Most ridiculous rule when you were at school

[Anotherrungup]

I was born in the 70s. Boys weren’t allowed to wear long trousers until they were in junior school! Thermal comfort was a privilege reserved for older children! At senior school it was ‘proving’ to the teacher that you’d had a shower after games - creepy as fuck.

At secondary school we had an external door with two glass windows that we weren’t allowed through because it was near the front entrance which might mean guests were in the vicinity and it was close to the office of our extraordinarily pompous headmaster.

The problem was the door was also the quickest way to get to the school nurse’s room.

I tripped on some concrete steps in year 7 and had a bad fall - nasty grazes on my leg and I also broke my nose so I was dripping with blood.

I remember my friends taking me to the door and banging on the door - the PA to the Headmaster came to the door, very irate, looked at me and said, “you’ll have to go round to the other door, you know you aren’t allowed through here.” My friends remonstrated that I wouldn’t manage the steps and I was in a lot of pain, but Rules are Rules and I had to go the long way round.

I will never forget that bitch and her rules.

OMG! Horrible.

You had neat exercise books and a rough book. You weren't allowed to write in your rough book with pen, it had to be pencil only 🙄

Forbidden to eat in public in school uniform, got punished if reported. Utterly ridiculous.

“We don’t make the rules until you break them”

1960s/70s convent school.

For years I thought this was very profound and forward thinking.

We had that same rough book rule! I’d forgotten about that.

My mum told me she got called in to see the headmistress when she was at school, because she’d bought an ice cream from an ice cream van on her way home the previous day. The headmistress was adamant that my mum “would never have dreamed of eating an ice cream if she wasn’t in school uniform!”

My grandmother met the headteacher who was very unhappy that my mother (then aged 15) had a part time job in the local bakery. Not against any rules though.

My grandmother was blunt in her opinion it was good for my mother to have such a job. Did not let on that her friend worked there too.

We had that, and you had to show your done your homework in your rough book before you’d copied it up to your exercise book. Insane. I had trouble getting my DCs to do their homework once, never mind twice!

Shirt top button done and blazer on while walking home from school, instant detention even if you were 3 miles from school at 5pm.

We only had reasonable rules at every school I went to. Late 90s early 2000s. I think that’s why I hate the sheer stupidity of some rules at modern UK schools like wearing blazers in summer.

We weren't allowed to play on, walk on or breathe near the grassy area outside the staff room window.

Boys stairs and girls stairs

We also had to prove we’d had a shower after sports. The sports teacher stood with a view of the showers to check

We also weren’t allowed to eat in public with our school uniforms on

We had to walk down corridors on the right hand side with our shoulders near or brushing the wall. The centre was for teachers.

We got detention for rolling our sleeves up although our history teacher used to send us to the kitchens to do the washing up instead. She said that’s where we belonged if our sleeves were up

Boys wore short trousers until senior school too although my boys at private school now had the same and were only allowed long trousers once they started prep. You might notice the RF follow the same custom.

We weren’t allowed to use the carpeted short cut stairs to get to classes. They were for teachers

Absolutely no talking in class or assembly.
Standing up when teachers walked in ( although my boys had the same in their school so possibly still normal now )

In my later A level years some girls sneaked a bit of makeup. Prefects stood at the gate giving our rough towels for you to scrub it off.

We had to cover our school books by the next lesson after we’d been given them. If we hadn’t it was a detention. most people used wallpaper

Full uniform buttoned up and yes they did check. Blazers whatever the weather.

late 70s / mid 80s

This is still a thing. Completely ridiculous, but still a thing. Ask me how I know!!!

We had to ask to take off our jumpers

At one of the schools I went to for 6th form it was a one way system meaning you sometimes had to go all the way around

Same here. There were always prefects stationed on the residential roads near the school to catch you out. I once had to put an entire creme egg in my mouth to avoid getting caught - although it was pretty obvious that I had a mouth full of something as I couldn't speak.

Also, hair couldn't touch your collar. If you were found to be in breach of this, you got taken to the Headmistress and she would tie your hair up with string.

I think its fascinating how things like, "no tramline hairstyles" or, "no bows on socks" have migrated into some school rule handbooks. One can only assume that at some point in time an enterprising student or students decided to have a hairstyle or buy socks with bows on and this was deemed so offensive that it was written into the rules.

I had to prove I'd had a shower after PE too. I absolutely hated it. Shoes with heels were banned too. Got to love the 90s. None of the high school students I see wear heels now.

We had that in infant school. There was a seperate boys and girls entrance too.

Although we weren’t separated in class 🤣

Then compulsory drinking of that warm milk in little bottles with the cream on top because it had been left at the door all morning 🤢

At the 2 Scottish schools I was in students were not allowed to use the big front doors. We had to use small side doors and it would take us forever to file in.

I can't remember any mad rules, but I remember when we were near the top of Infant School, we visited the Junior School. The Headmaster gave us a talk on things that would result in us getting the slipper, such as running in the corridor. What a warm welcome 😀
I ended up liking the Headmaster as he was an interesting speaker, although I doubt I would if I'd ever been one of the ones getting the slipper.

@ForkHandlesNotFourCandlesI can relate to many of these. I didn’t realise some schools still mandated shorts - do they say why? I’d love to know the rationale.

When I was at High School we had no blazer or tie and it was completely up to us whether we wore our school jumper or cardigan. My kids had to ask to remove their blazer when hot and I remember telling them my teachers would have thought I'd gone mad if I'd asked to remove my jumper when hot.

@ForkHandlesNotFourCandles

Oh yes, yeuccchhh, the milk!

We also had "milk mats" which were sort of wax-type square. I don't think they had ever been washed. They absolutely stank of rancid milk.

I do drink milk with tea/cereal/milkshakes, but I don't think I could drink a glass of milk on its own even if you paid me.

I used to like school milk.

It’s very traditional
Long trousers when you get to about age 8
Which coincided with entering prep school
Haven't you ever noticed how George and Louis ( particularly George ) always wore shorts. I think they may have relaxed that a bit with Louis.

From our perspective at school and because they wore knee high socks it saved on all the scuffed knees on their trousers

I remember in the programme The Durrels the mother was horrified and saddened when Gerald first wore long trousers.

here’s a Google on it

Young boys historically wore shorts (or breeches) as a rite of passage, dating back to the 16th century when boys first left their mothers' care and were "breeched". This tradition persisted due to economics—shorts accommodated rapid growth spurts without looking awkward—and practical considerations like ease of potty training and durability against worn knees