The biggest difference was that doors and gates were always unlocked and children as young as 4 were just expected to stay at school and if they didn’t they would have got told off, not the school.
I remember being in Year 5 and 6 and the teacher telling us very seriously that if we had a cold we were not to come to school as she didn’t want us infecting her or others. These days schools tell you to bring them in with colds.
I’m pretty sure that from Year 1 onwards the teacher just opened the door at home time and all the kids went out and found their parents (or walked home alone if they were allowed) and if their parents weren’t there they were expected to be sensible enough to go back into the school to tell the teacher and not wander off. It quite annoyed me at my sons’ primary in every year group the teacher would bring the kids out and line them up then go down a list on his/her clipboard and tick off that s/he’d seen the parent before the child could go home. And if you then realised your child had forgotten a lunch box or jumper you couldn’t just say ‘quickly nip in and get it’ because your child had to wait for the teacher to finish going through their list to then escort the child back to the classroom and then back outside again. I found it very infantilising of the children. In Years 5 and 6 they still did the list but you could sign and say your child could walk home alone and then they didn’t have to wait to be ticked off. So I signed that letter but told my kids that I would be in the playground, or just up the street, as we lived a fair walk away with some busy roads so I did want to walk them home but I trusted them enough to safely find me without their teacher checking that they had!
On my first day at secondary, in 1993, I had a PE
lesson and had to strip naked, walk into the communal shower room, hang my towel up and have a shower naked with all the other girls, with two female PE teachers watching. I’ve always been quite shy and it was mortifying - especially on the first day! I am pretty sure the teachers were just ensuring we all had a proper wash rather than watching for nefarious reasons as after that day there was usually only one teacher in the lesson anyway and she didn’t go in the showers anymore but she would keep an eye on who was going in with their bra strap showing under the towel and make you take it off. Because of course when we weren’t being watched we all kept our underwear on and our towels round us and just splashed a bit of water on our faces. I do hope communal showers don’t happen anymore.
I also went to a school trip in the back of a teacher’s car with two friends as the coach was full. To be honest I don’t see anything wrong with that but it probably wouldn’t happen now.
Me and some friends were once used as drinks servers at a teacher’s personal party that most other teachers were attending, so we saw
several tipsy teachers dancing and having a great time. My parents thought that was fine and I quite enjoyed it but I can’t imagine many teachers wanting their 15-16 year old students at their parties these days.
At primary one child was always given the job of going to the staff room to be given the hot cup of tea or coffee to take out to the teacher on playground duty. I don’t think teachers are allowed uncovered mugs of hot liquids around children now. Or for children to carry them.
The staff room at secondary was always full of smoke and stank if you knocked on the door at break time as teachers were allowed to smoke in there. It was also quite normal for them
to go to the pub at lunchtime and come back stinking of booze.
When I was at a (separate) sixth form one girl was clearly having a relationship with a teacher. I think he was in his 40s and even at 17 I thought she was crazy to want to be with him and also couldn’t believe he wasn’t getting in trouble with the college
for it!