Daft school rules

[Busaholic]

I remember that wanting to leave to go to the toilet was banned. If you did get to the point that you needed to ask permission to do so it might well be denied and you would receive a punishment just for asking. This would probably be fairly minor but one or two masters would hand out some quite hefty punishments. Leaving the room without permission for any reason, even to throw up, would result in a fairly heavy punishment. Of course, as a private school has a lot of favouritism in its structure, some boys would know that they could get away with a hell of a lot, but leaving a class without permission was just about the only thing that even they wouldn’t risk.

I'm pretty sure we were never allowed toilet breaks during a 'period', and I was at a ghastly all-boy establishment. From the little I remember of the loos, you'd have to be fairly desperate to use them anyway. Come to think of it, it's probably where my lifelong habit of not getting enough hydration came from, on the basis least in, least out.

 

[Bevan Price]

We had a completely mad rule banning us from using ballpoint pens for all work in school or homework. We had to use fountain pens with ink (remember them?) instead. Which meant that from the age of 10 to 17 I went about with my fingers and other parts of my anatomy permanently dyed dark blue.

At my (grammar) school, we were not even allowed to use fountain pens - we had to used school-issue pens which had a pen nib clamped to a length of wood (cylindrical shape) - and there were ink wells in every desk. (An occasional target for health salts by some boys.)

Teachers (including 2 ladies) were known as masters, and had to be addressed as "sir".

We had to wear a uniform, consisting of a school blazer (with school badge), school cap, grey trousers (or short pants for younger boys), and were allowed to wear a navy blue raincoat in winter, or if it was raining.

We also had to raise our cap if we met a master outside school premises.

Whilst outside school in uniform, you were regarded as a "representative" of the school, and anyone spotted misbehaving could be punished when they got back to school.

We had to raise our hands if we wanted to ask a question in class, and wait for an invitation to speak.

We needed permission to leave school premises at break time; fortunately I could get home for midday dinner. Previous experience of school dinners just made me want to throw-up. Who on earth thought it was a good idea to serve mixtures of grossly overboiled vegetables plus thin layers of something pretending to be meat, but totally devoid of taste ?

Running down corridors was not permitted.

Written punishments were preferred, but particularly bad behaviour got a visit to sample the headmaster's cane (that seemed to be fairly uncommon - maybe 2 or 3 boys per year from your class). For lesser bad behaviour, a few masters used a ruler, gym slipper or blackboard duster on the hand or bum as punishment.

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

At my (grammar) school, we were not even allowed to use fountain pens - we had to used school-issue pens which had a pen nib clamped to a length of wood (cylindrical shape) - and there were ink wells in every desk. (An occasional target for health salts by some boys.)

Teachers (including 2 ladies) were known as masters, and had to be addressed as "sir".

We had to wear a uniform, consisting of a school blazer (with school badge), school cap, grey trousers (or short pants for younger boys), and were allowed to wear a navy blue raincoat in winter, or if it was raining.

We also had to raise our cap if we met a master outside school premises.

Whilst outside school in uniform, you were regarded as a "representative" of the school, and anyone spotted misbehaving could be punished when they got back to school.

We had to raise our hands if we wanted to ask a question in class, and wait for an invitation to speak.

We needed permission to leave school premises at break time; fortunately I could get home for midday dinner. Previous experience of school dinners just made me want to throw-up. Who on earth thought it was a good idea to serve mixtures of grossly overboiled vegetables plus thin layers of something pretending to be meat, but totally devoid of taste ?

Running down corridors was not permitted.

Written punishments were preferred, but particularly bad behaviour got a visit to sample the headmaster's cane (that seemed to be fairly uncommon - maybe 2 or 3 boys per year from your class). For lesser bad behaviour, a few masters used a ruler, gym slipper or blackboard duster on the hand or bum as punishment.

Yes, we had very similar rules at my Primary and Secondary Schools.

Another odd thing that some masters insisted that we do, was to cover our exercise booked with either brown paper or wallpaper, they never said why and it did not make sense to me.

Ideally they wanted us to wear school uniform, but they did accept that not everyone could afford that, but they did insist they we all wore ties, preferably the school tie, but if not that, then any tie. Penalty for not complying was 2 or 3 strokes of the cane on the hands on backside.

Normal punishments similar to the above, was cane on the hands or slipper / cane on the backside. Loads of Lines and detentions, the lines usually having to be done in detention. Worst punishment was a Saturday morning detention which could last a long time and you had to turn up in uniform, so if you were seen in town wearing that, people knew that you were in trouble.

