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?

I'm only 16 and in primary school we had to do PE in our underwear if we forgot our kit. We also were only allowed to take our PE kit home at half term.

Haven't read the whole thread so apologies if anybody's mentioned it - but does anybody with a Catholic primary education in Scotland during the sixties remember the "Black Babies?"

I seem to remember you bought a picture of an African child and the money went to charity.

Nobody at work believes me . . .

Primary school science teacher lobbing lumps of Potassium out of the window into a puddle.

Spending all my lunchtimes climbing trees or playing British Bulldog, with participants including some of the staff(nothing wrong with that but the Health&Safety police wouldn't allow it nowadays)

No corporal punishment though (tree-hugging pseudo-Montessori school )

My Mum told me that when she was about eight a male teacher blindfolded her and another girl, put boxing gloves on them and made them fight. Apparantly her knicker elastic had gone and she was having to fight and make sure her knickers didn't fall down at the same time. She's 62 now and got quite upset telling me. What sort of sick fucker does that to children and what really annoys me is that this middle-class well respected man got away with it. Twat.

Boys who didn't bring PE kit had to do it in a gym skirt and gym knickers.
Board dusters thrown.
Standing on a square (single tile) as punishment at break.
Girls not allowed to play rugby, football, do triple jump although we did play lacrosse which was far more violent than rugby.
I used to have 4 mars bars for my lunch in 6th form and our 6th form tuck shop also sold pot noodles.
Being made to kneel on the stage to check our skirts were knee length.

Scottslass down south. Yes I remember those and I went to a proddy school (non-denominational for the rest of you). Did you get a Gideons bible too? One that fitted neatly into the breast pocket of your blazer?

Being forced to strip naked for a communal shower whilst lesbian PE teacher looked on. DD cannot believe it now. Also having to wear tiny little skirts to do games in.

I still remember being in primary school and after lunch we had 'quiet time' every day to get ready for the afternoon lessons. We had to sit down at our desks and the blinds were pulled to darken the room and we all had to put our heads on our arms on our desks to rest. Our teacher used to sleep for ages and 'quiet time' could go on for most of the afternoon. Strangely, we were never disturbed by another teacher or another member of staff. As we were all so young, I think we just accepted it.

One sports day, it was really hot. My friend put on a hat and sunglasses and was told by a teacher to remove that at once, "We're not on the Riviera, you know!"

Plus, when my Home Ec. teacher found out I had an eating disorder, she locked me in the stock cupboard and refused to let me out until I'd eaten a piece of Christmas pudding. I was instantly cured.

We were reciting our times tables - reading them from charts which were pulled down over the blackboard - when we were 5ish, when our classroom door was flung open and in stomped this white haired, red faced teacher literally dragging a girl from the year above ours. The teacher was yelling "This girl is such a baby she doesn't know her tables so she's come in to learn her tables with the babies". The woman was screeching, red faced and spitting. She made the poor girl stand on a group of desks and ordered us all to watch her mouth and to put up our hands if we saw her get it wrong. We then had to recite our tables with this poor girl standing up in front of us. Miss Potter then dragged her out again. Not long after that the girl left the school. I have often wondered what happened to her. Hope she's OK.

I remember some left handed children having their left hand tied and being forced to write with their right hand.

Being locked in a cupboard after having had a good slap to the head for not memorising the Shorter Catachism (Wee Free teacher in the Highlands)

The whole class getting the belt because someone dropped a pencil on the floor.

A teacher throwing a desk at us and slapping us on the ears from behind - he used to sneak up and do this if your work was not up to scratch.

In Primary 1 the whole class was 'sniffed' when somebody had filled their pants then a little boy being marched out of the class.

Plus -this might be controvertial- the banning of a Christmas tree due to it's pagan origin by the uber holy headmaster- in 1968

in primary school my music teacher made us get into pairs and rub noses with eachother. She said it was an eskimo kiss

Milk left out in the sun and then having to drink it curdled. Standing on a chair with your hands on your head for talking, nature walks if it was a nice day, sitting in the sun all afternoon for sports day, no hat , sunscreen or drinks.
In senior school (convent) name lable checks including your pants standing with your dress held up over your bottom whilst nun delved inside to read the lable. PE teacher who told us if we didn't use tampax to swim with she would insert them, lots of things thrown, being made to stand on window ledges and open large sash windows whilst male teacher looked up under your dress, going to male teachers house for tea.
Swimming in the school pool with no life guard or anyone else there when training.

love this thread! i remember having flour fights in cookery lessons. In fact on the last day of term is was tradition to have egg and flour fights outside school!

being slapped on the hand with a wooden ruler

yes that happened at my school too. I remeber one female teacher who really bullied a particular girl. Used to call her stupid and evertything and make her stand outside the classroom all the time. One one occaision she slapped her hard across the face and sent her out. I was shell shocked. I went out to the loo just so i could see her. She was in a right state. I tried to stay with her but was ordered back in the classroom and i was scared i'd get a slap too. We only in 2nd year juniors.I told my mum but she didnt believe me. The girl left the school soon after. She must have been really scarred emotionally. Imagine that happening today. A male teacher also used to give boys the slipper. This was in the 70's.

remember wearing 'blakey' in my shoes- they were sooooo trendy because of the noise they made. got told off for scratching the wooden floor and they were banned.

The headmistress's dog bite a 3rd year at my High School - the 3rd year was given detention!!!

I had a real bitch of a teacher called Mrs Heath who used to call me stupid and lazy...all because I hated playing rounders

Fact I was excellent at track and field made no differance, it was rounders or nothing.

and a school nurse whos answer to every thing was go to the toliet and was your hands!! Very helpful when you have an earache

Art teacher at high school picking up a boy and throwing him in to the wall outside the class room for causing trouble

I used to take my Dad's automatic drive Cortina and drive it up to school, picking friends up on the way.

Dad and Step-Mum left house before me in work van and other car.

I was 14/15