Suddenly a whole lot of memories came flooding back, from primary school in the 1980s.
When I fell and hit my head in the playground at primary school, a teacher took me straight to the nearby hospital in her car: she decided on the spot it wasn't a matter of school first aid. As far as I remember, she didn't even tell the office: she just took me straight out. It was before the school day started, so the adult I was with came too, and was able to bring me back afterwards.
When I was ill, the school flatly refused to call my dad because "he'd be busy at work", and the paperwork clearly stated that he was much easier to contact than my mum; and even I knew this. I had to stay in school until the end of the day. My dad wrote a polite letter in the next day to put them right.
The "getting changed for PE" routine, at primary: everybody down to vest and pants, put on shoes without socks, with the stern order "put your heels in your shoes!", walked to assembly hall, past the other classrooms of children who would giggle.
The teacher would always lock the classroom door when we were out of it; perhaps because we had proper scissors in those days. She would count us through the door, saying "hurry up, or you'll get locked in!" Once she did actually lock it while two children were still inside. She did unlock it again after a short pause.
One of the worst sins children could commit was doing something without being told, even if it was obvious we'd be told to do it in a moment. One teacher wrote "kitten" on the board, and so did more than half the class. She then did a slow march round the classroom, throwing children's books on the floor. She then made them pick them up, and hold them up in front of the class. After they had sat down, she said in a kinder voice "now write the word 'kitten'".
There was no corporal punishment (although some older teachers talked wistfully about it), but some teachers used to yank a child by the wrist while telling them off, and drag them around, perhaps saying "if I had my way, I'd be slapping you hard".
I overheard a boy telling a teacher that another boy had weed on him. The teacher casually discussed with the head what to do about it, in front of other children; they decided to make the offender write about it, and not be allowed to go to the toilet again that day, saying "if he wets himself, too bad". I'm not sure if they were joking or not.
Nothing particularly wrong with these, and actually I think some brave teachers might do these today: some boys who laughed when told off were then made to laugh in a mirror. Another time, some children who were playing with sticks in the playground were told not to, because they might go in somebody's eye. When they kept doing it, they were made to miss their next playtime, and they were blindfolded (sitting apart from everyone else), so they would know what it was like to lose sight. We had recently learned the story of Louis Braille.
At secondary school, the boys in years 7 and 8 were often made to play sports in "shirts, or skins": one side had to go bare-chested, to set them apart from the other side. This was outdoors on cold days as well.