Crazy school rules you remember when you were at school

[Notyouthful]

At my high school, they decided to do a one way system to go around the school to lessons. For 2 months, I was on crutches and three times a week, I had lessons which were in neighbouring blocks, but in the opposite direction to the one way system. I was made to go around the whole school. Surely they could make an exception for myself and a friend (carrying bag) to go the quickest route? Never been on crutches before and since - I got tired very quickly.

When it was PE when in crutches and for another month after that and if was outside. I was made to sit on a wall, not allowed to sit on a chair. I was bored out of my mind. Once a week, the lesson was the last one of the day. My parents took me home. Much to dismay of the teachers. Well I wasn't learning anything freezing to death.

Same school. They made a block of loos for each school year. I was having extremely heavy periods - that heavy that I had to change between lessons. Some lessons changeovers were opposite side of the school to the toilets for my school year. Having to follow the one way system (see above) too. I was always late for lessons. It was embarrassing.

Another school year, I had PE on my final lesson of the week. We were expected to get changed to go home/board school bus. At the time, I was living 10 mins walk from the school. What was the point in getting changed for 10-15 mins then getting changed again? Mobile changing rooms backed onto the main road and there was a hedge with a gap which could squeeze through.

We had to have a red pen to underline dates, titles and page numbers if doing exercises from Maths or French books for example.

We had to wear navy blue knickers and the female assistant head would stand at the bottom of the stair cases looking up under our skirts to check we had the right knickers on. This was the late sixties when skirts were very short, I am quite sure everyone knew what colour knickers we were wearing everytime we bent down to pick up our haversacks

we had the opposite- we had to write on the top line or else. All those top lines wasted added up to a lot. I think actually now it was reasonable - the teacher in question would have been a war/ just post war child, So a very different life to us spoilt 70s kids. What she would have made of today’s waste!

We had to wear navy blue knickers & for PE in the junior school that's all we wore (& a t shirt!). I remember someone coming to look round the school (an American girl) when we were 9/10 & someone had to go to the front of the class & show the visitors her knickers.
We had school hats & weren't allowed to take them off on the way home from school (on the tube). We were terrified that members of the public would phone the school to tell them that we had taken our hats off.

Before you started the school you were randomly given a language to study and you stuck with that through the whole school. No option to change or try anything different

Same at my son's school.

At my school the layout meant that it was often easier to use the school hall as a cut-through. You weren't allowed to. I understood why if it was being used eg for choir practice or lessons, but even if was empty you weren't. Completely pointless and annoying rule.

British bulldog was forbidden at our primary school deemed dangerous with everyone charging across the playground someone got knocked over
girls could take their ties off in summer but not the boys
double pe lesson one year in senior school swimming first followed by hockey on the field no matter what month of the year short pe skirt and t shirt to be worn and that was it no hat jumper jogging suit etc and qoe betide if you were late for hockey cue loads of girls out on a snowy hockey field with dripping wet hair and dressed only in a tiny pe skirt and t shirt madness then we would catch colds and have a note to not do pe the next week only to be told if we kept bringing a note we wouldn't be swapping to gym and instead would do another term of swimming bonkers this was in the 80s

not allowed to do childcare if you were in the top set as that wasn't only for those deemed not academically able bonkers!

Coming to the TRAIN STATION to measure our heels (I'm not kidding).

"The number of fires has been increasing again. Do not set fire to the black bins, the fumes can cause a high." Spoilsport.

Funnily enough, the principal's tannoy announcement didn't seem to reduce the number of fire-setting incidents.

We had to line up in height order to enter the building after break, I was the second shortest for a few years and then grew suddenly.
Had to wear our hat and gloves on the school bus, a few of the teachers travelled on the bus so this was checked.
If you got 3 bad marks you were in pencil and your name would be read out at assembly and made to stand on the stage, this never happened to me.

Our Head Mistress banned umbrellas. She said we had a hooded raincoat for when it was raining. Someone contacted the Daily Mirror and they canpme to the school, stood outside to interview pupils. She was furious.

