Stupid rules you remember at your school

[notedbiscuits]

OK I remember these:
. If you had PE last period, you had to get changed before leaving. For two years (before I moved to the next village), I lived ten minute walk from high school to home. I wasn't going to get changed into uniform for me to get changed 10-15 mins later. Behind the mobile changing rooms, there was a gap between hedge and fence which brought you onto the road. Myself and a few who lived a similar distance to me (though in different directions) used to sneak off behind the changing rooms.

, One way system. This was to prevent fights in a couple of corridors. For about 6 weeks I was on crutches and twice a week I had a lesson in one classroom and then in another classroom, which was the furthest away in the one way system. I wasn't allowed to hobble in the opposite direction. I had to go around the entire school.

. If unable to do PE, had to stand outside (if class was doing outside PE). Not allowed a chair or stool to sit on when I had crutches. Wasn't allowed a coat either. Why? Fortunately both PE sessions were last period and my parents took me home after the previous lesson. Why couldn't I sit in the library as that was manned all the time.

. Toilets assigned to different year groups. No idea why that happened. I had very very heavy periods during this time and had a night time pad I had to change every 1-2 hours. I had to visit the loos for whatever year group I was in at the time, going around the one way system and got a rollocking from the teachers for being late.

I went to this school 92-95 for info.

We had to whiten our indoor plimsolls every week and they would all be inspected every lesson. We had to use whitener that was basically thin tippex, so by about half a term in, your plimsolls were all crusted with white flaky goonamd you'd have to try and scrape it all off and start the process again.

We weren't allowed to wear tights, just over the knee sock with elastic garters that either gut off your circulation or fell down a la Nora Batty.

The girls uniform was a lilac v necked shirt and we had v necked jumpers and blazers meaning that in winter we all had freezing chests because of course no scarves allowed.

The most insane one at our school was not being allowed to read in the library 🤷

Being unable to take off your blazer on a hot summers day. I believe lots of schools still do this. Makes absolutely zero sense

I think I might have been at the same school as your DH The rule was enforced by teachers bellowing “SIX INCHES” when they saw it being flouted, which was unintentionally hilarious

We weren’t allowed take our jumpers off in summer and we weren’t allowed to wear our school jacket (which had the crest on) inside during winter even though the school had no heating.

We also weren’t allowed to wear anything but the specific uniform sock. It was so cold I always got little chillblains on my toes. We did wear small ankle socks under our school socks but they didn’t help much.

We had to stand whenever the Headmistress came into the room. The only time I've had do this in adult life was when appearing in court, lol.

I actually can't remember any and I was in secondary 90-96. We didn't have any one way systems or anything. We kept to the left on the stairwells but think most people just do that anyway.

I remember one: no denim jackets.

I wore my Levi jacket to school 😆

The grammar school near us had a one way system. We didn't and the stairs were like a mosh put between lessons. I was always getting my bag strap stuck on the banister and having everyone else yell at me for holding everyone else up. There was a shortcut corridor that only staff were allowed to use.

in infants school we weren't allowed to walk on the grass in the school grounds. And if we forgot to bring our pe kit we had to do pe in our best and pants. One time I forgot my plimsoles and I and a few others had to do pe in the playground in our bare feet. I got a big blister on my foot and my parents never complained.

Every single book having to be covered- normally wallpaper. If you got a new exercise book and it was not stuck cover to cover with the previous one and covered again with paper by next lesson you were in trouble. Mine were covered with heavy duty embossed wallpaper - no wonder my bag was so heavy.

Having to embroider your full name in large letters on your pe t shirt. Not a good look with growing boobs!

Boys and girls had to be at least 6 inches apart at all times. This was '1950s/60s and before my time (late 1970s).
Another school in summer, if girls wanted to wear short sleeve shirt and no tie they had to wear white socks. Otherwise you had to wear long bottle green socks, long sleeves and a tie.

No conkers
No snowballing
No bags on the floor (had to be tucked under a bench) during breaks
No going into the canteen if you had packed lunch - I did so it was a mysterious and wild place to me

Not stupid but bizarre…

In the 80s, it was legal to buy cigarettes at 16 in the UK at the time but smoking was against school rules (not a bad thing) HOWEVER there were house bars (boarding school) that were open every Saturday night serving home brewed beer and wine (made by the pupils) to sixth formers 😂 Normal (not home brew) wine and beer was served at sixth form social events like balls or concerts. Not sure how they got around the licensing laws serving alcohol to under 18s (maybe because you paid with chits and the bill got sent to your parents) 😂

We were not allowed to be inside any buildings during morning break, everyone had to be in the yard with no exceptions. For one term when our PE class was swimming, we had double PE either side of the 15 minute morning break.

So every week we would swim, get fully dressed in the allotted 4 minutes, to stand outside with wet hair in winter, only to walk back inside, put on a wet swimming costume and swim a bit more before getting redressed in your next 4 minutes with a wet towel in your damp uniform to then go to geography.

