What’s the weirdest rule your school ever had?
Posted by TheRealXyz_@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 296 comments
Our school had a rule where even during peak summer we weren’t allowed to remove our blazer unless a teacher said so. Another weird one was getting punished for talking in your “native language” during class breaks 😭
Curious what bizarre rules other schools had.
Koda614@reddit
No hats allowed to be worn, even during your journey to and from school. No coats allowed to be worn the second you step through the gates, even if you still have well over 100 Metres to walk from gates to building in sideways rain that could entirely soak you from gates to doors without a coat.
None of this was helped by the fact that the entire school was air conditioned to never get warmer than 18 degrees so if you were soaked you probably would be sitting beneat an AC vent blowing icy cold air down on you while wet.
As I got older I decided to just ignore the rules and accept the punishment. I pre-wrote out copies of the school code of conduct in my spare time and kept a stack of them in my locker. Any time I was told off for ignoring the rule and asked to copy out the code of conduct however many times I would just grab a few copies out of my locker the next morning to hand in and move on with my life appreciating the fact that I was at least dry rather than wet and shivering.
Leucurus@reddit
What was the rationale for the coat rule? Fucking bonkers
Koda614@reddit
I wish I knew. No member of staff would ever give a reason to even attempt to justify it.
The only thing I could personally come up with was a security thing so they could verify that everyone coming through the doors was in uniform and supposed to be there rather than just some randomer walking in. But after my first year there the entrance was set up with barriers like you get at train stations and you had to tap your ID Card to get in anyways so that theory would have been obsolete.
fergie_89@reddit
I remember having to do cross country runs in the snow while the teacher had full coat and hat on with a thermos of (I will say tea but likely coffee with whiskey) on Wednesday mornings. That was in 2005-2007 too. I hated PE.
CoffeeeGoblin@reddit
Power tripping and facist ideals.
TheNecroFrog@reddit
During GCSEs, in the Christmas Holidays they opened the school for an optional revision day, attendance was completely voluntary.
It was snowing very heavily that day with at least a foot of snow on the ground, we still trundled in on time.
The teacher made us take our coats off at the gate before walking to the other side of the school (most of the buildings were locked up so we had to walk round). We weren’t even in uniform.
Of course she had her coat, scarf, hat, and gloves on.
Frantastic79@reddit
This was every winter P.E. lesson when I was at school. All us kids had to wear shorts and T-shirts, we'd be freezing our tits off whilst the teacher, wearing fifteen layers, screeched: "Stop moaning, it's not that cold!"
SolemnEmberGames@reddit
I never understood school's fascination with insisting that students freeze half to death just to keep their uniform showing.
littlenymphy@reddit
It was the same with PE. Being made to stand around outside in December wearing shorts and a t-shirt because you weren’t allowed to wear joggers.
Meanwhile the teachers were all in tracksuits, huge puffy coats, hats, scarves etc.
Master-Use-2061@reddit
makes me mad just thinking about it
Jonny_rhodes@reddit
We had the same coat rule, they claimed because coats weren’t part of the uniform and weren’t standardised. They also said coats couldn’t be taken to classes, So they had to be kept in lockers, so in a 3 foot by 1 foot locker we had to store any work books, class books, or kit and a winter coat Complete madness
Leucurus@reddit
A wet winter coat, too. In with all the books and stuff. Cretinous
Dic_Penderyn@reddit
You had a locker? Such luxury. All we had was one solitary coat hook each in the cloakroom at the side of the school's main corridor.
TheKnightsTippler@reddit
My school had lockers, but when I was in year 10 they got rid of most of them, and just kept a few for the year 7s.
I was really annoyed, because I had to lug about loads of stuff for my GCSES.
Jonny_rhodes@reddit
We did have lockers, the problem was they were in our form rooms, so we could only access them during registration, 10 minutes start of the day and 10 after lunch. The problem with this was if you put your coat in your locker and it’s raining at the end of the day you can’t go back to the room to retrieve your coat (because of detention,revision classes etc.); you also can’t take it after lunch to your final class (rules said you couldn’t take coats to classes). I have been threatened with detentions from both actions and asked what else I’m meant to do, they had no answer.
omniwrench-@reddit
All good stories deserve a little embellishment
AuthenticCheese@reddit
How on earth did they police the hat rule outside of school grounds
Koda614@reddit
Every now and then one of the teachers would pick a random school bus route or even regular service bus route to ride on. If you were spotted waiting at the bus stop with a hat on you'd get in trouble. Similarly the shops nearby on the way into the school they would sometimes just plant themselves in their car somewhere nearby and either make notes of everyone they recognise that was wearing a hat to punish you later, or just yell from their car telling you to remove the hat.
Ohtherewearethen@reddit
I'm a teacher and, outside of a safeguarding concern, I cannot imagine any of us having the time to stalk pupils to make sure they're not keeping warm and dry on their way to school. Most teachers would be alert to the children who are sent out of the house to walk to school without a coat in all weathers.
iamtherarariot@reddit
That’s actually bananas. What is the rationale for that?
No_Masterpiece_3897@reddit
We have a local ones that did the no coats thing couple of years after I left, it's asinine. One started, now all the secondries all do it.
The don't want them wearing them on the way to school, even in winter. No trainers fine, but no coat? I mean its mid May and it's still bloody freezing today. I'd put a coat on for going out.
And if its tipping down what are they meant to do , just stay in wet clothes all day?
Now showing my age here, but I'm going to say 50 -90% of the school kids used to walk home or get public transport before they started doing that.
It was just a crowd of kids on the morning and at kicking out time always had been.
Now , there's barely any kids walking, and all the local roads are clogged and congested for about an hour at kicking out time. Getting through it is a nightmare. It's stupidity for no good reason, and it causes problems.
Ohtherewearethen@reddit
How the bloody hell can they justify banning school children from wearing coats on their way to school?! Good grief, I don't think I've ever heard anything so ridiculous. If they also banned teachers from wearing coats that would be good but let me guess, they fucking didn't? I just cannot understand how they think they can ban children from being warm and dry? I normally snort at the local paper sad face parents moaning that their daughter isn't allowed to wear a belt for a skirt or air Jordans for shoes but I really would expect parents to kick up an almighty stink about this stupid rule! I'm furious on their behalf!
spongey1865@reddit
Coats in schools when I taught really felt like unnecessary hassle to control. Some kids just didn't want to take them off if they were cold and you'd get nice kids arguing with you over something you don't care about but told to be hot on.
My school growing up made us buy branded coats for school. But they were so shit id get soaked walking to school. My mum and a few other parents complained and that that rule slowly disappeared.
BatsWaller@reddit
No denim or leather jackets because of the “gang connotations”. I went to high school in Northumberland in the early 00s ffs, but the way some teachers went on, you’d have thought they were straight outta Compton.
clrthrn@reddit
The whole "if you cannot wear this little suit and tie properly, we will fuck with your education and social life until you do" rule employed by almost every UK school is absolutely bonkers. When I explain uniforms to anyone from outside the UK, this is what it sounds like to them. Esp when you tell them the punishments for untucked shirts or the wrong kind of shoes etc. I told my kid's current teacher (in the EU not UK) about isolation being used for wearing the wrong clothes and she thought I was joking.
liloka@reddit
I hate the „equality“ reasoning for uniforms as well. It didn’t equalise us. You could tell a mile off if someone was poor because nothing would be ironed, it was be dirty and ripped.
