To wonder about school in the 80s and 90s

[onceawhitetowel]

The reason I am asking is because I have horrific memories of school then.

Yet things on the whole seem better now.

When did things change?

Then you’re rather strange if you “loved” that

Late 90s/early 00s.

Awful secondary school. Bullying every day. Teachers had clear favourites and weren’t interested in the shy quiet kid. Couldn’t walk anywhere without the worry of being tripped up/grabbed at.
Was in the lower set for maths and it was literally a room of feral kids and a teacher that used to cry then leave the room. No chance of learning.
Took me about ten years to feel ok again but the effects really are lifelong.
So yes for me I’d say it was horrific.

Read my previos post op it explains why i loved it

70s to 80s here - went to reasonably nice state schools in Glasgow. Very little poor behaviour from kids (we still got the belt back then if we misbehaved), few disruptions. Loved school, no horror stories at all.

I went to 5 different primary schools around the country in the 80s and loved every single one. Despite always being the new girl, I had no problems at all, apart from the awful lunches. I went to secondary school from the late 80s to early 90s and liked it there too. I was bullied by one girl on and off for a couple of years, and my maths teacher hit me around the face once for talking and still kept her job, but despite this I still enjoyed school. I had lots of friends, several excellent teachers, and I loved to learn. I went on some great school trips, and met my best friend who is still my closest friend thirty years on.

I was 80s/90s and I went to a bloody horrible school in Glasgow (consistently in the bottom 5 in Strathclyde in terms of S grade and Higher results) but they closed it now and all the kids go to the newly expanded ex grammar, so I hope things got better for them.

Naught, it’s a seven page thread, it’s not all about you

Only negatives I can remember were the children who received free school meals had to line up separately to everyone else and only had one hot or cold lunch option, rather than the 6-7 the payingchildren has. Also remember PE in knickers and vest if u forgot kit!!!

Went to school from 84-96
Was shy, quiet, bright, well behaved. Was pretty much left to get on with work as I could be trusted to do it. Got good exam results so was pretty much ignored other than by one teacher who made attempts to boost my confidence.
Left school with good qualifications, but without the resilience and confidence to back them up or do much with them so basically ended up wasting them. Only now, many years later, where I ended up doing a degree through the OU, have I started pushing myself more and gaining some more confidence.

My daughter is 8, and started her school life very much as I did. However, her school put a lot of time and effort into working on her confidence and resilience as much as her academic skills and she is already far ahead of where I am at 38. The quiet, academic well behaved child she is is being nurtured more than I was, which is a good thing in my eyes.

went to primary late seventies and high school in the eighties. There was favouritism, humiliation, bullying from teachers and students, teacher/student sexual relationships, racism, homophobia and violence. This was a nice school in a decent area too. Poor kids with challenging behaviour were dismissed as thugs.

I have a feeling its worse now. At secondary school in the early 90s and class disruption wasn't really an issue.

I expect mobile phones and gobby kids taking precious mins out of each lesson with disruption is a massive challenge now

I was going through school right when it all started to change - we were the first cohort to sit KS3 SATs, the original 10 ringbinder National Curriculum (as teachers of a certain age all nod), Ofsted started when we were in secondary.

My primary school years were horrific. I was bullied, physically and verbally - I still have scars now from kids beating my head off the school playground and jumping on my hands ramming them into the playground surface. The head hated me - quite openly and ordered her staff to be as harsh as they could be on me (this one I know for a fact as a former teacher met up with me as an adult and actually apologised - it was her first job and she was scared and didn't dare challenge it). The kids with SEN were just left to sit there and struggle (pretty much what we're getting back to fast unfortunately) - but behaviour was better... I remember us being open mouthed with horror when a lad who had quite severe emotional problems (and a horrific home life) lost his temper, snapped a ruler and stormed out of the class... these days the kids just roll their eyes and wearily tell you "he's always like this Miss" when that happens.

There was fuck all differentiation - we got given our Maths textbooks and left to work through the page of it - trot out to the teacher's desk when you'd done the page or if you were stuck, collect your page of ticks or crosses, and on you plodded. On the other hand - you had those afternoons where it was nice weather and everyone just sacked off teaching for an afternoon of rounders on the field - not worrying about planning, objectives or how it was going to be assessed - just making the most of the weather.

Oh and the cloud of cigarette smoke as you walked past the staffroom was quite spectacular.

I have great memories of school, right through from primary to sixth form ( late 70s - early 90s) but as others have said it's totally subjective.

I lived in a semi-rural location, all the schools had a mix of socio-economic groups but most of us were working class or lower middle class.

