What things do you remember from your schooldays that would have the MN police screeching for Ofsted/Social Services/the Police?

[frogs]

Prompted by a discussion with a group of old schoolmates which confirmed a memory so bizarre that I always thought I must have hallucinated it. But no, it turns out that in the early 80s, in a bog-standard Catholic comprehensive in provincial England we did in fact spend our history lessons learning to sing overtly pro-IRA rebel songs, such as The men behind the wire and Tiocfaidh ár lá. Bearing in mind that this was during the hunger strikes in the early Thatcher years, when Sinn Fein was considered so dangerous that Gerry Adams' voice was dubbed on the news (remember that?) it's only just dawned on me how seditious the whole thing was. Unbe-bloody-lievable. Can you imagine the hoo-hah if that happened today?

And on a very different note, another friend confirmed that when we went to boarding school aged 15, we were allowed one clean shirt per week which was worn from Monday to Saturday inclusive (we had a different one for Sundays). In a school full of teenage girls. And hair washing was by rota only, limited to once a week. Rank.

So what badness, madness or just plain weirdness did you take in your stride at school which would be unthinkable today?

Well the bike sheds were full of unlocked bikes and no-one wore helmets, for starters

Crisps and chocolate at break time, from the tuck shop.

art teacher in primary school had a wooden spoon which he used to hit misbehavers on the bum.

tit leering teachers

teachers who stood on your toes

Thanks for the links frogs, that was interesting

If you forgot you PE kit at primary school you did PE in your vest and knickers

I meant that, did it sound sarcastic?

Being sent to the cig machine outside the newsagents on a Sunday afternoon by my dad (4 bob for 20 Embassy ).

Oh, that wasn't at school though, just during schooldays. Can't think of anything like yours offhand, frogs.

girls not allowed to play rugby or football, boys no netball

board dusters thrown

chalk thrown

'fred' the leather strap

kid pissing himself on the carpet as he waited for the strap - in junior school

My Catholic boarding school was the same re shirts Frogs. Cleanliness definitely NOT next to Godliness there. We brought a jug of hot water to our cubicle each night and poured it into a washing up bowl. We would do a stripwash and then wash our socks and knickers and hang them up to dry. On Saturday mornings we were allowed to wash our hair. We had to unbutton the top two buttons of our shirts for this and tuck our collars under as letting our fellow pupils see us in our bra was considered scandalous. Once a week we had a bath, during which, the nuns told us, we should avoid looking down at our naked bodies.
And I am 44 by the way, not 74!

WW, I used to get fags for my Gran.

"Twenty Carlton Premium please",

"Are they for your Gran love?....OK then"

I remember eating crunchy sugar sandwiches (kindly supplied as a breaktime snack by pre-school nursery). Yum.

Ohhh - I was caned at primary school (4 separate times)

Oh and at primary school, if we got a spelling wrong we were smacked on the palm of our hands with a ruler.
In year six, we had a rota to make tea for the teachers at break time.

Ah yes, the flying board duster.

And slippering.

And nuns with rulers

bloody hell, scarey boarding schools

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Getting the belt from the headmaster in Primary School (Mr Beveridge...I still remember!)for talking too much.

Yes, reception teacher who made liberal use of a ruler for slightest infractions

(not sitting up straight, folding you arms, writing neatly) and many other teachers who hit children.

I remember going to school with my cousin in Eire one day whilst on holiday and the teacher absoultely bloody terrifying me as she wacked everything that moved with a cane. I mean, I was an English softy that had only experienced the slipper

We had a primary school teacher who banged our head togther as a punishment

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It wasn't just the nuns of course, but I always have a mental image of the Blues Brothers whenever I think of a certain Sr Kathleen, who was in every other way completely lovely and continued to teach for many years ruler-less after corporal punishment went out the window.