Superb_Copy1644@reddit
Why does being poor mean you don’t iron?
crankyandhangry@reddit
So I'm not saying this is a correct assumption, just the poster's possible train of thought: I wonder if it's an assumption that a well-off house has a stay-at-home mum who has lots of time for ironing, or, if two parents work, they can pay for a housekeeper/laundry service to do it. Whereas a poor household has a single working parent (or two working parents with 2 part-time jobs each) who spend basically no time at home. I wonder if there might also be an association of middle-class parents have office jobs so are in the habit of ironing all the shirts for the week ahead. Whereas working-class households don't bother with it because the parents don't have the kinds of jobs where people wear shirts.
docju@reddit
Also you could only get your uniform at a few specific shops who would charge the parents sky high prices as they had a near monopoly.
Broonmoose@reddit
We now live in New Zealand, and there’s nothing “near” about the monopoly, it just straight up is. Either from the school uniform shop, or if they don’t do it themselves, it’s just one particular shop. One set of basic uniform (socks, shorts, shirt, jumper) is about £300, rising to about £600 if you need a blazer, tie, and trousers, if you’re representing the school for anything.
To be fair, they look smart, and without a uniform it could end up mullet and gang patch (insignia) central.
BuzzVibes@reddit
Same here in Australia. I'm told that you used to be able to buy generic uniforms from Kmart back 20-30 years ago. But now there's one uniform shop that does all the local schools, and unless you want second-hand clothes people have given to the school, that's the only option.
Very expensive, but I will say that the quality is high and they put up with repeated washes and the rough and tumble of school life very well.
Loudlass81@reddit
Same in UK now.
Cow_Launcher@reddit
The one shop that did our blazers in the correct shade of bottle green, was owned by the headmaster's sister.
nemmalur@reddit
We had horrible brown ones. One day a new kid showed up with a previously unknown bottle green variant and somehow that was even worse. We gave him no end of stick for that.
nemmalur@reddit
And we had two versions of the blazer depending on price and supplier: the normal polyester one and the horrible thick wool one, which must have been awful in hot weather.
liloka@reddit
My shop even allowed my mum to buy a random-ass PE kit instead of the school one that they sold. So my first PE kit I was sat in cycling shorts and a white top amongst a sea of royal blue. So embarrassing.
insanityarise@reddit
you could tell because mine was a home made jumper with the logo ironed on, i guess wool was cheaper in the 90s
nemmalur@reddit
And as much as we were all supposed to look the same, everyone found ways to modify it.
EducationalWeek885@reddit
Bollocks. I grew up poor but never went to school in dirty non ironed clothes!
People could tell we were the poor kids because those that got free school lunches had to line up separately from everyone else!
clrthrn@reddit
Exactly. My kid doesn't currently wear a uniform and it's fantastic. At this age, kids only wear their clothes for 6 months before they don't fit so we get all the possible use from what we buy. The kids know who is the richest/poorest anyway, and just like UK, they know this despite what people are wearing. Bullying still happens but like everywhere in the world, it's based on whatever it is that the bully has decided to use to pick on you this week, uniform or otherwise. In my own experience, uniform just gave my mum another thing to worry about/wash, and gave the teachers another stick to beat you with.
Caveman1214@reddit
I’d say this is more an English or Britain thing. No school in NI was ever this strict
CoffeeeGoblin@reddit
My school wasnt that strict either, like yeah youd get a telling off if you didnt have on a certain clothing item (ties mostly) and theyd give you a real ugly 70s tie to wear for the rest of the day. They made the punishnent amusing and thats far as theyd go. We were allowed to wear coats in the classroom if cold, hats outside and could remove our blazer if we were too hot.
Like I never got the point of a school uniform and disagree with the idea of them but some of the stories in here are bonkers and I really dont believe they represent all schools in England.
cutdead@reddit
Mine absolutely was! I'm not sure that isolation existed at my school but you'd absolutely get detention etc. They once said a girls hair was an unnatural colour, it was undyed ginger lol.
tennereachway@reddit
I went to school in the south and can confirm that they were equally fascistic in their enforcement of perfect uniform wearing. Interesting to hear the north is apparently much less strict, if anything I'd have thought the opposite.
BalthazarOfTheOrions@reddit
I did not enter British education until I was 13, and even now, at the age of 40, I cannot fathom, approve or tolerate the presence of school uniforms.
Saying it helps to avoid kids being bullied for what they wear is the same logic as blaming women who get sexually assaulted based on what they wore.
CoffeeeGoblin@reddit
Makes less sense when they had non uniform days. We even were allowed to wear our own clothes on school trips. I never understood what the point of a uniform was but at least my high school wasnt as bad as some others, like we could wear coats if we were cold even in the clasroon.
Realistic-River-1941@reddit
It did avoid bullying when the rules were "black jumper and white shirt, it is up to you whether you get them from Harrods or Boyes". But this somehow became 1950s cosplay with niche requiements that would bore a Napoleonic wars reenactor and tied people to specific expensive suppliers.
I heard of a school banning the Clarks "back to school" range of shoes; that would leave half of Britain bare foot.
clrthrn@reddit
Any school that doesn't include a reasonable option from whatever is the local supermarket is, is just snobbish in my view. Pandering to someone's nostalgia of school and not the reality of parent budgets.
Realistic-River-1941@reddit
A teacher I knew said their uniform was picked in the 1990 so it could be bought from Boyes (a regional chain a bit like Woolworths or Wilkinson's, but cheaper and with a wider variety of random stuff), but also anywhere else. In contast, on recent years my niece and nephew went to a school where each year(!) had a different uniform, so hand me downs weren't even possible.
insanityarise@reddit
that sounds like a fucking scam to me
AWibblyWelshyBoi@reddit
My school didn’t care about the shoes as long as they were black. I showed up in black magnum panther combat boots a few times when the weather was atrocious enough to warrant it (extremely high winds and rain / snow)
The only part of the 6th form uniform that wasn’t something standard was the tie and jumper. I got my sibling’s old ones but barely wore the jumper during the second year
BalthazarOfTheOrions@reddit
Still feels odd to me. Where I went to school before UK we had no uniforms and, for all the bullying that happens in schools, what people wore was not one of them.
hiddenhare@reddit
I think the theory is that, by enforcing strict and arbitrary rules, you can force disruptive and unmotivated teenagers to learn basic discipline. It worked weirdly well in the Air Cadets - a few of the lads in there were the type you'd expect to spend their time collecting ASBOs and teenage pregnancies, but they were eagerly shining their shoes and standing up straight for the approval of random authority figures.
Had the opposite effect on me, though. I went into high school as a nice little swot who did everything his teachers asked, but I left it with an unhealthy distrust towards authority, which I still haven't recovered from. I'm high-functioning autistic, so the moment I clocked "the teachers are making me follow these rules for no good reason, and some of them are bad people", it was all over.
clrthrn@reddit
I had never thought about it like that but you are exactly right. Why not sort out the bullies and not make kids, who are already poor, buy more clothes.
MojoMomma76@reddit
Jess Phillips also said on a podcast yesterday that CSAM from the UK has a significant market because of uniforms which made me feel sick. If for no other reason than that they need to be relegated to history.
pintsized_baepsae@reddit
That's a horrifying thought. It makes sense given how popular actual porn in that sort of setting is but that's disgusting.
MojoMomma76@reddit
Genuinely felt sick to my stomach. The context was that around 91% of CSAM in the UK is self taken by children who have been groomed online. She was proposing making phone manufacturers switch on some tech that would prevent naked/explicit pics impossible for under 18s. Her civil servants were in favour but couldn’t get it past No 10 Policy Unit.
