearfully ranted about how stupid and unfair it all was. She calmly refused to agree, and told me I was being rude. I was very sulky both in school and at home for a few days after that, in a way that teenagers would be proud of (I was 9 at the time).

Watches that beeped on the hour were fashionable in the early 90s, and the head went ballistic when several of them sounded in quick succession in assembly. She banned all watches on the spot; and it was several weeks before a compromise was reached about "you could only wear any kind of watch if you could control it".

At my secondary school, legend has it that the headmaster said to one long-haired boy "why did God invent scissors?". It wasn't printed that boys were forbidden to have long hair, just that they had to be "well-groomed".

My mum was a teacher, and my dad (who never saw eye to eye with schools in general) ranted extensively whenever she was rostered to supervise Saturday detention.

We had capes as part of our school uniform, instead of winter coats. They were wool, but were thin and draughty and we froze!
Also had the teacher holding your towel as you ran naked through the shower block and then handed it to you as you came out. Bloody inhumane.

A pp about not showing ankles in this day and age.

This is the rule at my local high school and refers to trainer socks which can only be worn during PE. It applies to all pupils.

A teacher was sacked because he had been told that a girl (wheelchair user) was wearing trainer socks and he lifted up her trouser leg to check. Her mother went ballistic and claimed assault. (Her daughter was wearing trainer socks.) Later became known locally as sock gate.

Showers were cold and no soap etc was allowed. We were not allowed to take a towel in with us, that was left in the changing room.

With no soap and cold water it was a quick dash so there was a permeating smell of teenage BO! The gym mistress watched us to make sure we broke no rules (well I thought that was why 🤔).

It was a girls' school so we were not allowed near the fences at break time in case we saw a boy or any male and spoke to him. A stupid rule because we met them after school anyway.

Towel/shower thing was a thing at my school too

It is literally sexual assault... what other thing in life would it be acceptable for someone to rip someone clothes off in front of others and make them stand or parade naked in front of other kids.

There is no reason or excuse for it, even if someone thinks its 'gross' not to shower instantly after excersize their hygiene views do not allow them to assault other people. Not showering is not a crime but forcibly stripping someone is.

Imagine if your kid told you the English teacher pantsed him/her in front of the class to check they had changed underwear that morning or something. Hey its ok if he does it to all the kids though right?

It blows my mind that it ever happened and was so accepted by people/parents as 'standard'.

@scalt I bet there were a number of people silently agreeing with you!

Our school was over two sites, with a coach running between the two. On-the-day class attentions meant you missed this too. Pre-mobiles, it was worrying for parents. There'd be a queue for the school pay phone for kids trying to let parents know they were stuck/late, which would shortly be dispersed by a teacher as it was after school and we should get home.

In primary, one teacher would do class detentions in break-time, saying 'I'm missing my break too' as though she didn't have a choice. One kid wet himself in one of these as he was too scared to ask to go toilet in case the class missed lunch play too.

Our school was a under new rules and praised for its modern schooling, it was called a 'specialist college' when it started but honestly it was just an early trial predecessor to what are now called 'Academies' (which are shit).

They had very strict rules regarding everything but ESPECIALLY uniform. The most bizarre being that we weren't allowed coats at school. They weren't permitted in school grounds as they weren't uniform. We also where mandatory forced outside a break rain or snow and most kids had to walk or travel to school on bus. We live in the North where is cold, wet, stormy and grey most the school year.

Parents DID rise up against that one, the school 'relented' by bringing out a school jumper (had to be the expensive thin school brand one) to wear under our blazers (which did nothing for stopping rain of cold).