 

[ComUtoR]

Another boarding school kid checking in

I think that rules we found the most restrictive were anything that curtailed freedom. However, from a safeguarding point of view I can understand why they needed to exist.

Anything to do with hair I find rather odd and outdated. Hair length or hair style is a person and often religious choice. I remember a girls in my class always came back to school with a new colour every term. Every time she was sent back home till it faded out. Generally my boarding school didn't have any real restrictions on hair other than colour. Social norms were very different back in the 80s so its unfair to judge school rules based on today's society and culture.

At College my English Teacher would go absolutely crazy about ink colour and you could only write in Black or Blue-Black. Writing my essays in bright Peacock Blue gave me immense pleasure. To this very day I still default to blue ink over black.

Food is another one that really irks me. Boarding school gave me 3 square a day and tbh it was pretty decent grub. Being forced to put something on your plate just leads to waste. The flip side was food at my school was a precious commodity and was traded back and forth. Many mornings I would sit there with a plate of 10 or so saussages and a smear of orange where the beans used to be.

 

[Gloster]

Another boarding school kid checking in

I think that rules we found the most restrictive were anything that curtailed freedom. However, from a safeguarding point of view I can understand why they needed to exist.

Anything to do with hair I find rather odd and outdated. Hair length or hair style is a person and often religious choice. I remember a girls in my class always came back to school with a new colour every term. Every time she was sent back home till it faded out. Generally my boarding school didn't have any real restrictions on hair other than colour. Social norms were very different back in the 80s so its unfair to judge school rules based on today's society and culture.

At College my English Teacher would go absolutely crazy about ink colour and you could only write in Black or Blue-Black. Writing my essays in bright Peacock Blue gave me immense pleasure. To this very day I still default to blue ink over black.

Food is another one that really irks me. Boarding school gave me 3 square a day and tbh it was pretty decent grub. Being forced to put something on your plate just leads to waste. The flip side was food at my school was a precious commodity and was traded back and forth. Many mornings I would sit there with a plate of 10 or so saussages and a smear of orange where the beans used to be.

In the 1970s hair was definitely short for boys: if it got too long you were sent to the barber who visited a couple of times a term. Quite, frankly, he was not very good and it was always obvious who had been sent to him. Just to show how the school thought his first visit was early in the term to deal with everybody who came back with ‘long’ hair (*), then one or two more visits and finally one a week or so before the end of term. The last was used as a a bit of a punishment by some masters. Boys with quite acceptable hair-length were sent to the barber as an unofficial punishment, as they would have to start their holidays with a short and ugly cut.
* - Long hair meant touching the collar. Long hair in the normal meaning would probably have resulted in the boy being returned to parents, who would be told not to send him back until his hair was according to the school rules. Parents, who think they have got rid of their offspring for a couple of months, do not like this.

Swapping food was definitely frowned on. You were expected to eat what was on your plate and if you didn’t like it you put it in a food bin near the exit. You should have refused it when collecting your meal and taken the alternative: nothing. Quite what the thinking behind the rules was, I don’t know. Probably somebody’s interpretation in the 1920s or 1930s as to how a gentleman should behave. (Not that my school was anything like as systematically snobbish as many schools, but one must play to parent’s prejudices.)

 

[Yew]

We had a completely mad rule banning us from using ballpoint pens for all work in school or homework. We had to use fountain pens with ink (remember them?) instead. Which meant that from the age of 10 to 17 I went about with my fingers and other parts of my anatomy permanently dyed dark blue.

I can think of no worse way to put people off writing with fountain pens for life, than to force them to write with a scratchy cheap one at school.

-Criticised for "not being touchy feely enough" with a female classmate during an outdoor pursuits activity.

If anything, it seems like teachers should be pushing for the exact opposite.

 

[PeterC]

I discovered a side effect of the uniform rules from the 60s a couple of weeks ago. The building had just undergone a full refurbishment and an old boys reunion had an impressive display of old caps, ties and hymn books. These had stuffed into gaps behind various pieces of panelling at the end of the year.

 

[Trackman]

I can think of no worse way to put people off writing with fountain pens for life, than to force them to write with a scratchy cheap one at school.

We had a choice at primary school - pencil or fountain once you had learned 'fancy writing', so I used fountain pens.
An odd thing happened last year I had sign an official document using the registrar's fountain pen - I couldn't do it as it just scraped the paper. This was because of the angle I held the pen at whilst doing my signature, so I ended up doing my 'old' signature so to speak.