Unique-Recipe-4499@reddit
I had detention once because my socks were grey not back or white 🙃
pintsized_baepsae@reddit
Genuinely what the fuck
I did not go to school in the UK. I'm from Germany and even though I've been here 12+ years, I still hear things that sound insane to me. This is one of them.
Broonmoose@reddit
I remember getting a pack of “black” socks from BHS, and one pair was dark blue, another was dark green, and the final pair was dark purple. I wonder if the school just accepted it, “he has the wrong blazer, wrong shoes, a grey shirt instead of white, just be thankful he actually turned up at the correct school!”
Bossman_Mike@reddit
I haven't worn any kind of uniform since 2005. We do have some corporate clothing at my place but only very few people need it.
Lanky-Big4705@reddit
To be honest I can't imagine going to school without a uniform, feels slovenly and un-British somehow.
SolemnEmberGames@reddit
I remember seeing someone get sent home because their black trainers weren't "shoe like" enough. Not like Vans or something, they were typical all black shoes.
Honestly I never understood why teachers cared so much, we had 4-5 teachers guarding the gate to "catch" people with improper uniform before we came in... This wasn't a posh schools, it was one of the worst in London, hell we even had gang-wars just outside.
TheNoGnome@reddit
Just get dressed properly.
It's not hard.
CTC42@reddit
School staff are not the arbiters of whether anything is "proper", least of all fashion. Their roles exist to perform a specific professional function.
Besides, plenty of things aren't "hard." The fact that X isn't hard isn't itself an argument for doing X. All the work still remains ahead of anybody trying to make this kind of argument.
CTC42@reddit
School staff are not the arbiters of whether anything is "proper", least of all fashion. Their roles exist to perform a specific professional function.
TheAncientGeek@reddit
Also, there was only one shop where you could buy they uniform. Ker-ching!
slowent@reddit
We used to clap too loudly so we were only allowed to clap with index finger and middle finger
Good-Gur-7742@reddit
I’m about to out myself as having be raised in an extremely posh family. But, whatever.
The rule at my school was that if you had your horse at school, you had to have mucked out and put them in the field before breakfast. No sign off from the yard manager, no breakfast.
Shoddy_Pilot_2737@reddit
I used to be a teacher. The penultimate school I taught at had a role that girls skirts must reach their knees, not unusual. However, as a man I was not allowed to enforce this rule. If I suspected that one of the girls' shirts was to short I had to get a female teacher to inspect it and enforce the rule for me. Utter waste of time!
Frantastic79@reddit
We were only allowed to drink at break or lunch time. If you took a sip of drink in class, the teacher would take it and pour it down the sink.
BatteryAt14percent@reddit
Girls weren't allowed to wear trousers. You might think this was just a sign of the times and you'd be right if this was in the 80s but this was in the year 2000! There was a whole load of petitions happened over the years that got nowhere. My year had enough and we all got together to switch skirts and trousers. The teachers gave up. They couldn't suspend an entire year group so the rule got changed and girls now had their own trousers.
BuzzVibes@reddit
In retrospect, a lot of the rules around girls' uniforms seem quite suspect. Especially will male teachers enforcing things like the length of skirts.
I_ALWAYS_UPVOTE_CATS@reddit
We were supposed to all stand up if another teacher walked into the classroom during a lesson. Most teachers instantly waved at us not to bother because they knew how disruptive and utterly pointless it was.
I think a lot of schools forget that their job is to educate the next generation - for which some rules and discipline are required, yes - not enforce some arbitrary social hierarchy.
BuzzVibes@reddit
I went to a Catholic school, and if a nun was walking through the corridor, all pupils had to stop and bow our heads until she passed.
Hefty_Tip7383@reddit
We did that - still get up in meeting when someone walks in.
ChevroletKodiakC70@reddit
My school started implementing this when i was on my way out in Year 13, ours was a combined Secondary School/Sixth Form, and a lot of the rules for Sixth Formers were very lax and we weren’t even in uniform. For some reason when we got a new Headmaster he decided that we had to do this, since we were in Year 13 none of our teachers cared about it, but occasionally our Headmaster would come round to check on classes and expect us to stand up for him 🤦♂️
MissKoalaBag@reddit
True. Unless they expected us all to be attending to, like, the royal family or something, most jobs don't require you to stand up as an adult if your boss walks into the office, or if the 'head zookeeper' walks into the lion exhibit.
Bossman_Mike@reddit
Apparently it's still expected in the police to stand up when an SIO enters the room.
TharrickLawson@reddit
My school had that as well. Sometimes you'd be stood there for a while while the visiting teacher chatted, because you hadn't been told you could sit back down -_-
I_ALWAYS_UPVOTE_CATS@reddit
I understand why schools have traditionally focused on discipline and uniformity, but I wonder what our education system might look like if we weren't still so wedded to the Victorian straitjacket model.
IntelligentYear3665@reddit
We weren't allowed crisp packets. Anything else was fine, chocolate bar wrappers, whatever, just crisps. Had to bring crisps in in Tupperware or something.
SentenceSwimming@reddit
We had to tie our crisp packets into knots. Had a whole assembly and lesson on it. If you couldn’t do it you weren’t allowed to bring in packets of crisps. I still tie packets regularly into knots 25 years later.
Superb_Copy1644@reddit
Did you go to Abingdon?
IntelligentYear3665@reddit
No, Yateley Comprehy
Final_Ticket3394@reddit
Winnersh
shebasmum49@reddit
Oxfordshire? I did
fourlegsfaster@reddit
Crisp packets, one of the tools of glue-sniffing.
mattl1698@reddit
what? surely you just need the tube of glue
CthulhusEvilTwin@reddit
One packet of Skips and the next thing...heroin!
heyitsed2@reddit
My school was very strict, we had to do our heroin before we were allowed any crisps.
CthulhusEvilTwin@reddit
Well its good to see some institutions still imbuing our youth with some standards.
So_Southern@reddit
How come?
IntelligentYear3665@reddit
They were the most problematic litter, apparently
Flowerofthesouth88@reddit
We couldn't have or bring fizzy drinks. The rule came into effect in 2005/2006, while I was in the 6th form probably because to tackle obesity. I won’t be surprised if a few schools did the same since, but 20 years ago, it was unfair.
RaggedToothRat@reddit
I was a supply teacher in 2015 - 2020 and most schools I went to had this rule. Most didn't really enforce it though, unless someone's causing a problem.
allyearswift@reddit
My school frowned upon fizzy drinks because kids would go up to the second story, drop the can, the pick it up and shower other kids in fizzy drink. And making the floor slippery and sticky.
Not a fun time for anyone other than the can wielder.
accuracyandprecision@reddit
I started school in 2003 and we were not allowed to bring in fizzy drinks in primary or secondary school. Couldn’t bring in chocolate or sweets in primary school either iirc.
TheRealXyz_@reddit (OP)
Our school had a rule where even during peak summer we weren’t allowed to remove our blazer unless a teacher said so. Another weird one was getting punished for talking in your native language during class breaks 😭
beamorgan1988@reddit
We had the ‘six inch rule’ - no pupil was allowed to be within 6 inches of the opposite gender, The Head would patrol with a ruler - in a way it was very early training for Covid restrictions! Halfway through my time there (mid-2000’s) they changed it to include being within 6 inches of anyone of the same gender. The girls were all holding hands between lessons and I can only assume they were terrified of creating gangs of roving lesbians.
butterbeanscafe@reddit
We had this too!
I don’t remember any teacher actually measuring though but if a teacher came near, we did jump apart. This was the 90s though.
