Daft school rules

[Gloster]

Generally, up to O-Level the masters used surnames, except for for those who just said ‘You’, and the boys said Sir (or ‘Mr. X, Sir‘). In the A-Level years it was a bit more mixed with some masters using first names, but boys still saying Sir. Between boys it was often surnames except amongst your circle of friends. Nicknames weren’t often used to someone’s face as all too many of them were nasty.

 

[birchesgreen]

It was opposite for me at school, always firstnames with my class mates. It became a problem when i tried to find my classmates on Friends Reunited as i didn't know their surnames and i went to a big school with around 300 kids per year. So there were plenty of Peters and Bryans...

 

[ComUtoR]

Nicknames weren’t often used to someone’s face as all too many of them were nasty.

The whole Surname thing I found weird when I arrived at boarding school but I eventually found it normal.

I had a nickname in school that my friends, and their kids still call me today. A school reunion event some years ago I had a Teacher ask me what my real name was as some Teachers used my nickname. A few weeks ago we went out for drinks and I had to introduce myself to someone there. For the first time in forever I decided to use my real name.... The entire table just went [expletives deleted] his name is [insert nickname]. Not all nicknames are nasty but they were quite prevalent in my school. I think because it was a boarding school and we lived together in some weird kind of closed community that names had a certain level of power.

 

[D6968]

I had a male primary school teacher who would call you by your surname if you did something wrong, you knew you were in trouble then!
A few years ago I used to see my old Geography Teacher amongst others in the King and Castle in Kidderminster, when the Harriers were at home, He gently told me off on one occasion for asking ‘fancy a pint sir?’ He reminded me that I not only was I 20 I’d left school 4 years earlier!

 

[gg1]

At my senior school in the late 80s/early 90s, all female teachers were addressed as Madam rather than Miss. All pupils were addressed by their first name, with the exception of one teacher who insisted on referring to boys by their surnames and girls by their first names.

 

[ABB125]

Pupils at my school were referred to by first name by teachers. By fellow pupils, it was generally first names as well, except among certain friendship groups where there were multiple people with the same first name, when surnames were used.

 

[py_megapixel]

Another teacher once demanded to know why someone had 'sworn' whilst lining up outside a classroom. The offender had said "Oh my God".

Reminds me of when I had to stay in a classroom for 10 minutes at break (sort of a miniature detention; our school liked giving those out) for nonchalantly saying "who cares" in response to something inconsequential.

 

[ABB125]

Reminds me of when I had to stay in a classroom for 10 minutes at break (sort of a miniature detention; our school liked giving those out) for nonchalantly saying "who cares" in response to something inconsequential.

Who cares?

 

[Ediswan]

Another thread prompted this. Not so much daft as quirky. We had a seven day timetable, it helped to balance the time given to each subject.

Week 1: Mon - Day 1, Tue - Day 2, Wed - Day 3, Thu - Day 4, Fri - Day 5

Week 2: Mon - Day 6, Tue - Day 7, Wed - Day 1, Thu - Day 2, Fri - Day 3

etc.

 

[Gareth]

In junior school, the head dinner lady had some dumb rule in the dining hall where you could only traverse it along the walls in a clockwise direction. It was for safety reasons, apparently. So, if you wanted to leave and your table was just offside from the exit door, you had to head to the wall and trapse all around till you made your way back to where the door was. Non-compliance meant she'd blow on her retired husband's police whistle and roar at you to "go round!".

I remember some older kids, once, making a point of mocking it by doing several laps - "you went round twice - get out!".

 

[ABB125]

Another thread prompted this. Not so much daft as quirky. We had a seven day timetable, it helped to balance the time given to each subject.

Week 1: Mon - Day 1, Tue - Day 2, Wed - Day 3, Thu - Day 4, Fri - Day 5

Week 2: Mon - Day 6, Tue - Day 7, Wed - Day 1, Thu - Day 2, Fri - Day 3

etc.

Eugh! That messes with my head...

 

[py_megapixel]

Another thread prompted this. Not so much daft as quirky. We had a seven day timetable, it helped to balance the time given to each subject.

Week 1: Mon - Day 1, Tue - Day 2, Wed - Day 3, Thu - Day 4, Fri - Day 5

Week 2: Mon - Day 6, Tue - Day 7, Wed - Day 1, Thu - Day 2, Fri - Day 3

Was there some kind of signage indicating what day it was?