I spent so much time cold and wet wishing they would let us stay inside for that break.

Girls in Y7-Y10 (although in those days it was called year 1-4) weren’t allowed to wear trousers. Y11 girls were!

In Y10 a group of us got a petition together to present to the Headmaster saying we wanted the right to wear trousers but he wasn’t having it, the sexist git.

This was 1993.

We had to cover our books too! Wallpaper or wrapping paper. The kids from the more affluent families persuaded their parents to get sticky-backed plastic.

We also had to embroider our names- but on the PE skirts (which were short, red and pleated).

True. But a child who can't do PE because they are on crutches should have a chair, and a coat if it's cold.

So much stuff like this - and I was at school in the 90’s. Stuff about bras showing and skirts having to be long, one nun would be on uniform patrol in the morning. We were told we were making the male teachers uncomfortable!

The cricket square. That sacred perfect piece of turf. If you dared set a toe on it all hell would break loose.

Denim jackets were banned at mine too.
Didn't stop me wearing it at every opportunity and therefore being constantly in bother.

I don't remember much else other than blazers had to be worn in hot weather.

Our school uniform was black trousers/skirts white shirts and black jumpers.

Boys were had to wear black socks - absolutely no white socks! Now this was the mid 80s so they were lucky the boys weren't showing up with highlighter yellow or pink socks (it was a bit of a thing back then) and I could never understand why the school thought white socks were so hideous with a black and white uniform!

My favourites were not being allowed to be inside over break unless there was a actually a hurricane or monsoon outside, when certain rooms were opened. And no "congregating" anywhere other than the playground or a specified seating area during break or lunch. Not sure if someone genuinely expected 15yos to spend 15mins playing tag at break.

We also had the stupid thing about not being allowed to go home in your PE kit if it was your last lesson. Although if you stayed after school for a sports club it was OK. So walking home at half 3 in PE Kit = wrong and bringing the school into disrepute. Walking home at 5pm in PE Kit = perfectly fine.

Also teachers blaming an entire class for "being late" when your timetable clearly showed your previous lesson was on the opposite side of the campus and there was a five minute gap between lessons. My school was big, and a very sprawly campus.

Grade wise my school loved me, but I spent a lot of time getting in trouble for pointing out why rules were stupid. I once got detention for responding to a teacher who said "It's not my fault your previous lesson is in the furthest away building" with "and it's not mine either". I was a pain in the arse 😆

Omg this. 'Because it will distract the male teachers.' (All girls' school, 1990s.) And our shirts weren’t even white, they were daffodil yellow!

And P.E. knickers that make that US women's Olympics kit look like a nun's habit.

No tracksuits allowed for outdoor sports in winter, even though the school sports' uniform included a tracksuit...?

Also no 'invisible socks with the standard uniform, even if they were just plain black or white.

When I was 3 it snowed heavily and my mum sent me to school wearing a pair of maroon gloves knitted by my nan. Maroon and grey were the school colours but as I was in nursery I just wore my own clothes with a school smock over the top (as did everyone in nursery; there was no uniform in our size.) At the end of the day the headteacher told my mum the gloves had been confiscated and 3 year old me had played in the snow all day with bare hands as gloves had to be maroon with 2 thin grey parallel stripes around each wrist. I don't remember this but my mum definitely does.

Skirts below the knee. Woe betide you if you flaunted that one. Mirrored shoes also banned during the Bros years.

V strict uniform. Ridiculous and expensive compulsory gabardine coat which was not remotely waterproof. In Ireland.... bless my mum, she put her foot down when I outgrew it and refused to buy another. She was as mild mannered as you get and volunteered for all kinds of school crap. I think they were flabbergasted when she said hell no.

Silence in bits of the school but not in all corridors. Changed all the time as teachers moved around and exam cycles so we were always in trouble.

Prayers at the start of every lesson.

No make up. Witnessed a goth/curehead having her face scrubbed with soap and water under a tap on my first day of school by the principal nun. Hair for good measure as was sprayed into a quiff style.

Detention consisted of nasty jobs the nuns wanted done like outside playground bins scrubbed out in cold water in minus temps.

Not allowed outside of school grounds to buy lunch. Because... boys

Doing anything "offensive" in school uniform was an expulsion event

Best years of my life. Not. Hated it, couldn't wait to leave, have never darkened the door of the place since

We had the 6 inch rule in 1999 although it was never enforced. One teacher had his office beside the common room and used to yell it jovially as he walked by (mostly at the boys wrestling but sometimes at canoodling couples.)

We weren’t allowed to eat in the streets outside school while in school uniform, nor on the school bus.

We had our tennis lessons in the local park which was about a ten minute walk away. We had to walk there through the streets in a crocodile wearing the official PE uniform, brown baggy knickers and an aertex t shirt - this was at Secondary school and quite often there were random men watching us play tennis from the path near the courts.