Astrosmaw@reddit
not necessarily a rule, but something that always happened that pissed me the fuck off was at my school, the kids in the autism unit had to sit between the P2's and 3's (for reference there were 3 classes in the unit, the first 3 years, the 4th and 5th years and the 6th and 7th years) i joined that school at the start of P6 after i was out of school for about 6 months due to mental health issues, and no matter how many times i mentioned to any teacher how dehumanizing that felt to be treated like we were younger than we actually were, never getting the chance to sit on the benches when we're old enough (which is a fucking right of passage at school) i was always brushed aside by the teachers, luckily this was around the time i was diagnosed with LCH for the first time and had surgery on my hip so i couldn't safely sit cross legged on the floor so i got to sit in a seat, but it still felt so infantilizing and it made me feel pissed off for my pals who did have to sit there
The_Nunnster@reddit
Not my school but one in my town actually made the news for bringing in stupidly strict rules. Among the reasons one could be punished were:
**Manners**
• Not replying when greeted.
• Thanking people in an inappropriate way.
**Response**
• Saying ‘why?’ when questioned about behaviour.
• Saying ‘okay’ when told off.
• Rolling eyes.
• Answering in a silly voice.
**Behaviour out of lessons**
• Deliberately walking slowly/causing blockages.
• Unnecessary accompanying of friends in corridors during lessons/registrations.
**Behaviour in lessons**
• Looking out of window instead of the board.
• Slouching.
• Tapping on tables, window ledges/walls.
**General Behaviour**
• Using slang.
Icy_Priority8075@reddit
They seem to be missing 'not keeping to the left in school corridors'. That was a rule in all my schools.
iamtherarariot@reddit
Crikey, this might be because I’m autistic but I’d have really struggled with a lot of this. I never understood to this day why saying “okay” when being told off is perceived as rude. I always take it to mean that I hear what you’re saying, and I’m taking the feedback, but people get really tetchy. Also, what do you mean thanking people in an inappropriate way? Like I get if it’s mocking but are they referring to people saying slang like ta? I’m guessing?
Remarkable-Sun-1391@reddit
These sounds like reasonable rules to me? Just general good manners and paying attention in class rather than being a distraction.
MrsKToBe@reddit
We couldn’t wear trousers to travel to school in unless there was exactly 6 inches of snow on the ground, and then we had to change into skirts upon arrival at school No jewellery until Year 9 (I never got that one. What suddenly changed when we got into Year 9?! And even then it was only either a crucifix or St Christopher, and a plain ring plus a watch)
pompompurindog@reddit
Weren't allowed inside during breaks unless you were studying in the library, or the weather was especially shite. Also, could only access the school through one specific side door. The main entrance was for guests and having students would use it would make them "look bad". Other doors and corridors were blocked off by prefects during breaks because we weren't supposed to be wandering through the school.
Icy_Priority8075@reddit
Were you at my school? You, teenagers... go outside and play. But not where people might see you.
Equal-Competition930@reddit
We had rule too it was pain if wanted go to library.
lambdaburst@reddit
No taking sheep to school.
MrsKToBe@reddit
That’s baaaaaarmy
HungryFinding7089@reddit
Ok, Little Bo Peep
kiradax@reddit
We weren't allowed out of the school grounds at lunch. This was a holdover from when groups of pupils from our school and the other academy in the village would meet up and fight (usually about football or religion/sectarianism). This would be a fine and acceptable safety rule, except I started S1 there in 2008 and the other school closed in 1992.
BuzzVibes@reddit
Same here. I went to the only Catholic school for miles, and protestant school kids used to come to ours for a fight.
ExoticExchange@reddit
I think it’s pretty normal to not let the kids leave the grounds. Regardless of fighting/existence of other schools. Maybe at 16-18/sixth form age to be in line with colleges but I don’t think any school near me allowed students off grounds at lunch time.
PartyPoison98@reddit
I finished school about 10 years ago and it was pretty common then. Everyone from year 10 onwards was allowed offside at lunch, and our lunch time was slightly staggered against the other nearby schools who were also allowed out.
iamtherarariot@reddit
Yeah, year 10 and up in my school, I did my GCSEs in 2009. Mum used to give me £5 to buy my food tech ingredients from Tesco nearby with every week on my lunch break rather than packing stuff, made life easier. Pretty sure they stopped it when the school became an Academy though.
AutomaticInitiative@reddit
For us, our parents would need to log it with reception and a teacher would be at the door checking people were on the list. Left 2005.
Bossman_Mike@reddit
We weren't allowed out either, except if you had a reasonable pre-approved excuse (e.g. doctor's appointment) and a parent/guardian came to collect you.
Equal-Competition930@reddit
Unfortunately we were allowed at school but that meant risking the expelled kids hanging around gate, two of local shops selling drugs to kids and me developing sugar addiction from the other shop. Apparently since come academy they dont allow students out any more. Which reckon must damage the local shops income alot. I dont live areas anymore so know if those shops are still open
kiradax@reddit
Lots of other local schools did, from S3 upwards (13/14)
geeered@reddit
We had to have a "permission slip" which was agreed with parents and teachers that let you leave at lunch time and was generally just the older children, but you might have a few younger ones that were closer going home for lunch.
TheNecroFrog@reddit
Yeah that’s completely normal
E-Step@reddit
Yeah we weren't allowed off site till 6th Form
kiradax@reddit
Not where I lived, most other local schools allowed it from S3 upwards
alicatpow@reddit
In my school, years 10 and up were allowed out at lunch but not the lower years. However, this rule was effectively unenforced. Technically a teacher was posted to the gate at lunch, but they were usually not really watching - they were just trying to eat, getting bothered by students, and clearly they didn't want to be there. They also weren't covering the various places where the fence was sagging or broken enough for the lower year students to slip out. Thank god too because the canteen food was shite and my mum made the worst sandwiches. I used to go home at lunch and cook myself pancakes 😂
lawrence-of-aphasia@reddit
For swimming lessons at the school pool you had to wear regulation navy blue trunks; *or* you could go naked.
Never did I hear of anybody choosing the second option. But it was in the rules as a choice.
RealLongwayround@reddit
Full school uniform had to be worn until you got home.
A mate of mine was given a school detention because he removed his blazer when cycling home. As peak passive aggression, after one day going straight to the airport at the beginning of a school holiday, he made sure to show his form teacher pictures of himself by the pool in Tenerife in his school uniform.
AddictedToDaylight@reddit
r/maliciouscompliance
Decard_Pain@reddit
Yea we had that rule, I ignored them.
I did it too often and they got really mad and called my parents in, to which my lovely mother explained how it was a breach of humans rights and that she would be going to the new papers and launching a formal complaint, at which point the head teacher changed her tune and suddenly we were all allowed to take out blazers off without permission.
My mam's a fucking devil if you cross her. Love her to bits.
Medical_Complaint343@reddit
not just weird, but also plain stupid.
black girls weren't allowed any colour extensions other than their natural hair, white girls could do whatever they wanted.
black girls with afros had to cut their hair because it was too distracting.
hijabis had to tie their hijabs in a certain way. no turbans or other methods. this is not a religious school btw. they just wanted to control ethnic minorities.
not allowed to wear BLM badges or pins.
couldn't run in the playground. ...in secondary school.
had to prove you were on your period with a note from your parents so you wouldn't be forced to take part in swimming lessons.
Heavy-Mud-8307@reddit
You could wear black skinny jeans if the buttons were black but not if they were silver or any other colour.
TheEnglishNorwegian@reddit
No snorting sherbet. We also had a ban on toothpaste as my entire class used it to fake a mass seizure with mouth foaming for a laugh.