 

[SteveP29]

We had to eat dinner in silence, with loads of "stop talking" from the dinner ladies. Miscreants would be forced to stand up at the table for the rest of the meal.

We also had to enter the dinner hall and spend the whole time we were there in silence. You were allowed a few indiscretions, if you continued to transgress, you had to stand out against the wall, whether you were finished eating or not.
After the sitting (we had two sittings, 1st and 2nd years went first, then 3rd and 4th years) if you had been stood out, you had to go and line up at the Headmaster's office, you were wheeled in when he came back from his lunch, he had a Black & Red book that he took pupils names. The legend was that if you went in 3 times, you became eligible for the cane. (i went in that book dozens of times in my 4 years and never got it yet)

Rob, did you have to say ‘Grace’: For what we are about to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful, Amen?

Our version was: 'For what we are about to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful, for Christ's sake, Amen' (which prompted plenty sniggers every day)

Other rules in Primary:
Walk down the corridors on the left (I don't actually mind this, it's not a daft idea, it means nobody bumps into anybody)
Chairs up on desks at the end of each day
No running though the playground to the gate (we used to have races to a certain lamppost a few streets over every night, so we developed ways of walking very quickly)
'Seccombe's grass' was a patch of grass about the size of an 18 yard box, no border, just the playground, it was named after the Headmaster, Mr Seccombe and that's where your class photo and sports teams photos were taken every year. You were NOT allowed on it without his express permission, so, basically, never.

At Comprehensive we had:
Not allowed to take blazers off at any time, even in the height of summer (I joined the school after Easter in the 2nd year after moving town, classmates were horrified when I took my blazer off and hung it on the back of my chair)
Only Prefects and Staff were allowed to use the main entrance, the rest of us had to go down the side of the Science block and round the back entrances

As an aside, our Maths teacher loved his pupils who could do maths, the rest, he held in distain and barely helped when in need.
He declined to join the teachers syndicate, saying the odds of winning were too great and it wouldn't be worth the Pound a week.
This was a few years after I'd finished there, so the story came from a cousin. They won £750,000, apparently he didn't speak to any of the others in the syndicate until he retired.

 

[johnnychips]

For what we are about to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful, for Christ's sake, Amen' (which prompted plenty sniggers every day)

Please don’t post things like this when I’ve got a mouthful of beer, which is now all over the table!

 

[SteveP29]

My most disturbing experience in high school (there were many) was also one of the first, the initial double-P.E. on a Friday morning, in my first week of Y7. This was in the late 1990s, and we were told to kit up for rugby. However the first 45 minutes turned out to be a lecture by the Head of PE on the importance of personal hygiene and how to shower properly. And very very specifically, how to wash ourselves beneath the foreskin. And then after a shortened PE session, we had to strip and shower with him watching, and demonstrate that we had listened to the instruction. (Yes, really!)

He left a couple of years later to coach a national hockey team, god knows what else he got up to in his career. It left me with a permanent fear of communal showering and I have difficulty using urinals in public loos.

I had similar.
First PE lesson at Comprehensive was a 45 minute lecture on personal hygiene (not getting anywhere near as personal as you) followed by a 5 minute 'tour' of the facilities (sports hall, changing rooms and gymnasium)

At my second Comprehensive we had a PE teacher who would stand in the shower entrance and watch us shower, which used to only ever consist of getting a little wet then leaving.
Willy Watcher Wilburn was the name he'd been christened by pupils years and years ago. We discussed doing a Private Pyle on him with soap in our socks.
How we aren't permanently traumatised, I don't know

 

[Busaholic]

At my second Comprehensive we had a PE teacher who would stand in the shower entrance and watch us shower, which used to only ever consist of getting a little wet then leaving.
Willy Watcher Wilburn was the name he'd been christened by pupils years and years ago. We discussed doing a Private Pyle on him with soap in our socks.
How we aren't permanently traumatised, I don't know

I always refused to shower at school for the reason you give - no-one ever called me out for it. A few years later, after I'd left school , moved into a rented bedsit and got married I found he lived a few doors down and was always staring out of the window. Weirdo, but quite a few teachers were in my experience.

 

[FLIRTfan18]

I've relatively recently finished Sixth Form at a school which is highly regarded but has some very silly rules.
For a while standing up outside in the lunchtime social area was forbidden, we had to be seated at all times. They soon gave up with that though.
Blazers also had to be on whilst standing up. A student once got up to answer a phone call that had come to the classroom for him without putting his blazer on and was very loudly shouted at.
Another teacher once demanded to know why someone had 'sworn' whilst lining up outside a classroom. The offender had said "Oh my God".

