Things your teachers did that they'd never get away with now..

My primary schools' front gates (1999-2005) were left open constantly, even during lunch. Not much has changed!

In my brother and sister's school it does! If anyone is caught with a snack with any chocolate in it, its confiscated. The rule includes chocolate spread sandwiches and chocolate rice cakes. My sister claims that a dinner lady even once confiscated her oatcracker because she thought the raisins were chocolate chips!

This maybe applies more to those of us who have left school a few years ago (I left in 2009!)

Inspired by a DM article in which a parent's up in arms about the fact that his kid's scholl refused them lunch - rung a few bells with me.

When I was in primary school, I attended a rural school which was built on two sites. Site 1, in the village centre, had no kitchen. It had a small dining hall but no kitchen facilities. It was an Edwardian school. Site 2 (for pupils aged 8 - 12) had a kitchen. Lunch was carried from the second school to site 1, in fancy containers so it wouldn't get cold. Because of that lunch was ordered in exact amounts and done by a menu system (school needed to know what you wanted before lunch), e.g. say 30 children from site 1 wanted a burger they would take 30 rolls down. By 2000 Site 2 burnt to the ground, site 1 got meals from a school 10 miles away, site 2 were shifted to an empty school thirteen miles away and got meals from a school near to there. (Still following?!)

For whatever reason there were inevitably food shortages. There was never enough for everyone. As such, the meals were done by rota. So on Monday, P4 would be fed first, followed by P7, P6 then P5. If you had lost your meal ticket, hadn't paid, or had badly behaved, you were put to the far back of the queue. By the end of the queue, there'd be nothing for the final few pupils. Depending on the situation, this could mean there'd be nothing for those who had behaved, paid etc.

So the final few had to get something, but obviously the school had no stores of decent food. So "meals" consisted of a mix of - rice and grated cheese, digestive biscuits, oatcakes, a single potato/scoop of mash or baked beans, also a small glass of water. What you got depended entirely on what was for dinner that day.

Because of the shortages though they would make sure every last drop was eaten. I still remember the dinner lady standing at the bucket, checking your plate. If you had left anything more than crumbs/sauce remnants you were sent back to eat it all, or occasionally told to eat it there and then while she watched.

We were also walked up to the local castle, perched on a cliff edge with unfenced 80 ft drops (more than several people/animals have died up there). The whole school, all 90 of us, 5 teachers, went up there, clipboards and pencils in hand, to draw the castle. We also went and counted traffic on the main road with one teacher to fifteen of us... Went to a teacher's house to examine her pond for frogs.. They also walked us to the harbour to spot porpoises (a harbour with twenty foot drops that were unfenced), walked all the way to a church two miles out of the village (involved walking on a main road). Also had regular times when we were totally unsupervised, not even in the school building, because of staff shortages..

We also had lessons from an untrained man who taught us about ghosts. He made us tell him about the ghosts we had seen, and he made us do telepathy experiments. I kid you not. Some of his stories were terrifying for eight year olds and I remember having nightmares.

It's seriously never occured to me that this was at all odd - but I can see if it happened now, it would be stopped pretty quickly!!

Anyone else have anything weird happen to them at school?!

Yes it does. In my sister's primary school, no one is allowed to have crisps, chocolates, biscuits or any drink except water in their packed lunch. If they catch you with it, theyll confiscate it.

Obviously though, kids will be kids, and I've heard that most of them smuggle things in and gobble them up, when the teachers arent looking.

Best thing I have heard in this forum for a long time

A teacher called Miss Kovacks really like me. She used to dangle me from my feet and swing me around if I got all the answers right in my spelling test . I was 5 and it was 1999.

When I read that, I thought you must be really old then I realised I was 5 in 1999 as well

My blood pressure has risen.

No food is inherently 'bad', people need some sugar. ...I had chocolate for breaktime snacks half the time at school and look how fat i didn't turn out. PATHETIC. An incompetent parent isn't going to be stopped from misfeeding their child because the school can't police breakfast or tea time. Or the weekends.
GRR.

Its not like i'm old or anything but when i was in primary my teachers would always hug & comfort a crying child, i don't think they would do that in present day primary schools.