When I was at school, we were…

[Cogsworth3rd]

My parents talked about school practices such as getting the slipper and caning, about shutting misbehaved kids in a cupboard (classrooms often had a large walk in cupboard to put supplies, my primary school also had them). My “I can’t believe they used to do that” moments are supervising showers after PE to make sure you were fully naked, board rubbers thrown at children and facing the wall all lesson if you misbehaved. Some other aspects were more relaxed though, so if
you needed the toilet during a lesson you could go, the teacher could talk about a topic in more depth if the children were engaged in it, we could play in the snow at break.

What will be the “I can’t believe they used to do that” or “I can’t believe they wouldn’t let us do that” that our children will tell their children?

Primary school in the 60s - teachers would force a bar of soap into your mouth if they thought you were cheeky, hit with the ruler over the knuckles for getting sums or spelling wrong. and over the teachers knee with pants down for a spanking if you really made a transgression ie not paying attention to every word.

Senior school in Scotland meant the "Tawse" a three tongued leather belt which some teachers took obvious joy in inflicting on children's hands - and often up their wrists.

My family relocated when I was in 4th year and I was amazed at my new school that there was no corporal punishment, no sadistic teachers, and a real culture of learning. It was a wonderful school.

Primary school in 60s. One teacher used to hit my hands with a ruler for picking my pen up with my left hand, or setting the table for lunch with the cutlery the wrong way round.

Secondary school in the 80s. West London.

Female PE teacher used to force us to open our towels and 'prove' we'd had a shower ... 🫣

Constantly giving lectures about periods. Would basically shout the word period as often as poss 🙄

My mother was the same.
She also said when I was pregnant (married, 25) that I shouldn’t go out ‘because everyone would know what I’d been up to’
WTF?

Secondary girls school 80s, cold showers but not many of those. Private convent 2.5 years honestly they were strict but I don’t recall showers, doing PE in knickers if you forgot kit didn’t happen and though the nuns were strict there was no caning or anything. Probably detention, say 10 Hail Marys and telling you off in French (it was a French order).

indeed, the psychologically damaging ‘academic remove’ for an afternoon,
a child constantly picked on
as a parent, the last straw, even prisoners are allowed a phone call

she was removed then, from the school, now 100x happier, doing well

detentions were so readily dished out, when a more productive way of
dealing with a misdemeanour might have produced better results

I do recall psycho teachers who should not have been anywhere near
children of any age, the good ones memorable and influential

I remember nearly everything that you mention, OP. But I don’t remember anyone ever going to the loo in the middle of a lesson - either at primary school or secondary. To be fair, I don’t remember anyone asking and being refused. We just knew that we couldn’t go.

At primary school we were all reminded when we came in after our lunch break (or “playtime” as we called it) that we should go then. No loo paper was kept in the loos. If we wanted any, we had to ask and we were handed one sheet (of the shiny Izal stuff)!

I asked my children earlier.

My son said teachers shouldn’t be allowed to kiss students, especially when they’ve asked them not to as it’s embarrassing. They shouldn’t tell you off when you fall over. They shouldn’t favour girls over boys and that girls can do what they want and teacher will believe them. The PE teacher shouldn’t be so mean and rude as now they only have one PE lesson with a normal teacher and they used to look forward to two. The PE teacher has now set up an after school club on a particular day so also tells them they’re not using the equipment they were meant to in the lessons as she’s only going to use it for this club (I know this one is true as spoke to school about it when he told me - they’re going to reverse her decision about school equipment). It’s scary when a particular child runs around the classroom with scissors and tries to hold people’s heads down in swimming. The teacher shouldn’t shout and rip people’s work up when they’ve tried as it upset his friend.

My daughter doesn’t think reception and Y1 should be sent to y5 and 6 when they’re naughty. She says after SATs they won’t get homework which she thinks is a bonus, but said it also makes no sense as they’re closer to secondary school after SATs and that’s the reason they’ve been given for homework. They both say there should be no homework! DD also says that teachers should tell the truth and not shout so much.

They both love practising for sports day in the field but think it would be good if they could play or do PE in it sometimes like they do in cubs. DD also thinks if a boy is crying who they haven’t seen cry before because he’s hurt and bleeding, the teacher shouldn’t be exasperated (good word)!

You didn’t know about periods until Y8!?!!!

He’s right. Teachers shouldn’t be allowed to kiss students! Where is this?

That's not what I said. I said someone came to give us a talk about periods in Year 8.

Obviously that was very late.

Fwiw, I started my periods in the summer between year 5 and year 6.

So much of this sounds worrying to me .

Teachers kissing pupils, kids running around with scissors and holding other children’s heads under in the pool, teachers ripping up the DC’s work, and what is that about the younger children being sent to the older ones as punishment ?

Are your children reliable narrators?

Surprised she ever let you go out in your entire life - if anyone saw you, they'd know what SHE'D been up to!

I think having 30mins to rest and eat at lunch will be frowned upon in the future. I understand that schools think/know some of the naughtier kids will get up to bad things, but rushing about and not having time to digest or eat in a relaxed manner can't be good for concentrating. I also think the diminishing time for arts, drama and music in the state sector will be revoked once AI takes a lot of jobs. We can only hope that one good result is enabling kids to do more relaxed and creative subjects that aren't based on rote learning.

Some of these supposed schools sound like prisons

I guess the worst thing was the corporal punishment I remember the teacher would walk around and smack your hand with a ruler if you held your pencil wrong. She did it to me at least once. I remember being so scared I was probably five or six years old

The teacher kissing was in a previous year. A teacher told told them to think of her like their school mummy. One day in a lesson my son had done something “outstanding” (can’t remember what) and she gave him a hug and went to kiss him on the cheek, so he was trying to move his face away and asking her not to. He was really embarrassed and his friends were laughing.

The scissor incident was true, as was the swimming pool (child has now left after securing a place at a school more able to deal with his needs).

Children do get sent to sit and work in an older year’s classroom if they’ve misbehaved.

Ripping up work - also true.

At one point in my (chequered) educational history, I went to an international school abroad, in a country where just about everyone smoked (it was the seventies) and the new headmaster, mindful of the fact that the school was housed in a mainly wooden building, made the penalty for smoking inside the building instant expulsion, but knowing that there were some hardened smokers among the older cohort, instituted a “sinners’ bench” that he could see from his office where the smokers could go. They didn’t always just smoke cigarettes….