when did the shirt signing thing start?

[overthemill]

this morning got to school with my year 4 dd who goes up to middle school in september. discovered she should have brought in a plain shirt so everyone in the class could sign it! so I duly went back in with one (perfctly good, hoping it would last out another school year) and there they all were, excitedly wrecking each other's clothes with the teachers helping!! Astonoshing! So when did this 'tradition' start happening? (I'm guessing when proms and limos came into being) I am 50 (gulp) and we never did this

We did it post GCSE's. That was...

16 years ago.

We did this when we left seondary school in 1990

eek- I am older than slubber!

They did it at my school in the 80's, it had been going on for years even then.

We did this when I finished secondary school(early 90s). But the point was that you did it on your final day in that school and that you wrecked a uniform you would never be wearing again. Doing it in year 4 is ridiculous.

I did it when I left secondary school (am now 41, so that must be 25 odd years ago!). Still have my signed shirt to this day, although can't remember most of the girls that signed it. If you want to do this, use a laundry pen, then if you need to wash the shirt the writing stays.

they did it when I left primary school in the late 70s and again when I left secondary school in the early 80s

I guess you must have missed it by a smidgeon

(although we didn't have proms and limos. We went to Chester for a day trip on the last day of term and we were happy with that )

Eachpeach....what do you mean?

Do I post old?

We did it when I left school in 1982

Year 6 children have been doing this as long as I have been teaching which is since 1990. I can see it must be annoying for you!

not sure i'm annoyed just genuinely surprised! so outside of my experience i thought it must be a local tradition.
shame i'd not been warned as i sent some just too small school clothes to the cahrity shop recently

btw, i can spell, just not type

We weren't allowed to at our school - it wasa suspendable offence, which meant you missed your GCSEs.

I wonder how long the children actually keep the shirt for, though? I bet lots of them dont keep them for long!

Are you in Suffolk btw? I know they have middle schools there!

We did it when we left school and that was 16 years ago

I've still got mine.

From some time in the 1980s

we did it on our last day in uniform at the end of UV ie before GCSEs

and were generally very careful to only do one shirt and a tie as our younger sisters would be getting the skirts and jumpers. I still have both in the Nostalgia Box in the loft.

we are in Beds, since xmas. middle schools are a big thing here

We did it at the end of the 5th year (Y11) - was the only time we did though.

LilRedWhiskGers, we weren't allowed to either, so we all did it. It would've been really embarrasing for them to have to suspend the whole year!

well she's come home with it and is quite pleased with the number of names on it! I still feel it's a bit mad at this age but she is happy would love to know when it started - i left sec school in 1976 and have never heard of it

Year 6 have done this at our school for a few years now. New HT this term, and she's sent a letter out saying it's not happening this year. Relief all round from adults. Kids furious. However, they have been given lovely memory/autograph books by the PTA which they can sign instead.

We are in Beds too! Our Yr4s have been doing their t-shirts today and had their Leavers Assembly-tears all round!

oh yes, i wanted to buy her an autograph book! do they still sell them?

I remember the joy of getting ever so slightly rude poems in the pristine first page (I ocnfess this was the 60s)