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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To encourage you to share ridiculous school rules?

115 replies

malificent7 · 03/09/2017 18:05

As we are going back to school ( or rather our little ones are) I thought it would be fun to let off steam by citing ridiculous school rules and punishments.

My old school was private and therefore thecrules were particularly stupid. There was the 6" rule whereby a boy and girl were not supposed to be within 6 incges of each other. This was designed to stop sex and pregnancy but did nothing to stop horny teens screwing in bushes.
Now i gear it has banned all students from visiting a local town " in case they get into mischief. " What if mum and dad want to take them out for lunch there?

If you got in trouble girls had to weat skin coloured tights to school as part of being "gated. " all the cool people got gated... it was a badge of honour as it meant you did cool things like smoke, drink and snog boys.

Do share.

OP posts:

Copperspot · 03/09/2017 18:51

We weren't allowed on the front grass. It was perfectly clipped, with the school sign in the middle and flower beds around.

We used to dare each other to run across it

On the last day of school, on the way out, i sat on it cross legged and had a cig.... i was shouted at by the caretaker and told i'd never amount to anything. Worth it

Ooh i was a rebel without a clue

Whatslovegottodo · 03/09/2017 18:52

Standing in a line to have our skirts and ties measured by teachers .
It was thoroughly uncomfortable and embarrassing.

SimplyNigella · 03/09/2017 18:53

My old boarding school was rife with them- no walking on the grass, full uniform to be worn in the summer until Hot Weather Dress was formally declared, certain pathways to only be used by the top year group and staff, junior girls not allowed into senior boys boarding house (probably sensible with hindsight) and many more. Gating, rusticating and a red and yellow report card system enforced the rules, along with Drills which involved a mile run on a Sunday morning.

Copperspot · 03/09/2017 18:54

We also had to wear school ties, but they didn't say where.....

We wore them as belts for a few days until we all got threatened with suspension. The uniform policy got updated to 'ties must be worn at all time, as shown in the picture' with a photo of a kid

They have clip on ties now so they cant even rebel by tying them short and wide with your shirt unbuttoned....

TroysMammy · 03/09/2017 18:56

There was a quadrangle in my comp and pupils were not to cross the main foyer where the head, deputy head and deputy headmistress had their rooms. We weren't allowed up the posh marble staircase either only staff. If your lesson was in the room next to the foyer and your next lesson in the room on the other side of the foyer you had to walk all the way around the quadrangle.

No-one was allowed on the lawn near the headmaster's rose bushes either. He had a problem with moles and would pay the Rural Science pupils money on production of a dead mole. Some farmer's boys would trap moles on their farms and obtain payment from the headmaster. He never twigged.

Peaceonearthplease · 03/09/2017 19:01

No patent leather shoes which could reflect a young ladies knickers (I went to a convent)

FineOldCriminals · 03/09/2017 19:08

We had to wear official knickers over our own pants if not wearing tights - at secondary school, these were also our gym knickers (and worn also under games skirts when not wearing trackie bums underneath). We also had rules against climbing trees and whistling - and there was a persistent rumour that only prefects were permitted to appear in breakfast wearing curlers. There was also a set of deisgnated up and down staircases in one part of the building, with dire consequences threatened if you should ever be caught going up the down or vice versa.

At junior school, were every child arrived by car (except boarders) there were indoor and outdoor shoes. I slightly suspect my mother’s rage at consigning yet another pair of barely worn lace ups to the charity shop was the reason I became a boarder... We were also only permitted to wear Start Rite shoes and our head mistress used to give us a termly haranguing in assembly on the deformities that awaited us if we ever succumbed to the lure of Clarks. (Tbf, if you'd ever dared, you'd have been sent home with a very strongly-worded Note: all parents were even more scared of her than we were, and lived in terror of a Note.)

Zebrasinpyjamas · 03/09/2017 19:08

In yr 7-9, girls could only wear a specific shade of red hairbands or headbands.

Only year 12-13 could walk in the school entrance as there was a nice parquet floor inside that would otherwise be damaged. Because obviously 17 and 18 year olds have perfected a floor saving gait by then.

TeatimeForTheSoul · 03/09/2017 19:09

Knee high sock, if they were pushed/fell down to ankles they were confiscated. As it was a boarding school, and socks rarely washed (by hand), we just pitted the poor prefects who had to confiscate them.

Got to admit, brilliant school apart from that. Old teacher (from my mum's day) just told me before I joined "If you do it, don't get caught" and I didn't

FineOldCriminals · 03/09/2017 19:09

It was also Eyes Left when going to the netball court - a fate worse than death awaited any girl who dared to look into the Staff Room...

MiaowTheCat · 03/09/2017 19:11

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Lambzig · 03/09/2017 19:11

Coldilox, I went to girls boarding school and we weren't allowed hairbrushes with handles. Until now I always thought it was so they couldn't be used to hit anyone.

No patent leather shoes even when out of uniform.