We had to wear hockey socks of a very particular style. Unfortunately they didn't fit my size 9 feet, so my mum bought me very similar ones. I got told off, despite explaining that the regulation ones were too small for me. DM wrote an angry note to the PE teacher, who just didn't get it.

Probably should have included it's an infant and junior school 😅

Brown knickers were mandatory at my Convent school.

I was force fed by a dinner lady my cold peas and then the pudding that was Melted and vile. She sat me in a corner. My dad went absolutely nuts at the head over it.

Same. We had a PE teacher who liked to check we were wearing them. We all muttered at the time that she was a perv. It turns out that we were right! 20 years later she was in the newspapers for having been convicted and imprisoned for paedophilia!

I did deduce that it was to make sure there was only water inside. It was just such a long winded way of saying 'a clear plastic bottle'

girls had to wear a swimming cap in the pool

boys didn’t

reason was because it was our hair that clogged the filters

I had cropped hair and a lot of the boys had longer hair

go figure

I went to a boarding school in the mid 90's. That styled itself on the Chalet School. Some of the rules:

Name tapes had to be precisely positioned on uniform. And had to be sewn on with stitching that couldn't be seen. If you got it wrong Matron would rip them out and you'd be doing it again

Shoes had to be polished twice a week

Baths and showers were strictly rationed and on a rota. Ditto hairwashing

You had to have a minimum amount of salad/veg on your plate. Matron would check

You had to put your hand up after you'd eaten main course for a member of staff to inspect your plate before you were allowed dessert. I can still remember the detention I got for telling staff that if the starving orphans in Africa mattered that much then they were welcome to send my roast dinner leftovers too them.

Uniform had to be square folded every night and placed on the chair next to your bed.

So yeah, 25 years on I can still polish shoes to a sign, sew name tapes in clothing and fold clothes precisely. Really useful life skills there.

Semolina for me! I don't even like stuff. I was just given it. Went to scrape it into the food bin and one of dinner ladies marched me right back to my chair and stood there until I had eaten every last mouthful. Every mouthful was making me gag. Let's just say it didn't stay down for long and I threw it all back up all over her feet.

we had to walk on the left around school, this was in the 2000s and supposedly so there wouldn’t be traffic jams in busy times in the corridors but now as a 32yo I still walk on the left of any corridor or walkway

had to show PE staff our shoulders and feet were wet after showering post PE lesson. This was because we all used to leave our underwear on under our towels run in the cubicle and run back out. We had to prove we had been under the shower 😂

Navy blue knickers that we wore in PE bloody awful to make the gals strip to these and a vest for gym

We had both. Some teachers would rage at you for wasting paper if you left the top line blank, others would rage at you for scruffy work if you wrote on the top line!

I don’t remember which teachers did which, but I was not a tidy writer, and must have been more influenced by the wrath of the ‘scruffy work’ teachers more than the ‘wasting paper’ teachers, as I leave the top line blank to this day.

Girls Grammar

We weren't allowed to take our blazers off or brush our hair on the school service bus to/from town.

We weren't allowed to take our shoes off in break time if we were on the playing fields.

Bizarrely, though we couldn't be done for smoking unless they actually caught us with a fag in hand. So everyone would just sit up the top of the playing fields (with our shoes on) puffing away and watch the teacher as they approached. When they were about 15 metres away, all the fags got stubbed out so no-one got caught.

Yeah ours were also red with white stripes on. Bloody awful things. Thankfully we only had to wear them in years 7 & 8 then we were allowed to wear black shorts or black joggers instead. Or in my case forge as many notes as possible in winter explaining why I wasn't doing games that week. Summer games I could tolerate to an extent as long as it didn't include the 1500 run

British bulldog got banned in every school in the city when I was In primary as there had been a severe injury in another school.

it was very frightening taking part in it, our whole school used to do it together in the playground.