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.

Being forced to drink the little bottle of milk ( early 70s) . I was regularly sick because I had adenoid problems. Even when my mum got a doctors note to say I wasn't to drink the milk, they still forced me to or I would miss my break.

At lunch we were also forced to eat all on our plate ( think slimy grey liver, pungent chicken curry, anaemic cabbage, rice pudding and semolina) and if we didn't eat it, had to sit there staring at it for the whole of lunchtime.

At secondary school we all had to stand in assembly except for the hallowed few ( prefects) who sat at the front and with us plebs behind. I was behind one girl who moved her chair back and put the leg down hard on my foot. I yelped and then quietly asked her to move it. I got a detention for that as talking was strictly forbidden. My foot was bruised for weeks...

Girls did home economics and needlework and boys did all the fun tech stuff. I was really resentful of this.

The compulsory communal showers were also a thing at our school- no showers curtains and we had to leave the towel on the hook with our clothes meaning we had to run back through the changing room to where our clothes were.

We weren't allowed to be seen eating or drinking in public in school uniform. One week into Year 7, a classmate was given an after school detention for eating some chips and drinking a fizzy drink after school about a mile away from school after she got locked out of home and was waiting for her mum to finish work.

We had to wear navy blue knickers under our navy blue skirts and were told we may have "knicker inspections". This never happened, thankfully.

After moving to another school, loads of us used to skip PE when it was Athletics due to a creepy (female) PE teacher who insisted we had to wear high cut athletics knickers with our vests tucked into the knickers. It was basically like a swimsuit and many of us preferred to have our vests a bit longer and looser (to cover sanitary pads or our bums). This went on until we were 16. We had to put up with sexual harassment from the boys AND men because the athletics field was on a main road and we often had men just stopping on the street and staring at us. The PE teacher was the biggest creep of all though, she'd be eyeing us all up with the creepiest grin on her face.

It wasn't a school rule though, just "Miss's Rule". Other PE teachers didn't mind how we wore sports kit and would let us wear our gym skirts, tracksuit bottoms or baggy polo shirts. They just wanted us to participate.

Good grief. I know people weren't as 'woke' as they are now but it baffles me that some people couldn't draw a very simple line between this behaviour and mental health / common sense.

The thing I always thought at the time about the showering was that actually very very very rarely did we actually do anything in PE to warrant getting even remotely sweaty! All the 'your bodies are changing and hygiene is paramount' lectures didn't mean very much to a group of kids who just spent 90 minutes stood waiting for 5 minutes for their turn to run between 2 cones before joining the back of the line. Sweaty would have been a nice change!

I went to a super strict girls school around 15 years ago . The one shitty rule that sticks in my mind is bobbles/clips had to be black, God forbid you had a navy blue bobble it would have to come out. No makeup. Black socks only. Only dolly shoes were allowed, no kickers etc and turning up in trainers would get you excluded for a few days. No rolling skirts up. No jewellery or watches of any kind. No unnatural hair colours. We had a awful uniform too that you could only buy from 1 shop and it was £££. The day i left was one of the best days of my life.

Just thought of one more! Less of a 'rule' more of a lack of nuance

In secondary school, they scheduled a routine fire drill 10 minutes before the end of our PE lesson. My friend was dutifully naked and showering and upon the bell (which they knew was coming but students didn't) was ushered out of the changing rooms with only time to grab her towel. She was allowed no time to grab even her pants or jumper because 'if this was a real fire' etc etc. She then had to traipse across the school field in front of EVERYONE and her bum was exposed. I feel like today that would be prosecutable, but as far as I know nothing was ever said about it. She was still known for it (although not exclusively) all the way into sixth form.

You’re quite right. It is utter batshitery of the highest level. I have raised concerns from a safety point of view but may mention that it is also quite an ableist rule. At the other end of the spectrum my previous school had a rule of no laces before year 3.

My school wouldn't let girls take 'boy' tech subjects either.

Apparently there wouldn't be enough spaces for the boys if they let girls do woodwork because OF COURSE boys couldn't be forced to take cooking and sewing, that would be 'cruel'. So us girls where to be forced to instead, somehow thats not cruel.

I was famously stubborn and took a stand and refused, they eventually assigned me to a free space in the new 'electrics' option that virtually no one took because I refused to pick anything but woodwork (and my mam told them she would fight them for sexism).

I had no interest in electrics (plus I don't even think the class had a teacher, we where expected to read instructions and figure it out ourselves) so I did NOTHING for 2 years, just sat it out.

