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.

omg PE knickers we had them !!!

"Stop complaining it's cold girls!!" when the teacher is in tracksuit and fleece and you're in PE knickers and an aertex blouse with roughly the insulating power of tissue paper.

We had to have our full name embroidered on every piece of pe kit - plimsolls, hockey boots, hockey socks - the lot. This was in the early 80s - there weren't shops that did it, all had to be hand embroidered. My mum dreaded us growing out of anything!

Only the 6th formers were allowed to use the front entrance.

You have brought back some memories op! I was at school early 90's too! My school did every one!
Plus you had to back your books in wallpaper

If you were late you had to stand in a long line and wait your turn for a lecture and to be allowed inside. I'm sure standing in line being lectured one by one was supposed to punish us students. In reality, the teachers doing the lecturing were freezing cold and then we were all inevitably late for our actual lesson starting, so a huge disruption for those teachers too.

Your school skirt had to reach below your knees, for modesty, but you had to do PE in a tiny miniskirt and gym knickers.

Inflexible one-way rules - yes, a one-way system makes perfect sense for busy times when the corridors are chaos but not when they're completely empty. Reasonable teachers would just ignore anyone they saw going the 'wrong way' at such times, but not all teachers were reasonable.

No trousers allowed. If you wanted to wear a coat or tights in winter, they had to be dark brown. Result? Nobody wore coats or tights.

Standing whenever any adult came into the room and chorusing 'Good morning Miss Teachersname' - did a lot of this in the first year, the older we got the less we bothered.

We weren't allowed to go into any shops on the way to school or the way home. Bizarre rule which nobody followed.

Not allowed to use the nice-looking main door to the school office, had to use a shabby side door down a dingy corridor.

Daily queuing up at breaktime for your free school meal token in said corridor, while everyone else gets the office staff's priority. If you turned up at a different, less busy time to try to avoid that particular humiliation, they'd make you stand outside the door for 15 minutes anyway to make a point (I just stopped eating lunch altogether and never told my parents.)

Our teacher used to drive behind us running the ‘cross country’. She’d be behind shouting and then zoom off up ahead.

We had separate playgrounds for boys and girls.

I'm not sure anyone including the teachers were allowed to use the fancy main door at our school.

I didn't get free school meals but I remember the kids who did having to queue up for little orange tickets. Why to go to stigmatise !

Showering after games. Had to walk naked to the showers, shower and walk back to your peg for your towel. No cubicles. Games teachers would send you back if they thought you hadnt spent enough time under the tepid water. Even if Games was the last class of the day, you had to shower.

Having to wear gym knickers for games amd being made to tuck your tshirt in.

If it was snowing, you couldnt wear snow boots to class. You could arrive in them and leave in them but not wear them during the day. Even though the school was comprised of many separate buildings. To get say from my tutor group after registration to art class was a 6 minute walk through the slush/snow in school shoes. Some days your feet never fully dried out.

Extra curricular activities were compulsory twice a week. One had to be a sport of some sort.

The boys could only wear short sleeved shirts when one of the deputy heads gave permission.

Good behaviour earned merits, bad behaviour got demerits. One demerit cancelled out a merit and each term each tutor group was pitted against all the others for prizes and a trophy. Whether it was the desired effect or not, it essentially encouraged a Lord of the Flies mentality in which bullying was rife. My tutor group won a lot.

Separate kits for all sports. Hockey skirts were only for hockey. Tennis skirts only for tennis. Gym knickers for athletics etc. Very frustrating on a day when you had swimming for games, cross country practice at lunch time and hockey practice after school but had to bring multiple sets of clothing.

We got regular bollockings in assembly for being seen eating and drinking in public in our school uniforms.
Members of the public wrote in to the school on a regular basis apparently, complaining that we were letting down the good name of the school.
I have vivid memories of the head teacher roaring "and they were even passing around a can of LEMONADE!!"
The mind boggles...this was late 1980's.

What are gym knickers? Did you wear them over your actual knickers? Or instead of? And nothing over the top of them?

http://school-gym-knickers-on-line.weebly.com/store/p4/Girls_Classic_MAROON__Gym_Knickers_%28Athletics_Shorts%2FUnderwear%29_BY_GYMPHLEX_Size_30_%26_32_%28XL_%26_XXL%29.html

Like this. Think a slightly less fitting, far less flattering version of what female track athletes wear. Awful things

Light blue thin cotton frocks an absolute disaster if a girl started her period without realising

What are gym knickers? Did you wear them over your actual knickers? Or instead of? And nothing over the top of them?

Think granny knickers but nylon/cotton mix I think. Worn over your actual knickers. Ours were royal blue with a big white stripe down the side. I hated them.

I wish my school had a one way rule - a school built for smaller students and no lockers so they all have huge backpacks (part of the uniform)
The stairs are absolute carnage at changeover times

We were not allowed to drink cans on the field as we may leave ringpulls which a squirrel could eat.

Our tie had to have atleast 7 stripes , if not you got a detention

We all had to stand up if another teacher entered the classroom.

Not allowed to wear coats on school grounds!

Early 2000s

Why did so many school rules mean that pupils (often particularly girls) had to be cold and uncomfortable ?

Our gym knickers were unbelievably thick nylon and navy blue, worn over your actual pants. At Primary school, you just wore those with your vest (ordinary white underwear vest) for indoor PE. Probably for outdoor too though I can’t remember 😂 I think the boys just wore their vests and pants for indoor PE.

At secondary we wore gym knickers under our (tiny) PE skirts for modesty’s sake. Ours were like this but red.

I remember those skirts. The fastener things didn't stay shut properly. Ours was a royal blue and light blue combo.

Boys wore normal navy shorts and either a navy rugby type top or white t shirt.....

Madonna was banned in my Catholic primary school.

We had to ask "please can I go to the toilet" in Welsh.If you didn't say it in Welsh,you were not allowed to go.

Having to wear big, maroon, gym knickers for PE (90s grammar school). In tennis, netball, hockey and other team sports you could wear a tennis skirt over the top, but you couldn't possibly do cross country running, athletics or gym wearing the skirt so had to just wear the knickers - you can't run in the skirts... Despite all the team sports requiring running. Only knickers to be worn when you had to run along the main road.

We had double yellow lines painted down certain corridors and pathways, which meant no stopping.

We had to carry our hymn books in our blazers at all times.

We had someone whose sole job was to issue punishment. He was the disciplinary master.

Ds's school sends text messages the day before to tell parents that their hot, sweaty little darlings will be authorised to remove their blazers the next day.

No text means the blazers are staying on. And this is in a school that architects saw fit to design with a glass roof. Not the kind of hothousing parents might want.

Brought up in Australia- at school in the 80s and 90s. We had a rule where you were not allowed to use the water fountains at any other time than break. And we had segregated water fountains per year group. Once on a day that had reached 42 degrees I was in our science portacabin which was located in the junior school although I was in the senior school. I was feeling hot and faint and vomity and was give permission to go and get water. I was filling up my bottle in the nearest junior school water fountains, spotted by our head teacher and given a Saturday morning detention for it.