They tried to ban certain haircuts and piercings, but it didn't really work. Turns out schools have no power over that stuff in reality.
UndulatingUnderpants@reddit
We sorted sherbet! Mid to late nineties East London
Hefty_Tip7383@reddit
Practical experience preparing for adulthood!
Appropriate-Bad-9379@reddit
Girls Grammar school- no shiny ( patent) shoes. Reflection of our undercarriage would send male teachers wild with lust…
RustyBucket4745@reddit
They took off door handles to certain doors because they wanted us to use particular entrances. We just learned to open them anyway. 😅
CthulhusEvilTwin@reddit
You're not allowed to smoke within a mile of the school. I lived half a mile away and while walking round to a friend's house, NOT IN UNIFORM, I was collared by a teacher who demanded my name and what school I went to. I told her as I didn't really care by this point. Next day I was hauled in by the Head of Year and given detention. Despite my mum hating the fact that I smoked, she was livid when she heard about it and went down to the school with some choice words. He can smoke in his own fucking back garden or anywhere else outside your bloody school were some of them. I was dead proud of her that day. Got a bollocking for smoking from her, but it was worth it.
DisloyalMouse@reddit
Where as my school had a “smokers corner” just outside the school that we used to go smoke at during break times. The teachers knew about it, some would come round to nick a ciggie off you. Though every now and then you’d get someone be like “omg DisloyalMouse…I didn’t know you smoked!”
Bossman_Mike@reddit
There was a churchyard just along from my school and apparently the deputy head used to wander there at lunchtime looking for kids lighting up.
I knew that quite a few of my peers smoked back then but I never saw them do it.
Remarkable_Might4245@reddit
If you forgot your PE kit, the boys had to watch the girls trampolining, and the girls had to watch the boys play football.
Such a bizzare rule if you ask me
Bossman_Mike@reddit
I heard a joke ages ago that it's not a coincidence that "pe" and "paedophile" both contain the same letters somewhere.
Phire453@reddit
My only assumption is that it was just sitting out, and watching respective sex, but then some boys/ girls started distracting their friends and such.
So one teacher just went right go watch the others as less likely to distract, but also meant kept eye on student, and it kinda stuck. Also probably just awkward to be like only boy/girl.
Western_Ad_5933@reddit
Went to an all boys school that started allowing girls in the 6th form thereafter official documents referred to the “boys and non-boys” feels like accidental future proofing now.
Bossman_Mike@reddit
At my school, all classroom activities before sixth form was gender-segregated although a lot of extra-curriculars were mixed.
In sixth form we had mixed classes (except sport).
blueroses8000@reddit
Haha that’s hilarious. We were the 2nd year of non boys at our school!
VHS_Pulsewave@reddit
At my primary school they tried to introduce a rule that you weren't allowed to bring a bag to school. Apparently this was due to some children bringing bags that were too big to school and that apparently warranted banning all bags full stop.
Parents surprisingly enough didn't like the idea of carrying a PE kit to school without a bag, so it was quickly abolished.
Bossman_Mike@reddit
Once you'd sat down in the dining hall, that was your seat for the meal. You were not allowed to change seats and not allowed to stand up unless you were leaving the hall and dropping off your tray.
HistoricalPickle@reddit
This one was probably more for the teachers. Don’t leave classroom windows open over break when there’s lots of snow on the ground.
Fit-Return2142@reddit
My sister went to a school where they weren't allowed to take off their ties in the summer (even during brutal heatwaves) until their headmaster did. He never did.
MarsStar2301@reddit
Unlike a lot of people here, I was lucky uniform-wise that none of my schools introduced blazers until probably about a decade after I’d left, so I completely bypassed any blazer-related rules…though it wasn’t all straightforward.
In middle school (years 5-8), we had non-uniform days every so often, but there was always a letter sent home listing what was unacceptable, including slingback shoes and crop tops (and some other bits I can’t remember, possibly including sideways ponytails)… and ending with the exact phrase “No fancy tee-shirts with slogans on”, which I always thought sounded silly even when I was 9.
When I was in sixth form (year 13) at upper school, there was a boy in year 12 (also sixth form but younger) who was told that he couldn’t have purple spiky hair at school…it could be purple OR spiky, not both(?!?) [I still don’t fully understand the problem with it being both, as they weren’t huge spikes and it was quite a subtle shade of purple.]
farmpatrol@reddit
First we weren’t allowed to say the words “Power Rangers” - It made us start play fighting lol.
Then the school had the audacity to send a newsletter home telling all parents to ban us from watching the show.
My Mum was always a stickler for the rules but thank fuck she saw that was some BS!
mattl1698@reddit
only some of my school teachers had that rule about the blazers, most notably was the french teacher who insisted that you ask to do so in french. I don't remember anything I learnt in those lessons except for "Puis-je enlever mon blazer, s'il vous plaît". it's been 12 years since I last took one of those French classes
Macky93@reddit
We couldn't have rubber bands. We went through a period of shooting other kids with paper darts to such an extent that the school banned us from having rubber bands.
A fairly memorable bus ride home resulting in several hundred being launched in a year-on-year battle, and thus bus company was less than pleased
Oh and snowball fights were banned because people put small stones at the centre
MarsStar2301@reddit
[Re. the rubber bands] We used to have a similar rule at work regarding Blu-Tak, but I was allowed to keep mine because I didn’t throw it at anyone😇
Antisocial-Metalhead@reddit
We had the same rule about snowball fights for the same reason.
notspringsomnia@reddit
We had to wear blazers indoors, even in the summer.
professorrev@reddit
Shell suits were banned because "they were the spawn of the devil" and we weren't allowed to call bumbags bumbags because it was rude. We had to call them funbags instead, which if anything made the situation worse
MarsStar2301@reddit
One of my teachers once said S Club 7 are the spawn of the devil…I’m now wondering whether their S stood for “shell suit”…!!
breakalime@reddit
Once our headmaster made us gather up all the conkers on the premises and bury them in the playground because, instead of playing conkers properly, we would just throw them at each other, still encased in the spiky shell, until one kid got hit in the head with one and started bleeding profusely.
Jay-Paddy108@reddit
That "Native Language" one is definitely illegal
TolverOneEighty@reddit
Our school banned gobstoppers, completely, at some point while I was a student.
In fairness, we understood why. We got a new headteacher, and she gave us an assembly where, in age-appropriate language, she told us about her childhood friend who died choking on a gobstopper, and how unsafe they were.
I was a strict rule-follower, but even little me was like, 'it feels unfair that our fun is being stopped due to one freak accident'. I'm not one for bubble-wrapping children, and this felt like overkill. However, as an adult, I see that it was rooted in trauma and not really logic, and she wanted to prevent a repeat at any cost.
Broonmoose@reddit
No running down the school drive, you had to walk. Understandable, when cars are arriving, however…
We always arrived at school ridiculously early, or dangerously late, there was no middle ground with my parents, and that extra minute required due to having to walk meant risking detention.
Unfortunately, running down the drive was a greater risk as getting caught meant having to go back up the drive and be supervised to make sure you walked. Then detention was certain.
Randomperson3029@reddit
Native language makes complete sense sorry
If they can't understand you then that can be risky as you could be talking about people. Its why its a rule in place in work too
HiMyNameIsPip@reddit
What about if it's a school in Wales. Do you expect them to speak English there even if the predominant language is Welsh?
crucible@reddit
I mean, that would break laws in Wales, so…
Randomperson3029@reddit
Well obviously in Wales it's fine. Its just common sense that people in places like school or work talk the native language because of the reasons I said above. Its wild to think thats considered crazy
DragonsAreEpic@reddit
Are you going to ban whispering next?