We had a 10 day timetable (i.e. a simple 2 week cycle) and my school had a lot of signs up saying "THURSDAY 2", for example. I would say that was only if it was actually the Thursday in the 2nd week of the cycle, but in reality that wasn't true as the teachers sometimes forgot to change the sign each morning.

I believe some schools nowadays have electronic displays in the corridor - I wonder if any such schools use them to display this kind of information?

 

[Ediswan]

Was there some kind of signage indicating what day it was?

Yes. A big sign on the most conspicuous internal wall saying (along the lines of) "Today is day N". There was a resident caretaker. Changing the sign was one of their early day jobs. On the very rare occasions the sign was wrong, the pupils would chase down the caretaker to fix it. The big clock above was less reliable, had a tendency to run backwards (AC motor aficionados, feel free to comment).

We had a 10 day timetable (i.e. a simple 2 week cycle) and my school had a lot of signs up saying "THURSDAY 2", for example. I would say that was only if it was actually the Thursday in the 2nd week of the cycle, but in reality that wasn't true as the teachers sometimes forgot to change the sign each morning.

Another nearby school (so still had friends from primary school), also a grammar school, ran a 2 week system. It was pointless debating which was better. The only people who really knew how well the seven day system worked were the small group of teachers (maths and physics mostly) who went into a secret conclave for a couple of weeks at the end of each summer term to plan the classes/subjects/rooms/staff timetable for the following year.

 

[AlterEgo]

Another thread prompted this. Not so much daft as quirky. We had a seven day timetable, it helped to balance the time given to each subject.

Week 1: Mon - Day 1, Tue - Day 2, Wed - Day 3, Thu - Day 4, Fri - Day 5

Week 2: Mon - Day 6, Tue - Day 7, Wed - Day 1, Thu - Day 2, Fri - Day 3

etc.

That’s very odd. We had a ten day timetable so Week 1 and Week 3 were identical and so were Week 2 and Week 4.

 

[Gloster]

Our timetable was the same every week, except for some courses such as science or music, where the rooms were too small for the whole class, and the class was split into two. One week your half would go to the fully equipped classroom, the next to a normal one and have what would now be called a theory lesson.

We also had something in the A-Level years, which I can’t fully remember, in the last two periods before lunch on Saturdays, but only every fourth week. I think it was some sort of moral instruction and only a quarter attended each time: that was still twenty-five or so pupils. What I can remember was that, because it had a religious or similar basis, they couldn’t make it compulsory as that would have been contrary to the school’s founding principles. However, although it wasn’t compulsory, you had to go as far as they were concerned. My mate and I never went as we used the time to catch up on our work before the deadline for handing it in at lunchtime. We got away with this blank refusal because they didn’t want to make an issue of something that the governors, who may not have been aware of how the matter was being handled, might object to. (The school was supposed to be non-religious, but a religious headmaster was slowly moving more religious elements into the school’s curriculum and practices.)

 

[185143]

I remembered the other day that my primary school headmaster who was very old and traditional, a very good teacher may I add, always addressed pupils as "Master/Miss <Surname>".

We had a poor kid in my class with the surname "Bate". Genuinely. I'm sure you can imagine the sniggers that used to get!

 

[GusB]

Addressing teachers as "Sir" or "Miss" was never a thing throughout my whole school career; it was always just "Mr", "Mrs" or "Miss". The only time I ever heard a teacher addressed as "Sir" was when he'd just belted one of my classmates and, having asked the poor kid if he understood why and received the reply "yes", the teacher demanded, "Yes what?"

On an unrelated note, it was sometimes amusing to us when a female teacher finished one term as "Miss So-and-So" and then came back as "Mrs Something-Else"; ooh, she got married. On those occasions, it would sometimes take a bit of getting used to using the new name, and there was usually a grace period in which we were forgiven for slipping up. However, if a teacher finished a term as "Mrs So-and-So" and came back as "Miss Something-else", there was far less tolerance for such errors!

 

[Gloster]

On an unrelated note, it was sometimes amusing to us when a female teacher finished one term as "Miss So-and-So" and then came back as "Mrs Something-Else"; ooh, she got married. On those occasions, it would sometimes take a bit of getting used to using the new name, and there was usually a grace period in which we were forgiven for slipping up. However, if a teacher finished a term as "Mrs So-and-So" and came back as "Miss Something-else", there was far less tolerance for such errors!