 

[johnnychips]

Just a quick one: when I was at school we called all male teachers ‘Sir’ and all female teachers ‘Miss’ (whatever their marital status) but when I did my teacher training at Hartcliffe School in Bristol in about 1981, the students had to call the female teachers ‘Madam’ and I wonder if that was/is common?

 

[yorksrob]

Just a quick one: when I was at school we called all male teachers ‘Sir’ and all female teachers ‘Miss’ (whatever their marital status) but when I did my teacher training at Hartcliffe School in Bristol in about 1981, the students had to call the female teachers ‘Madam’ and I wonder if that was/is common?

I was at school in the 80's/90's and "sir/miss" was expected.

 

[danm14]

My school had an utterly draconian rule on the confiscation of mobile phones.

They were to be confiscated if they were seen or heard - no exceptions. People had phones confiscated because they dropped out of their pockets despite being switched off; or for making a single beep that bothered nobody. One student even had his phone confiscated by the deputy headmaster for phoning a timber merchant to order material for a coursework project. This was despite him being directed to do so by the woodwork teacher as his phone had no signal, and the woodwork teacher explaining this to the deputy headmaster.

The period of confiscation was twenty school days. Confiscation ran either side of holidays, including summer. They even tried telling a final year student he couldn't get it back until September (when he would be in University).

One student, who every teacher had taken a disliking to for no apparent reason, asked if she could access her phone to transfer recordings of a dead relative off it. This was refused, and shortly afterwards she was told her phone was "lost". She saw it in a CeX a few months later. Pure, unadulterated evil.

 

[ABB125]

My school had an utterly draconian rule on the confiscation of mobile phones.

They were to be confiscated if they were seen or heard - no exceptions. People had phones confiscated because they dropped out of their pockets despite being switched off; or for making a single beep that bothered nobody. One student even had his phone confiscated by the deputy headmaster for phoning a timber merchant to order material for a coursework project. This was despite him being directed to do so by the woodwork teacher as his phone had no signal, and the woodwork teacher explaining this to the deputy headmaster.

The period of confiscation was twenty school days. Confiscation ran either side of holidays, including summer. They even tried telling a final year student he couldn't get it back until September (when he would be in University).

One student, who every teacher had taken a disliking to for no apparent reason, asked if she could access her phone to transfer recordings of a dead relative off it. This was refused, and shortly afterwards she was told her phone was "lost". She saw it in a CeX a few months later. Pure, unadulterated evil.

How recently was this?

 

[danm14]

How recently was this?

Early/mid 2010s, believe it or not.

 

[D821]

Did you have this confirmed or was it what you were told?

 

[danm14]

Did you have this confirmed or was it what you were told?

I was a student at the school when the policy was in force. The rules regarding confiscation were official, they were publicly available on the school's website and were strictly enforced.

I was in the class that the timber merchant incident occurred in. I can confirm that the student was indeed given permission to make the call as the teacher's phone had no signal; the teacher told the deputy principal this; but the phone was confiscated nonetheless.

The lost phone incident happened to a friend. I won't go into detail, but it did happen.

 

[D821]

I was a student at the school when the policy was in force. The rules regarding confiscation were official, they were publicly available on the school's website and were strictly enforced.

I was in the class that the timber merchant incident occurred in. I can confirm that the student was indeed given permission to make the call as the teacher's phone had no signal; the teacher told the deputy principal this; but the phone was confiscated nonetheless.

The lost phone incident happened to a friend. I won't go into detail, but it did happen.

Wow, that's shocking. Some people shouldn't be allowed near teaching.
I've been lucky in that my school experiences were pretty good. I had a couple of crap teachers but the good ones far outweighed them.

 

[D6968]

My school had an utterly draconian rule on the confiscation of mobile phones.

They were to be confiscated if they were seen or heard - no exceptions. People had phones confiscated because they dropped out of their pockets despite being switched off; or for making a single beep that bothered nobody. One student even had his phone confiscated by the deputy headmaster for phoning a timber merchant to order material for a coursework project. This was despite him being directed to do so by the woodwork teacher as his phone had no signal, and the woodwork teacher explaining this to the deputy headmaster.

The period of confiscation was twenty school days. Confiscation ran either side of holidays, including summer. They even tried telling a final year student he couldn't get it back until September (when he would be in University).