Randomperson3029@reddit
Is everyone on reddit insane lmao
This is a standard rule in place with a HR department. If you can't understand what someone is saying and someone else reports them for bullying or other verbal things then you can't prove anything.
Its a very straightforward and simple rule that most places have loool
flosiraptor@reddit
We weren't allowed to recline on street furniture while in uniform (outside of school hours). This included things like sitting on a wall, a bench, or leaning on a lamppost. If a teacher spotted you, you got detention.
Jumpy-Jello-@reddit
We couldn't take our blazer off unless the union jack was flying.
jilljd38@reddit
Had to kneel on the floor in form room and have skirts measure if more than an inch above knees you got sent home or rolled skirt down
LiveFastDieRich@reddit
I always feel the sent home threats were empty, don’t threaten me with a good time.
You_moron04@reddit
Same with exclusion/suspension. Had a kid chuck a log at another one, sent home for 3 days.
Some punishment that
fuk_ur_mum_m8@reddit
I think suspensions are just to get the dickhead kids out of circulation
deadliftbear@reddit
My sister’s school had that. They also had to change into red shoes once inside the school, and those shoes were not allowed to be worn outside.
Glittering_Win_5085@reddit
Banning other languages during break times is extremely horrible. It has only ever had a horrible affect on children. Issues of other children feeling excluded can be dealt with without a language ban.
Standard_Jello4168@reddit
Why though? If you're not fluent in English but capable of speaking it to some degree you should be speaking it to learn it. I came to the UK around primary school age and I would've probably picked up the language slower if I had classmates who I could talk to in my first language.
Plastic-Factor-9467@reddit
If you had Doc Martens shoes (the boots were an absolute no no), you had to colour in the yellow stitching.
lil_tram@reddit
No coats, gloves etc could be worn on the school grounds during the school day. It was so fucking freezing in winter that our friends mum who was a teaching assistant would bring her tea down to us for us to hold and warm our hands up. This was early 2000s and the more I look back on it the more I understand why I despised school
mjstokes85@reddit
We had a rule where you couldn’t pull people’s coats after a spate of people running around and grabbing hoods and ripping them off. Ended up with a huge assembly about it.
HugsandHate@reddit
Now I think about it, my school was pretty lawless. But you just reminded me, that kids used to rip each other's shirt pockets off.
Oh, and that thing where you'd tug on someone's tie so hard the knot would practically turn in to an undoable rock.
Ah. Better times .
InviteAromatic6124@reddit
We had a group of boys do that with shirt pockets
InitiativeConscious7@reddit
You just reminded me we used to run about and rip the pockets off of people's shirts. In hind sight thats a bit weird
Spanner1993@reddit
I did this to a mate and the shirt side of the pocket came off with it. He spent a whole day with a nipple hanging out. Fucking hilarious when youre 14
Splodge89@reddit
That happened at our school. In fairness, it wasn’t all fun and games for the “victims” who never asked for their coat to get destroyed.
nemmalur@reddit
No white socks unless you’re a 6th former. Got a near-bollocking in 4th form for wearing beige ones.
No taking off your blazer when it’s hot unless a teacher says you can. Do not ask the teacher if you can.
Shoes had to be black or brown. My shoe options were limited to what could be modified to fit orthotics. At one point that was very dark olive green shoes. With Velcro. And chunky treads. I was allowed to wear them but only just.
Ricky_Martins_Vagina@reddit
We weren't allowed to put grass down the toilet.
Why does this rule exist, you may ask?
Because in Year 2, one fine summer's day, a handful of us spent the entire lunch break bundling the grass cuttings from the playing field into our jumpers, smuggling it into the toilets, and flushing it to get rid of it.
Inevitably this eventually caused a colossal blockage of the whole system and so it was written that it is not allowed to put grass in the toilets 😂😭
Lizbelizi@reddit
But why..
Ricky_Martins_Vagina@reddit
I think we thought we were doing the school a favour by getting rid of the cuttings 🤷🏻♂️😂
HugsandHate@reddit
r/KidsAreFuckingStupid I guess...
WrongExplanation1065@reddit
Kids are actually pretty creative
Thin_Pin2863@reddit
We weren't allowed to remove our blazers unless the Union Jack was flying in the main car park.
polaris183@reddit
What was the point of that? (And what happened if the flag was at half mast?)
Thin_Pin2863@reddit
The school management considered it simpler than telling the teachers to inform the students.
However the site was large, with ¼ mile walk between some blocks, so it wasn't exactly a rapidly spreading message.
WrongExplanation1065@reddit
What about the lamp post outside Tesco express?
CthulhusEvilTwin@reddit
Only if the right way up. If upside down, no trousers.
Helpful_Watercress_9@reddit
same
TheRealXyz_@reddit (OP)
🙂🙂
Poo_Poo_La_Foo@reddit
SIX INCH RULE
Which I would flout brazenly at every opportunity
Jacktheforkie@reddit
All uniform has to be worn at all times (except for during PE ) it was regularly 35c or higher in summer
Screaming_lambs@reddit
We had the blazers rule too. A room full of sweaty teenagers surely wasn't a good idea. With the smell masked with lynx and impulse body sprays.
CherryLeafy101@reddit
That's a smell I could have done without remembering 😣🤢
Opening_Effective_18@reddit
No collecting leaves at break time. We had a nice green area with loads of trees, used to collect the leaves in autumn and two teams would “build a base”… ended up being played yr5 vs yr 4… I was sent to hospital… I was year 5. Pushed over a balance beam and whacked my head on a fenxe
Petra_rose@reddit
Went to school back in the 90’s people used to record the wrestling PPV over night and then they would put the tape on at lunch.
Remember one show one of the woman got her top off. The teacher who was monitoring stormed the stage and pulled the plug. After that it was banned.
SignNotInUse@reddit
Not allowed to evacuate due to a fire alarm untill the teacher had given permission. That was quickly removed when it was discovered the carpet underlay in one of the buildings was very flammable and the fire service threatened to shut down the school.
Smooth_Leadership895@reddit
My primary school banned us having squash in our drinks bottles. So much so that the teachers started smelling our bottles to see if we were smuggling it into school. To the point where they’d make you empty your bottle out before you got into the building. So everyone stopped brining in water bottles and started using excessive amounts of time at the drinking fountain.
TheYetaaay@reddit
You can't take you tie off on your journey to and from school. A completely uninforcible rule that would only possibly be obeyed by the kind of kids that wouldn't take their tie off anyway. The logic was that you represent the school wherever you are, but the tie was the only identifiable feature of the uniform, so once it's off you wouldn't know what school we went to. Stupid.
Spare-Proof5979@reddit
At school in Zimbabwe it was no hair allowed to touch collar. If your hair was long it had to be tied up. Long socks with garters. Not allowed outside without a hat. These rules were pretty tame in comparison to others
chaospixiestitches@reddit
I went to school pre-blazer (left 2005) but my teen's school has the blazer rule, which is crap
Equal-Competition930@reddit
No snowballs but it did make sense our school was extremely rough and people put stones and glass in them.
Inevitable-Debt4312@reddit
I’ve often wondered what would happen if a child smilingly said ‘No Sir, I won’t be attending detention.’ It would never have occurred to me at the time.
It’s the power of the institution, isn’t it?
GetSpammed@reddit
I forgot to go to detention one night, and got a Saturday detention as a result...now that sucked, having to put on full uniform and go in for regular school hours for an entire Saturday morning.