I was a bright and quite docile pupil who loved school work. I imagine that a lot of what we did in class wouldn't be 'engaging' enough bh today's standards but I enjoyed it all. Except maths. 😁

I couldn't fault my primary school teachers. I always felt safe, looked after and appreciated. More so than at home, but that's another story...

In secondary school we did have a couple of pervy male teachers and a group who used to go and get quite merry/borderline pissed on a Friday lunchtime who would come back reeking of booze but would still manage to teach.

Discipline was good. Some of the teachers were old school and we obeyed because we were afraid not too but I don't think it did anyone any harm. We knew our place, why we were there and what the consequences were if we misbehaved. There was some low-grade bullying / teasing among pupils but I'm not sure how it was dealt with. No violence problems bar the odd punch up between 4th year idiots.

As a teacher myself (but not in England), looking back I appreciate the freedom our teachers had back then to teach what and how they wanted, within reason. The rigid, box ticking, exam- focused environment that teaching has become seems less nuturing than how I remember things as a pupil where we were given the time to assimilate and develop at a slower pace.

And I am so, so pleased that we had no idea what internet was, only had one Commodore 64 or Atari per family if we were lucky, and the only people to have mobile phones were on Magnum, Knightrider and the like!

I finished secondary school 1997, though primary was not good, probably finished in 1992 open bullying mainly by Teachers. I had older sisters so no bullying by peers in school.

The Teacher Ms C in primary, who would poke my shoulder repeatedly with 2 fingers. Shes still a Teacher in the local school, She is a resource Teacher now, My DD and her pals say she's lovely.

There was a 2 boys in my Primary school who clearly these days had additional needs, they were both tortured, One of the boys is now a homeless man on drugs, I stop to talk to him, I can't help but think his problems are from his additional needs been overlooked in School.

Thank goodness things changed.

2 boys in my classroom, not entire school with additional needs.

It is awful to think actually how many with additional needs attended the school without the resources we have today.

I not know I am agast at some of the stories my kids come out with. My youngest 2 are now 19 and they have witnessed swearing at teachers, one girl spat at her teacher and I am guessing this is mild for some schools.

That behaviour just would not be tolerated back in the 70s/80s. Also the interruption from other pupils was ridiculous with teachers constantly having to shut them up. I don’t think discipline is better as kids know they can essentially get away with most things. Back in the day more parents supported the teachers discipline.

I think bring a teacher in the 60/70/80s must have been a dream. I don’t honestly know how teachers cope now.

Tomstoesrock

My dhs cousin constantly ran away from school, was labelled thick by all. He was of course dyslexic. He did an apprenticeship at 16 and he’s now a very wealthy garage owner.

But yes there must be many more who were utterly crushed.

Op are things ok for you now? honestly school days should be the best days and it’s so sad when they are not. Like s childhood. A great start is such a good foundation for happiness I feel for you.

Yes re: support for those with additional needs. I remember at primary school, an autistic girl who had permanent 1:1 help in class and a girl who was partially sighted and partially deaf who had a TA working with her a lot of the time but otherwise...not much! I remember a woman coming in once a week to read and do some work with what were known as the 'slow readers'. There was a learning support unit at my secondary school but tbh I didn't know it existed for the first few years I was there.

I don’t think TAs were invented in my school days.

Our local schools had policies of not accepting any disabled kids so I had to pretend I could hear all through primary, to avoid being sent to a boarding school for deaf kids.
I know a guy in his 40s who was sent to boarding special school, had multiple needs, and got through 14 different schools as he was passed from pillar to post. His parents lived in the same house throughout and were considered wierd for wanting him back in the holidays rather than just leaving him in a home. Nowadays he'd be mainstreamed with some physical support but back then you never saw disabled people except the odd beggar.

No TAs. I ended up doing that job for the less academically able in the class because I was more academically able.

I left school in 1988 but had no major issues. I enjoyed my school years on the whole. I think its much harder to be at school now for a number of reasons.

My school years were very happy on the whole (80-94) - some really cracking teachers across 2 schools and sixth form, but I was lucky because I was relatively able on the academic/social side and home was fairly stable at the time.

The negatives were a definitely more physical approach to discipline and a lack of understanding towards learning difficulties, examples being my primary headmaster picking one boy up by his collar and tie, carrying him a fair way out into the corridor and slamming the door so hard all the glass fell out/taking a dyslexic child to the front in assembly and telling the whole school, "this child does not try".

"Seasawride
I don’t think TAs were invented in my school days."

Nor mine. I can see the value in the 1:1 TA approach, but I do question whether the main class teacher in a primary setting splitting the week with a TA (i.e. the TA regularly teaching the whole class) is a positive. At that age, I think continuity - one teacher - is a great thing.