Has anyone else heard of “crocodiles” being used to describe lining up in twos at school?

[PuppyMonkey]

Learned something new today. Doing something at work involving editing a woman’s school memories during which she mentions looking back fondly on the teachers, the hymns they sang and the crocodiles. I thought WTF is that a typo for and then my colleague told me it’s a term for lining up two by two at school.

I'm 60 this year and that’s a new one on me.

Yes, I’m 70 and we were lined up in crocodiles at both primary and secondary schools.

Yes, I remember crocodiles!

And the Chalet School books.

I went to school in the south east in the 90s/ early 2000s and we used the term then in junior school.

We also lived near a railway station and always joked about the commuters walking to the train in their crocodiles, all dressed up with their suitcases and coffees 😂

I'm early 60s and yes, it is (or was?) a common term for a line of children walking in pairs.

I think you are the outlier on this OP.

when my children were in Early Years and Primary school (in Zambia) they had this cute song for when they were lining up or walking in pairs ‘two too by two caterpillar by two’ there was a whole verse but the chorus has stayed with us to this day!!

Yes, always thought it was "walking/lined up in crocodile fashion"! And im 35 😆

they got their Dad to make the school allow them to install a sink in their room.

Not a sink. A wash stand. A table with a bowl that you filled with water. If you were well off, the maid would bring you a can of hot water. But they were common at all levels of society before most houses had bathrooms.

Google something like antique wash stand to see some.

And I knew of crocodiles from school stories.

It was standard in junior school in the 70s Berkshire. We'd pair up and walk in a long crocodile to church or swimming or wherever.

Yup!

I'm a year or two older than you OP and yes, I thought everyone knew that term.

Only in old school stories. I don't think I've ever heard it used in RL.

Chalet School girls used to refer to it as "croc".

Yep and I'm 54. Always been a thing.

In fact, there's a primary school near me and their pupils walk to the library for the odd event. The teachers walk alongside and are always shouting to keep holding hands and walk nicely in a crocodile.

How have you not heard of it?!

Im 39 and I’ve never heard of this. I also don’t understand why it would be a crocodile and not something with more legs like a caterpillar!

I'm 50 we walked in crocodiles (South East)

Yep. That’s what it was called in my day.

I used to chuckle at people walking in Crocs, because that’s what we used to do at school: we would ‘walk in croc’. It was a big deal in Y9, when we were no longer required to walk in croc when out and about, and totally shaming if Y10s were made to walk in croc.

Walking in croc was normal and compulsory if we were out as a group - school trip or boarding house outing - until 5th form (yr 11).

I'm 64, we used to call it a crocodile when I was at school and so did my mum, born 1928 and my children born late 80s-early 90s.

Now that makes sense.

But at what point did the UK change walking in pairs to crocodile?

But what a magnificent word crocodile is!

I'm 40ish, and we called it walking in a crocodile at school. Just asked DD (primary age) and she said it's a 'double line' which is obviously madness.

I'm from Birmingham and would have been in primary school in the 90's and this is exactly what was said 😁

But at what point did the UK change walking in pairs to crocodile?

It's always been crocodile. See the Chalet School.

Just done a quick search, it's 'croc' in Rivals of the Chalet School, pub. 1929.

I mentioned it to dd (21) last week and she didn’t know what I meant, I was surprised. Her education wasn’t in English though, so I think that is why.