One student, who every teacher had taken a disliking to for no apparent reason, asked if she could access her phone to transfer recordings of a dead relative off it. This was refused, and shortly afterwards she was told her phone was "lost". She saw it in a CeX a few months later. Pure, unadulterated evil.

Slightly off topic I had a former manager who didn’t want staff to have phones on them whilst on duty (I work in hospitality and I get you don’t want staff messing around with things like social media whilst in public view)
However she really took it out on me one day when I used my mobile to call a supplier, so after this whenever I wasn’t at work as in the actual building I simply barred her mobile and the business land line numbers from my phone.
Took her a while to work why she couldn’t get me to come in to cover shifts at short notice, or what to do if something had gone wrong by that time I’d put my notice in!

 

[Welly]

I was at school in the 80's/90's and "sir/miss" was expected.

I was at school in the 1970s and 1980s, I never had to address any of my teachers "Sir" or "Miss"! I always knew their names.

 

[Busaholic]

I was at school in the 1970s and 1980s, I never had to address any of my teachers "Sir" or "Miss"! I always knew their names.

At my school surnames were all that was used, and you might never find out the first names of certain teachers (or even pupils if you weren't in their social circle!). It may have been the 1960s, but the sixties vibe never came within a mile of the place.

 

[birchesgreen]

Sir / Miss at my school too, always amusing in retrospect calling married female teachers miss.

 

[ABB125]

I was never very comfortable saying Sir/Miss. I'm not sure why though. Perhaps because at first school, we addressed teachers as "Mrs/Miss/Ms xyz" (where xyz=surname) (with the exception of the sole male member of staff at the school, Mr xyz), rather that the more usual "Miss". I suppose I was just unaccustomed to Sir/Miss. I could just about extend myself to say "yes Sir/Miss" when a register was being taken, but other than that I just avoided using any sort of personal address when speaking to teachers/other staff.

 

[Bevan Price]

My school had an utterly draconian rule on the confiscation of mobile phones.

They were to be confiscated if they were seen or heard - no exceptions. People had phones confiscated because they dropped out of their pockets despite being switched off; or for making a single beep that bothered nobody. One student even had his phone confiscated by the deputy headmaster for phoning a timber merchant to order material for a coursework project. This was despite him being directed to do so by the woodwork teacher as his phone had no signal, and the woodwork teacher explaining this to the deputy headmaster.

The period of confiscation was twenty school days. Confiscation ran either side of holidays, including summer. They even tried telling a final year student he couldn't get it back until September (when he would be in University).

One student, who every teacher had taken a disliking to for no apparent reason, asked if she could access her phone to transfer recordings of a dead relative off it. This was refused, and shortly afterwards she was told her phone was "lost". She saw it in a CeX a few months later. Pure, unadulterated evil.

I think I would have reported the teacher to the police for stealing my phone. Confiscation of anything without a court order is theft, no matter how schools to describe it as "discipline".

 

[bussnapperwm]

I think I would have reported the teacher to the police for stealing my phone. Confiscation of anything without a court order is theft, no matter how schools to describe it as "discipline".

Reminds me of that scene from Series 1, Episode 1 of Waterloo Road where the Deputy Head takes the phone off one of the students. The father comes into the school and punches the DH

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

We had to stand up whenever a teacher entered the room. 1998-2004, all boys grammar school. That rule was archaic even then.

My secondary school (2014-2019 plus until 2021 at 6th form) did that until the rather old fashioned head retired in 2017. We had to call teachers “Sir” or “Madam”.

Under her, we also had “Prep” which meant if you got three detentions or more for forgetting homework in a term (a third of the year), you’d have to stay at school every day for two weeks until 5:30.

Phones were also banned for Year 7 right through to Year 11, including having them switched off in your pocket which would get them confiscated for a week, sparking safety concerns…

She eventually got a restraining order from the corner shop opposite due to the bizarre “NO GOING TO THE SHOP EITHER DURING OR OUT OF SCHOOL HOURS” rule, because she used to stand outside the shop after school and make sure no one went in!!

It’s fair to say my primary school was probably different from many on here, but we used to say “Bless us, O’ Lord, and these thy gifts which we are about to receive from thy bounty through Christ, our Lord - Amen” before going to lunch. We used to have to go to Mass too. I’m not even a Catholic…

 

[PeterC]

Sir / Miss at my school too, always amusing in retrospect calling married female teachers miss.

At my junior school (50s - 60s) married female teachers were addressed as ma'am.

At an all male grammar school from 63 the question didn't arise. We were always addressed by surname. Between boys surnames were used. Nicknames might be used between boys in the same year and forenames only among close friends.