EducationalWeek885@reddit
Can't believe no one has mention it. But not allowing students to punch each others BCG injection. I mean we hadn't really thought of doing it until they announced it was banned, then that became all anyone did for the next few weeks. Probably showing my age here.
GetSpammed@reddit
Definitely showing your age there! I definitely got a smack or three in the upper arm after returning from my turn with the rotund BCG nurse....except unknown to the punchers, my heaf test (the forearm prong thing a week earlier) still showed up on my arm, as I had TB antibodies & natural immunity to it, so I never actually received the BCG.
keelekingfisher@reddit
No physical contact between students. Ever. Under any circumstances. No handshakes, high fives, hugs, contact in PE (extra funny because we had a rugby team), none of it. Basically ignored or very selectively enforced until we got a new head when I started year 10, who insisted it be enforced to the letter. This lasted until the end of period one, by which time, apparently, over a quarter of the students had been given a lunchtime detention. Turns out telling kids they can't hug or high five on the first day back doesn't go down well.
SinsOfTheAether@reddit
Smoking was allowed on the school steps, but card games were not (Tarabish in particular).
Commercial-Rule4937@reddit
Both of these are horrible rules I can see most schools having. My school has the blazers rule and we only arent allowed to bring our blazers in if its 25°+
rileydaisydoggywoggy@reddit
We had to stand up when the teacher came into the room.
TharrickLawson@reddit
Warhammer started being a thing at my old boarding school - and about 2 days after kids started getting into it, there was a rule that you weren't allowed to play Chaos.
My parents bought me some Chaos Space Marines for Christmas one year, and packed them with my stuff - they were taken off me and I didn't get them back until the end of the year.
snakeoildriller@reddit
First-year pupils had to wear school caps at all times when outside the school. Being spotted without one by a member of staff or prefect meant after-school detention.
Superb_Copy1644@reddit
Wouldn’t say that’s weird. More traditional. Complete uniform/being a rep of the school isn’t uncommon, and caps harp back to the days of “young boys wear caps and shorts”
CTC42@reddit
If the primary justification given for doing something is that it carps back to something else, it's because there's nothing that makes it worth doing in its own right.
Get_schwifty93@reddit
Haha, yeah we had boaters, fucking straw monstrosities.
YetAnotherInterneter@reddit
Our school had this bizarre rule that you could only wear a coat IF it was the exact shade of blue as our school blazer (and yes they were very strict on the shade) and your coat must not obscure the school crest on the blazer pocket. The school argued that this was essential so that we could be identified as what school we go to.
Now I’m not sure if we just weren’t being creative enough with our choice of coats, but it seems to me that it is impossible to wear a coat without obscuring the pocket on your blazer!
Not surprisingly no one could manage to wear a coat and abide by these rules so inevitably no one wore coats. We were allowed umbrellas - which if you ask me is more dangerous than a coat because an umbrella is essentially a pointy stick. But it was the only way we could stay dry when it rained.
Oh and this rule applies even outside of school hours, so we weren’t even allowed a coat to walk to/from school. If a teacher spotted you they would give you detention even though you weren’t at school at the time.
In winter it was absolutely bloody freezing without a coat! So we would wear several layers underneath our shirts just to stay warm. We had to go outside during break and lunchtime, but often we would sneak in and huddle around a radiator like penguins just to warm up until a teacher found us and made us go back outside.
It was such a crazy stupid rule, but at the time we didn’t question it. It was just normal to us. But looking back now it was essentially child abuse and I have no idea how the school managed to get away with it or why none of the parents ever complained about it.
YetAnotherInterneter@reddit
Out of curiosity I looked up to see if the school still has this rule.
It looks like student can now wear coats (yay!) but it still has to be the same shade as the blazer and they now have special trousers with the school crest displayed on the upper thigh.
wtf is wrong with this school? Why are they so obsessed with showing off their crest?
jenpalex@reddit
I entered Grammar School in 1964 and got a frisson from reading the last school rule, specifying the colour of girls’ knickers.
Williamishere69@reddit
Ours wasnt quite as insane as that, but there were rules that the girls couldn't wear bras that were visible - which must've been distress for them considering the tops were a very thin light-blue colour, and they were also a v-neck blouse kinda shape... So they couldn't wear sports bras, white bras, pink bras, etc - they could only really wear skin-coloured/nude ones.
Such ridiculous rules
DingoBingoWimbo@reddit
Did everyone's school have rules about hair? Girls had to have over shoulder length and boys under shoulder length. I let my hair go over my shoulders and got personally punished by the head teacher
Williamishere69@reddit
Yep. Had this issue, too. Also werent allowed anything that was 'unprofessional', though that depended on the teachers personal opinion - someone get told off for having a man bun, which is one of the most stereotypically professional long male hairstyle out there.
Headteacher also threatened to suspend me if I dyed my hair any colour that isnt natural - and even said that blonde wasnt a natural colour, so I couldnt even bleach it. But that mightve just been personal hatred towards me considering there was a kid who came in with a bright green afro one day and that was fine, and half the girls had pure black or white-blonde hair, and a bunch of the boys had perms.
E-Step@reddit
I went to an all boys school and the only hair rule was not allowing really short buzzcuts
This was in the early 2000s so I'm not sure why they were so worried about skinheads
rabidrob42@reddit
Not about lengths, I went to an all boys school and my best friend has always had hair that goes way past his shoulders, there was a rule against certain styles and colourings, it was the time where some of the pupils would have all that tribal shit shaved into their head.
Albert_Herring@reddit
No hair over the collar until you got to 6th form (home counties boys' grammar, 1970s).
1972, rather scary kid called Meyer got ordered to get a haircut on those grounds, came back in with a shaved head the next day. They added a minimum length after that, but he did make a proper terrifying skinhead for a while, and it was right when there was a proper moral panic about skinhead football fans happening.
Zavodskoy@reddit
Friend of mine had the very stereotypical emo hair in around 2008 or 2009 dyed black, right at the start of the summer holidays he dyed a neon red stripe into his fringe expecting it to have faded by the time the next school year started.
We return to school end of August / start of September and it has faded from Neon red to a sort of dark crimson, not massively obvious but still noticeable.
Halfway through the day he gets escorted out of a lesson by the headteacher and told off, the exact words were "Your hair is too extreme for the learning environment".
He asked some follow-up questions and was informed that dying your hair "unnatural" colours wasn't allowed even if it wasn't all your hair but there was no rules on colour if it was a natural colour (So you could dye it brown, blonde, ginger or black) and no rules on hair length.
In response to this information, he acted like a completely sane and reasonable person and proceeded to bleach his hair blonde and use an entire tube of hair gel to make himself look like Goku going Super Saiyan, this somehow wasn't against the dress code but a dark red stripe in his hair was?
gregofdeath@reddit
Back on 2000, Pokémon card trading led to so many arguments in primary school that we were required to purchase a 'Pokémon licence' from the headteacher that gave us authority to trade cards and if any fallout happened whilst licenced, the licence would be revoked with no space for reissue. My mum thought it was bollocks and decided to make me one using Microsoft Word that, to be fair, looked pretty close. A kid grassed me up and I got all my cards confiscated. Still to this day can't believe it was a thing.
TheAncientGeek@reddit
Carry a mirror and comb on you at all times.
HiMyNameIsPip@reddit
The native language one would go down well in Wales 😂.
Mine had the stupid Blazer rule too, some teachers weren't really fussed about it and didn't care but others acted as if you had just dishonored their entire family if you took it off without asking, even if you took it off to put on or remove your jumper and would be putting it back on after they'd be upset.
Mine also had a rule that you couldn't wear a hat or scarf in winter unless you were wearing a coat, like my head can't be cold unless the rest of my body is?