Although we had few female teachers, if one did get divorced she would probably move to another school, possibly with the discrete assistance of her old one. In certain strands of middle-class society divorce (by other people) still had considerable stigma. The thought of having any part of little Johnny’s upbringing carried out by a divorced woman was not to be contemplated. Her alternative was to pretend to be a widow (we had parents like that) or carry on as if nothing had happened and hope nobody found out.

Male teachers could generally bluff it out as their wives/ex-wives were usually of no significance to the school’s running. Female teacher’s husbands weren’t of significance either, but were much more of an object of curiosity to parents: “We must be sure that Mrs Whoosit isn’t being lead astray by an untrustworthy husband and so might fail in looking after our Johnny.”

 

[Busaholic]

In junior school, the head dinner lady had some dumb rule in the dining hall where you could only traverse it along the walls in a clockwise direction. It was for safety reasons, apparently. So, if you wanted to leave and your table was just offside from the exit door, you had to head to the wall and trapse all around till you made your way back to where the door was. Non-compliance meant she'd blow on her retired husband's police whistle and roar at you to "go round!".

I remember some older kids, once, making a point of mocking it by doing several laps - "you went round twice - get out!".

Always wondered what Ann Widdicombe did in a previous life.

 

[ATW Alex 101]

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.

This was also a strange rule we seemed to have at primary school. Throughout infant school it was pencil (one that was provided by the teacher, placed in a holder in the middle of the table along with a communal sharpener).

Come year 3, first year of Junior School, once the teacher deemed your handwriting good enough, you were ‘upgraded’ to pen. But it had to be blue ink and had to be a handwriting, fine liner or fountain

I remember maths teachers were always really strict about ensuring we wrote in pencil, not pen. Other subjects took the sensible approach of "use what you want as long as we can read it". Funnily enough this changed in fourth year as it was our first exam year and completing the exam in pen was compulsory. Considering the teachers all knew that come fourth year we'd have to use pen anyway it always struck me as both pointless and odd to be so strict about pen & pencil use.

Similar to the above, I also remember at primary school that maths had to be done in pencil.

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

This was also enforced when I was at high school from 2010-2015. I also thought this was rather old fashioned! My brother who attended until 2019 said this was still a thing by the time he left.

… Pupils were banned from wearing coats or having bags with rap artists logos because there was a suggestion it promoted drug use. East 17 duffle bags were later banned following Brian Harvey's media antics…

This reminded me of when every pupil and his dog seemed to get a parka jacket (one of those with a big lion mane on the hood). They weren’t cheap and I think one student lost his/had it stolen and as a result the headmaster sent out a letter banning branded/designer coats from being worn to school. Attached was a list of brands which may be considered ‘branded’ or ‘designer’.

If you forgot your PE kit or were missing bits of kit, the PE teacher would make you do PE in your school uniform. A primary school sports teacher once made me do three laps of the running track in my full uniform and Clark's shoes because I accidentally got my days mixed up and came to school without my kit. My shoes were soaked in mud and I had to spend the rest of the school day sat in a sweaty uniform. For that very reason I have always hated running or athletics.


I doubt if teachers would get away with the last one now.

CJ

We had a PE teacher who had taught for many years at the school. He was a complete a*sehole. A proper bully, just a nasty bloke. Parents of my classmates whom he had taught years ago told that if they forgot their kit he made them do PE in their underwear. When I was at High School it was slightly better in that you were forced to look in lost property and pick something there.

…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..

This reminds me of a something we experienced in primary school when we did swimming on a Monday at a local sports centre.

After the actual swimming, we had to use the shower to clean the chlorine. One of the supervisors there used to stand and make us line up, three would go into the shower (with three shower heads) and count 1…2…3..out… next 3. And repeat. I often thought how could he clean if all we do is stand there for 3 seconds which was in reality about 1 second… he just counted quicker.

Other silly rules I seemed to recall from High School was relating to the physics classrooms. They had two doors. If you entered via the left hand door, you were forced to leave via that door, walk along the corridor and enter via the right hand door. This happened even after we were seated. Strange.

Aside from silly rules, was it only my school or did your schools also have a kid from the past who leaned back on his chair and fell and smashed his head open?? If you know what I’m on about, you know what I’m on about..

 

[GusB]

This reminded me of when every pupil and his dog seemed to get a parka jacket (one of those with a big lion mane on the hood). They weren’t cheap and I think one student lost his/had it stolen and as a result the headmaster sent out a letter banning branded/designer coats from being worn to school. Attached was a list of brands which may be considered ‘branded’ or ‘designer’.