I may have failed tech but honestly I have never needed a 'tech' GCSE certificate in my life (in fact the only one I have EVER been asked for is Maths) and learning how to make a circuit that makes an led flash 3 time wouldn't serve any real life use anyway.

I really think parents should support kids in standing up to these things.

There is always people on facebook saying 'their school, their rules' when a parent whistleblows but sexism, ableism, pervy teachers (male or female), sexual assault practices like the showers, unfair uniform rules that are basically against human rights etc... SHOULD be called out by everyone. Their rules should not override basic rights.

This is giving me so many flashbacks, if you forgot your PE Kit (in primary) you had to do it in your underwear 😱

Forgot that one too!

We didn't have PE kits in infants/juniors it was just you did it in underwear.

@housethatbuiltme Same! We just did it in our pants and in winter our pants and vests!

The PPs indoor and outdoor shoes reminded me that at 1 primary I was at, we had to wear slippers in classrooms. We could wear outdoor shoes to the classroom, which all had either own cloakroom and toilets, and then change into slippers. I loved my Fluffy blue slippers and was bewildered when we moved and we had no cloakroom, shared toilets with other classes, and no slippers.

Some of these are awful. The 'fat' comment and the girl on a fire drill with a towel 😱

I actually enjoyed school on the whole, but there were at least a couple of teachers who shouldn't have been anywhere near kids and a couple who were stand out amazing.

The PP who said didn't have a good word to say about schools then or now - I'm sorry. Schools are a miserable place for lots of kids.

@housethatbuiltme
@rainsofcastamere
Feeling kind of grateful that we only had to do it in underwear if we forgot our PE kit now 😬

I hope that teacher’s next shit was a hedgehog.

I think it was that episode that persuaded our school to change things. There were rumours that some kids had protested, but I didn’t see it and didn’t know any of the kids supposedly involved and we were of an age when rumours were more likely to be based on TV than fact!

V cold teacher. Poor kid.

I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. Who knows what they did in staff meetings etc.? The rule did change.

My muns school used to do regular petticoat inspection. If your petticoat had any lace or ribbon you gad to take it off!

That was to @RunAwayTurnAwayRunAwayTurnAway. We crossed. The free meals table though - wtf?

DD went back to sixth form yesterday, to start year 13. They have a new head of sixth form, who has decided to change most of the rules. They're now not allowed to leave the premises without express permission, they must attend all day even when they have free lessons all day. They have to hand over their phones when they enter the building.

I can understand these rules for years 7-11, but these are 17 and 18 year olds who are choosing to do further education! DD is fuming and now counting down the days til she's sat her exams next year and can leave.

Junior school:
If you were in packed lunches, your sandwich HAD to have lettuce or tomato in them. If they didn't, then your whole lunchbox would be taken off you, you were given a school grated cheese and tomato sandwich and your parents charged.
I was a vegetarian. My lunchboxes used to have all sorts of fruit and veg in them. But the sandwich still had to have the fucking tomato.

Secondary school.
We had a PE teacher who would hold 'skirt inspections' and would check that you were wearing the regulation gym knickers under the skirt and definitely not cycling shorts. By lifting your skirts up. For that and a few other reasons that particular teacher is now enjoying his retirement at His Majesty's expense.

The hem of our skirts had to touch the ground when kneeling down. If they didn't then you were put into detention until your parents brought a regulation one. Except the outfitters only sold 2 lengths and by the time I was 16, I was already 6 foot tall.

This is great, I partly became a teacher to not enforce stupid rules. But I recall seeing that Harry Potter in the cinema when Dumbledore says dont go on the third floor upper corridor by arr, or whatever, unless you want to die a horrible death, me and the school kids in the audience all laughed because that is exactly what school rules are like. My partner and her sister were sitting with me and were saying "what? what?". Its a school thing you wouldn't understand I explained.
And to the poster who had the school where the headboy could have a goat, you can't have a badger because it is illegal to restrain a badger in England. Actual police sergeant told me that.

And this is exactly why I felt it was our duty to resist certain “new normals” earlier this decade, in case rolling seasonal rules became permanent by stealth, and we’re telling our grandchildren in decades to come “I don’t remember why you wear masks in school between October and Easter, and why we must not sit on park benches, have takeaway coffee or play in playgrounds between October and Easter, but people just didn’t feel safe without the government banning certain things between October and Easter”.

Anyway, as we were, pointless school rules…

'And to the poster who had the school where the headboy could have a goat, you can't have a badger because it is illegal to restrain a badger in England. Actual police sergeant told me that.'

You learn something new every day!

The vegetables in sandwiches is a good example of how policies presumably designed with good intentions (e.g. to encourage healthier eating) need a modicum of common sense when implementing.