‘What happened at your school that would never be allowed today?’ – 21 hair-raising stories that prove they were not always the best days of our lives

Are your school days the best days of your life? Perhaps if you were one of those people who were super popular at 16 and have been on a downward trajectory ever since.

But the majority of people seem to have found them a bit of a nightmare, if the answers to this post from Big_Scratch5248 on the AskUK subreddit are anything to go by…

What are some things that happened at school that would never be allowed to happen today?

‘I was born in 1991 and myself and my friend have just been talking about primary school and we both collectively remember how if you forgot to bring your PE kit in, they would just make me do it in your underwear.

‘I’m just curious if anyone else experienced things back then that wouldn’t be allowed today.

A horrendous experience that mercifully would not fly these days. And lots of other people chipped in with their own woeful tales of education, like these…

1.

‘Aged 8 I dared ask the teacher for help for the second time because i didnt understand. She ripped the book out of my hand, threw it across the room and screamed ‘Idiot!’ at me.

I never asked another question in her class. Fuck you Mrs Allman.’
–VxDeva80

2.

‘Being attacked by a flying blackboard duster. Mr Davy was a perfect shot…’
–GroupApprehensive978

3.

‘My primary school teacher telling students that girls just “weren’t as good at maths” so not to worry too much about it.’
–Electronic-Fennel828

4.

‘Buying 5 packets of crisps for 10p each from the tuck shop! We were sold so much cheap junk food during breaks!

Also, no water bottles – drinks permitted only during breaks.’
–MidasToad

5.

‘English was by far my worst subject. One teacher photocopied my essay one day and handed it out for the rest of the class as an example of what not to do. I’m now 32 and still find myself squirming in embarrassment.’
–Mental-Bill2236

6.

‘Mrs Wilson telling me “girls don’t do that” when I said I wanted to be a mechanic. Another teacher whose name escapes me telling me the closest I’ll get to a horse is watching the Grand National on television.

I’m now 42 with my own engineering firm and live in the woods with my own stable and 5 horses.’
–franki-pinks

7.

‘The lack of any kind of pastoral support or safeguarding. My dad died when I was 4 and my brother was 7. My headmaster’s only involvement was to complain to my newly widowed mum that my brother was being naughty.

One of my friends had a very chaotic family life and should have had a social worker at the very least but there was nothing. The 1980s were quite shit in a lot of ways.’
–LillyAtts

8.

‘In circa 1998 our teacher showed us an experiement to show us the dangers of smoking; you put a ball of cotton-wool inside an empty bottle of pop, then you pop a cig into the neck of the bottle sealed with blue-tack and use the bottle as a “lung”. Then you remove the cotton-wool ball at the end and you can see all the gunk caught up in it.

Great idea … although it did involve the teacher having a fag in a classroom of 10 year olds … they probably don’t still do that experiment.’
–spiderplant94

9.

‘In primary school (very early 90’s) we had concrete tunnels to play in.’
–SharkBabySeal

10.

‘Teachers borrowing cigarettes of the school kids in comp during breaks. And I say borrowing because they gave them back the next day.’
–Busy_Mortgage4556

11.

‘Playing British Bulldog!! And making ice slides by rubbing the ice with your feet. Many a broken bone in school playing on the playground!’
–Main_Cry8943

12.

‘A designated smoking spot.’
–FornyHucker22