Parkas were the standard coat to have when I was a kid, until they weren't (I didn't get the memo saying they weren't in fashion any more...) They weren't that expensive, and they certainly weren't "designer". They seemed to be around for years.

There were a couple of "fads" that I remember from primary school:

• White "sports socks" became the in-thing to wear instead of dark grey, blue or black ones
• "Luminous" socks were a thing for a while - I had a a yellow pair and was forbidden to wear them to school, but I managed to sneak them out of the house one day and was given absolute hell for it when I got back home

In my early years of secondary school there was a similar fad for Slazenger V-neck jumpers in various pastel shades, including pink, instead of the standard navy-blue. I had a lemon-yellow one and a pink one and wore them both to school. Around the same time it was also fashionable to wear shirts with half-inch vertical coloured stripes alternating with white, and leather ties which were about an inch in width (not to school, obviously). Throw in the pleated-front, flecked grey trousers with turn-ups and light-grey shoes, along with spiky-haired mullets* and I'm sure you get the picture... Perms were a thing for guys around that time too (and flat-tops!)

* I was allowed the spikes, but not the mullet as it wasn't "above the collar" - not that I would have wanted one anyway. My fashion sense wasn't that great, but it wasn't that bad either.

On reflection, perhaps the 80s are best forgotten after all

 

[krus_aragon]

Aside from silly rules, was it only my school or did your schools also have a kid from the past who leaned back on his chair and fell and smashed his head open?? If you know what I’m on about, you know what I’m on about..

I never saw that as a school kid, though there were plenty of warnings about it. I did later see it happen as a teacher: I had such an urge to laugh at the lad who sailed back and didn't rock up again, but somehow kept a straight face.

 

[Bayum]

Back on topic, our school used to allow us to use the library at lunchtimes, freely browse books etc, but I believe some schools no longer allow this. What do they have against kids learning in an extracurricular manner, one wonders?

Difficult for a school, particularly primary, to be able to do this - especially if there’s no adult to oversee for safeguarding etc.

 

[The DJ]

Very strange female maths teacher who, if you happened to forget an item of stationery would (a) totally ignore you for the rest of the period and (b) order the rest of the class not to talk to you. She proudly called it the "freeze treatment". She seemed to enjoy finding a "victim" of her imagined power and authority but the truth was nobody liked "Miss Pickering". The male teachers weren't too keen on her either as she was apparently a little too "forward" in her interaction with male colleagues.

 

[mikeg]

Difficult for a school, particularly primary, to be able to do this - especially if there’s no adult to oversee for safeguarding etc.

Ah I was referring solely to secondary schools. In our school there was the librarian on shift at lunchtime, presumably she took her break some other time

 

[D6968]

Ah I was referring solely to secondary schools. In our school there was the librarian on shift at lunchtime, presumably she took her break some other time

We had a librarian who didn’t like you coming in and using the library at all! I got in trouble during my last year for asking her what was the point the point in having it as a resource if nobody was allowed to use it? Unfortunately the Deputy Head was in earshot.

 

[Gloster]

When I started in 1973 essays had to be written using a fountain pen, although short answers and maths or science working was allowed in ball-point. I am not sure about translations: it may have been up to the individual master as to what they were written in. This was only for the first year, or possibly two: i am not sure if the school finally caught up with the twentieth century and abandoned the rule or it was just another way to get new boys to knuckle down.

We had school uniform when I started and that was very much laid down in information sent to parents. However, there were a couple of masters who seemed to enjoy detecting minor infringements and punishing boys for them. But being a school where the parents paid the fees and money counted, some boys could get away with infringing or breaking the rules more than others. One thing that was specifically banned in the school’s uniform policy was Doc Marten boots. However, we had one boy who wore them: he claimed that he needed them for medical reasons and, being who he was, the school just let him without asking for any doctor’s note. I suppose he did need them for medical reasons: he liked to kick people in the privates and he might have hurt his poor little toes otherwise.

 

[birchesgreen]

I suppose he did need them for medical reasons: he liked to kick people in the privates and he might have hurt his poor little toes otherwise.

Which member of the cabinet is he now?

 

[adc82140]

We had a passageway between two classroom blocks which was called "the short way". It was a convenient cut through, but heaven forbid if you were caught using it and you weren't a prefect.

 

[Gloster]

Which member of the cabinet is he now?

I heard indirectly (I haven’t kept up with other pupils and resigned my life membership of the Old Boys Association) that a few years later he ‘got God’. If he was trying to atone for his sins, he was going to be busy for a long while.