Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Education

Join the discussion on our Education forum.

Original poster

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

325 replies

frogs · 03/06/2008 12:37

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?

OP posts:
cyteen · 03/06/2008 15:13

LOL fiodyl, your beery teacher reminds me of our head of music keeping beer and whiskey in his filing cabinet. It was a happy day when, having been banished to the storecupboard for talking back in lessons, I discovered this fact

TigerFeet · 03/06/2008 15:15

(cyteen would you be good enough to drop me an email - tangerinecath [at] hotmail [dot] co [dot] uk. Many thanks)

mummymusings · 03/06/2008 15:18

i was thrown out of an art exam for cheating. i put my hand up and asked for an eraser, still annoys me to this day!

cyteen · 03/06/2008 15:19

Am I in trouble?

TigerFeet · 03/06/2008 15:22

not at all! I just need to ask you something... will email you back when I get home and all will become clear

SniffyHock · 03/06/2008 15:22

Oh I remember the PE teacher marking down when we had our periods!! I had to get my Mum to explain that yes, I did get them every two weeks. The shame!

MrsTittleMouse · 03/06/2008 15:22

I can still remember a little boy (in infant school) being stripped to his underwear and paraded around all the classrooms for being naughty. I knew at the time how wrong it was, I felt so sorry for him.
Mind you, my Mum has told me since that some of the children in the school were from the local children's home, and one of the little boys ran away because he was desperate to try to find his mother. And the headmaster caned him.

fiodyl · 03/06/2008 15:23

At secondary school, a physics teacher who liked to give everyone electric shocks and slept on the desk at break time.He also wouldnt let us leave the classroom once during a fie drill.

During another(real) fire drill an RE teacher shouting 'theres a bomb in the school, everybody run'

A CDT teacher who cut his finger off while showing us how to safely use a ban saw.He ran screaming from the room and left us with the saw still going and blood all up the wall.

It was common to be locked in a cupboard for misbehaving in class or to be sent to the 'work centre'- a dark room in the basement where u had to sit in silence for an hour.

cyteen · 03/06/2008 15:23

Ah, cool - I have mailed you (Got a bit carried away with the school atmosphere for a minute there and thought you were going to bollock me about something!)

SniffyHock · 03/06/2008 15:26

Fiodyl - is it really wrong that your post about the CDT teacher (do they still have those??) made me pmsl??

I remember there was a room where you could go and lie down if you had period pain and they gave you a hot water bottle!! No, we never abused this one!

Loving this thread

GryffinGirl · 03/06/2008 15:27

evil witch of deputy head caught me and two friends talking after lights out. She stormed in and shouted at one friend "i should have known it would be the little Jew-ess who would be the trouble maker" . This was in the 1980's. It makes me cringe with horror all over again.

The school bus being seriously overloaded every day. The school would only pay for one bus and it went down rural Scottish roads carrying about 100 kids all squashed on, no seatbelts

TigerFeet · 03/06/2008 15:28

thanks

norty cyteen do you have a guilty conscience?

cyteen · 03/06/2008 15:29

Who, me?

wotulookinat · 03/06/2008 15:32

SniffyHock, our PE teacher used to mark our periods in her register with a large red letter P! If they weren't exactly every 4 weeks she would say we were lying. God I hated that old cow.

louii · 03/06/2008 15:35

We used to go to our headteacher (primary) if we had a wobbly tooth and he would pull it out for us, then give us sweeties, he was actually a lovely man.

Used to go out with the priest in his car, 2 or 3 of us and visit old folks and sing to them, he was actually accused of inappropriate stuff when i was around 20.

A school trip to belgium (was 14) we were let loose in the evenings, went to pubs and clubs, had to be back by 1am, the 6th years were left in charge of us. Teachers were either pissed or hungover most of 10 days.

Also on that trip, running across a field with signs that said danger unexploded mines, just for the craic.

nailpolish · 03/06/2008 15:35

who else had a school dentist

god she was a bitch

and the nit nurse - she was nice though

nailpolish · 03/06/2008 15:37

we went on a school trip to belgium too

just got to do whatever we wanted as long as we were ready for the bus in the morning for the educational stuff

drinking in clubs, running between rooms all night in the hotel, wearing next to nothing and smoking on the bus!

nickytwotimes · 03/06/2008 15:41

Music teacher who liked to put his hand on your 'diaphragm' whilst yo uwere singing scales.

Geography teacher once suspended a kid out a window by his ankles.

GryffinGirl · 03/06/2008 15:42

Did everyone go on a school trip to Belgium? We did and most people ended up with salmonella. Getting the bus all the way back to Scotland with everyone puking and sh*tting everywhere was interesting and two people were left behind on their own in a Belgian hospital (we were 13)

louii · 03/06/2008 15:46

Nailpolish were u at my school???

God the journey on the bus, but was fun in the ferry as we met up with a group of French lads

nailpolish · 03/06/2008 15:47

i might have been louii!

north east scotland

cyteen · 03/06/2008 15:48

My DP went on a school trip to Russia that left him with an abiding love of neat vodka

ChippyMinton · 03/06/2008 15:50

In my last year at primary school, the teacher put a desk in a cupboard at the back of the room, with the idea that if you were naughty you were to sit there during the lesson. It was so popular he had to make it a reward for good behaviour LOL

louii · 03/06/2008 15:56

Nailpolish, Fife.

cheeset · 03/06/2008 15:57

nailpolish & Louii, you are both nurses living in Scotland you must know each other!