People shared the mad stuff that happened at their school that simply wouldn’t fly today – 17 eye-opening hijinks from back in the day

Schools have changed so much in recent years that to many readers they probably seem unrecognisable.

The differences go beyond the lack of black boards though. The dynamics between pupils and teachers have fundamentally changed too.

Redditor u/shitthrower wanted to find out more, so they put the following question to r/AskUK:

‘What mad stuff happened at your school, which would never fly today?’

And they even kicked things off with their own story:

‘When I was at school, in the Cadets, we went on a weekend residency to an army base; where we learned about shooting rifles, amongst other things.

‘On the bus, the leader realised he forgot to send out parental permission slips, so he passed a stack of unsigned slips around and said “by the time we arrive at the base, these need to be signed by your parents”’

Heads down, you’ve got two minutes to read these top replies, no copying…

1.

‘When I was in Yr11 I royally fucked up my German speaking exam. I used to really try (and thankfully my teacher recognised it). The pressure had got to me during revision and there was a whole section about holidays I’d forgotten to learn.

‘My teacher stopped the tape said “I’m talking about your holidays – have you not learnt it?” I said “no” and he said “right, tonight, you go home and learn it and be back here tomorrow to do it again – do not breathe a word of this to anyone or we’ll both be for the high jump”.

‘I went back in and recited it perfectly. Absolute legend Mr McDonnell. You laid your job on the line to give me a chance and I’ll never ever forget it. RIP.’
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2.

‘In my primary school, the two receptionists were sometimes needed for ratios on school trips. So they’d pick two sensible Year 6 kids to spend half the day acting as receptionists, answering the phone and the door.

‘I did it twice, and didn’t realise it was strange until mentioning it to uni flatmates’
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3.

‘Teacher literally throwing a blackboard rubber as hard as he could, hitting the pupil on the head. For those that don’t know, a blackboard rubber, involved no rubber. It was a solid wooden implement with a felt side used to rub chalk off the blackboard.’
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4.

‘PE in your pants.

‘This wasn’t the 70s either but the early 90s. I remember feeling quite liberated’
-idontlikemondays321

5.

‘Every Friday the teachers would go to the pub opposite the school. During lunch. With students. I was born 1990.’
-fwendy123

6.

‘Magic mushrooms used to grow in our playing field. We used to eat them in the mornings.

‘And I used to sell weed to my drama teacher.

‘Secondary school in Cornwall in the 90s’
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7.

‘Teacher catching us smoking and saying he won’t tell anyone if we give him a fag.’
-Kid_Kimura

8.

‘The sports field for our secondary school was a 15 minute walk away. Through a cemetery. The teachers went by car. We took our chances with the local flasher.’
-wingding456

9.

‘A lad in my class in primary school brought in a hold-all filled with WW2 hand grenades to show them off. He said that his dad collected them. Not one had any tag or stencil to say they’d been disarmed. All had pins in.

‘The teacher passed them around the class and he went home with them at the end of the day.’
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