We also had to kneel down and our skirts touch the floor. Stupid compulsory hats, felt in winter and straw in summer were the bane of my life.

Yes to gating as punishment for older girls liberally interspersed with cross country runs and cold showers for uniform infringements.

canihaveacoffeeplease · 03/09/2017 19:14

"You may walk on the grass, but not to take shortcuts" direct quote from our school manual there.

Cue many daily cries of 'but I'm not taking a shortcut sir, I'm just taking a leisurely stroll across the grass in the direction I just so happen to be going anyway'

mirime · 03/09/2017 19:14

Completely unreasonably we were not allowed to wear coats indoors or have bags on shoulders but we also had no lockers. Lunchtime was fun trying to carry coat, bag and tray.

Not a rule, but an example of their thinking. School was built for 750 pupils but there were more like 900. So they decided to knock 15 minutes off lunch. That worked out well.

apostropheuse · 03/09/2017 19:17

At my secondary school male teachers weren't allowed to strap the girl pupils, so you had to go and knock on the staff room door and ask for a female teacher to come out and strap you. They would ask how many you were to get, pull the strap from under their cloak and proceed to strap you. This was for not returning homework etc. - even if you couldn't do it.

Female teachers weren't allowed to wear trousers, until they went on strike and the rules changed.

We had to walk on the left-hand side of corridors in a clockwise direction - no anti-clockwise walking.

This was in the early/mid seventies.

GimbleInTheWabe · 03/09/2017 19:18

"Walk with purpose"

Tbf it was an all girls school and we would just walk around purposeless all lunchtime looking for ways to get in to the boys' school.

apostropheuse · 03/09/2017 19:20

... oh and in our primary school (1960s) mothers weren't allowed to wear high heels in the assembly hall. The janitor had a notice up to say so and they wouldn't have dared to do it! They had to remove them at the door if they were unaware of the rule - but they soon learned not to wear them!

treaclesoda · 03/09/2017 19:21

I was at school in the 90s and never saw a female teacher wear trousers. Presumably they weren't allowed to.

NotCitrus · 03/09/2017 19:21

Sixth form, boarding school. Allowed to drink alcohol! Each of us got given three raffle tickets to exchange for a drink. They forgot half the sixth form were good Muslims who a) didn't drink, b) found the other girls getting drunk totally hilarious, and c) the local newsagent sold the same tickets...

HandInHandIsTheOnlyWayToLand · 03/09/2017 19:21

Brown gym knickers for PE, with our initials embroidered on them at the top of the right leg. Uuuurrrgh

IHeartDodo · 03/09/2017 19:23

Ooh I have lots (two different schools) :
No going up/down the "headmaster's stairs" - had to use the former servant's stairs (former mansion house).
Always had to wear a blazer unless it was official "shirt sleeve order". And then you weren't allowed to wear your blazer, and had to roll your sleeves up to elbows.
No heels above 5 cm. Head of upper school had a little wooden block, and if she could fit it under your heel then instant detention.
Also no make-up until 6th form, same woman used to do spot checks with wipes!
Stand up when a teacher /grown-up enters the room.
No using the front door unless you were with a parent /teacher.

sparechange · 03/09/2017 19:23

OP, I think we might have gone to the same school... or those rules were widespread
Was it in Somerset by any chance?

8misskitty8 · 03/09/2017 19:28

At secondary we had to walk clockwise round the school, if you went past your classroom even by a few steps you couldn't sneak back, you had to go all the way round again.
There was also one staircase to go up and another to go down at opposite sides so you sometimes had to walk all the way round again after going up/down to get to a class. This was in the 1990's !

Dd's primary school has a no outdoor shoe rule. School shoes must be worn to school and for breaks etc. Inside gym shoes must be worn. We live 2 minutes from the school so school shoes are hardly worn.

MyWhatICallNameChange · 03/09/2017 19:29

We had up stairs and down stairs and you must never use them in the wrong direction. Not even during a fire drill. Sensible! So if the down stairs are burning we sit there and perish?

HelloSquirrels · 03/09/2017 19:29

Our school had some stupid rules. No coloured underwear or bras. (Never worked out how they could police this one because our uniform was navy blue polo shirts).

No talking at all in the toilets. They had someone on duty to make sure this happened.

No going in the school building other than the (tiny not fit for purpose) canteen, even if it is pissing down. You can only go in said canteen if you're eating. You'd then get complained at in your next lesson for being wet through.

No coats indoors but no lockers either so had to carry that round all day.

Ss's school- you are never, ever allowed to take your blazer off. Only in extra special circumstances ie it is 45 degrees. He never once was allowed if off in his first year. Bizarre!

Not a rule as such but they are now grading every year group in a degree style system. I got an email last term about how they are expecting ss to pass with a 2:1 (but if you fail your imaginary year 8 degree you go into year 9 anyway. Not sure what they're trying to achieve at all with that. Put that on a CV you'd get laughed at.

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