No-Extension-2378@reddit
I got a letter sent home because my pencil case was too big.
Elderflower3078@reddit
At my primary school we weren't allowed to do hand stands or cartwheels. We used to do them in secret while someone kept a look out 😂
InviteAromatic6124@reddit
My school had that stupid blazers rule as well, RC school in the 2000's.
melon703@reddit
At my old school, you always had to walk on the left side of the corridor, and talk quietly as you walked. Punishment was the belt on your bottom, and it hurt.
FornyHucker22@reddit
to be fair kids did behave better back then for some reason 🤔
skatemoose@reddit
Hahaaaa, no they didn't 😂
FornyHucker22@reddit
behave better around teachers at least 😂
LadyInAllPower@reddit
Old fashioned 80s private school. The PE kit was a nightmare.
Tiny shorts and t shirts even in winter, we had red shorts for outdoors, blue for indoors, and you’d get a detention for bringing the wrong ones! And we even had to wear skirts for hockey and netball 🤦♀️.
The boys were lucky to avoid skirts, but for gymnastics their kit was shorts only, which would seem odd nowadays!
Flumcake@reddit
At my school the girls’ PE kit was different for pretty much every sport while the boys could just wear shorts and t-shirts regardless.
deadliftbear@reddit
In my school (boy’s catholic grammar in NI) we weren’t allowed more than two days stubble… but only in Years 13 and 14. So you had 16-year-olds doing their GCSEs with practically a full beard, but the same boy in September had to shave it off.
Important-Double6821@reddit
At some point while I was there, they introduced a rule where you couldn't sit or stand in a group larger than 5 (I think it was 5, can't remember the exact number but it was a weirdly small amount) because apparently we were "intimidating the teachers". It only applied to specifically my year group as well. Don't know why they had to punish all of us, though no one really seemed to follow it after the first couple weeks
filbert94@reddit
Not allowed to wear hoodies when visibly in school uniform.
But...the hoody covers the uniform.
CacklingWitch99@reddit
In years 7 and 8 you were only allowed a box pleated skirt. From year 9 onwards, any style allowed.
You_moron04@reddit
Weren’t allowed to wear PE kit on the bus/walk home despite the fact it was last period of the day.
Almost missed my bus a few times cause of it.
Mobile-Access-9693@reddit
Not my school, but my cousin got into trouble for not smiling during the register
bopeepsheep@reddit
No sticking magnets to Mr B without his permission.
kaedesam@reddit
When I was around 11 (or 12, my memory is hazy?) my family moved from Scotland to York. It was quite the culture shock, made worse by the school who had many weird rules, including the one about eating your school lunch "properly" with the fork in your left hand and knife in right.
Fuck you if you were left handed, you got reprimanded for doing it the wrong way. We also had to use exclusively fountain pens apart from in Maths where we had the leisure of using a pencil.
TokuTheGreatCorso@reddit
no brown belts only black
anguslolz@reddit
There was a resurgence for yoyos in the 90s at least around me and my primary school banned them because people kept using them as offensive weapons lol
gameovervip@reddit
Not really answering your question but once all the boys got banned from the football pitch because a boy accidentally booted a ball in a girls face. Thought that was quite unfair
Excellent-Ruin6779@reddit
Zero tolerance fighting.
If you get punched in the face fuck you you are expelled we are going to ruin your education. How dare you walk around being punched in the face.
BalthazarOfTheOrions@reddit
That second rule, since it's during break times, is plain racist.
Not so much a school rule, but my history teacher used to make his students line up outside the class and salute him as they entered. He was a weird man.
cactusdan94@reddit
You could only wear the PE tracksuit bottoms in the winter months. In the summer months you HAD To wear the shorts. No matter now cold or wet it was...
SlightlyMithed123@reddit
No coats allowed on inside the building, not so weird you may say but they actually made everyone stand outside in the pissing rain to take their coats off…
pmmeyourpeacesign@reddit
A primary teacher got hit in the face by a stray tennis ball some kids were playing catch with at break and she had a screaming tantrum. They banned any ball games but it slowly started again a few months later.
Caveman1214@reddit
I used to work at a primary, my second day outside supervising a break time I got pelted in the face by a Frisbee. Knew it wasn’t intentional, kid said sorry and that was that. Ridiculous a teacher would ban games because of a (hopefully) mistake
PyroTech11@reddit
Coats had to be brown to match with the uniform.
JamesL25@reddit
Another one here with blazers on unless given permission to take off. Some teachers used a ruling of if they’d taken their jacket off, then we could as well. I remember in year 7 asking a supply teacher and he seemed confused by the rule.
On the flip side in winter. We had to take coats off as soon as we entered classrooms or the hall, but we had teachers who’d keep their coats on to flaunt their power. The PE teachers were even worse for it
ExaminationOutside68@reddit
Ours also had insane rules about blazers, to the point where multiple people got detention for taking blazers off after school on the journey home.
docju@reddit
First music lesson of high school, every pupil was forced to sing a hymn in front of the class (in pairs, thankfully facing the teacher and not the class). If you were judged a good enough singer, you were forced to join the choir, which met during lunchtimes on Tuesdays and Thursdays (understandably unpopular). You couldn’t say no and could only get out of it with a note from a parent.
I get that sometimes kids might have to be forced to nurture some talent they might have but this was way over the top.
I failed this audition so it wasn’t a problem.
liloka@reddit
Catholic high school (no nuns). No showing of ankles. Boys weren’t allowed shaved heads and were sent home if the hair was too short. You were only allowed navy blue coats. Once they did allow black coats then you weren’t allowed multi-coloured scarves. Girls had to wear branded trousers and skirts, boys no.
We also had the opposite problem where a teacher had a go at my body conscious friend who was fanning herself in summer while wearing her jumper. And the teacher was rude about why she was wearing her jumper if she was too hot.
smackdealer1@reddit
Yeah the polish kids used to complain teachers wouldn't let them speak polish in school. Yet kurwa etc was every second word so I wonder why.
horridbloke@reddit
"Boys' hair must be of a reasonable length"
zlukes@reddit
In middle school (year 5 to year 8) we weren't allowed to carry bags around with us, you had to take all your books around in a big stack and god forbid you forgot a book, you weren't allowed back to your locker to get it. Our first week we didn't realise we were supposed to take our music books with us to the PE lesson just before the music lesson and got lined up against a building outside and screamed at.
Amddiffynnydd@reddit
The whole tie and blazer thing in warm weather….. I’ve often found whipping out a recorder and giving three renditions of three blind mice resolved a lot of the problems in working life.
Conscious-Ball8373@reddit
Eh, I spent my first five years working after university in South Australia. Both my employers there required that I wear a tie while on site, even if the temperature was north of 40C. It was a thing.
Gauntlets28@reddit
Yeah, we had a similar rule put in place for not removing coats until the headmaster decided it was time to. Absolutely ridiculous policy. Difference was, we didn't wear blazers, we wore heavy, ankle-length woolen coats.
Ticklishchap@reddit
Early 1980s boys’ boarding school and so there were lots of weird rules which we accepted as ‘normal’. We were divided into ‘Houses’, where we slept, did our ‘prep’ and spent quite a lot of our spare time when not engaged in School activities. Houses also played each other at sports. As sixth formers (last two years - lower and upper sixth), we were allowed to wear our own jumpers in the House instead of the School uniform jumper. But we weren’t allowed to go ‘Civvy Street’ completely: we still had to wear the regulation flannel trousers, the white shirt, etc. This was a strange sort of half-measure, looking back, but I can’t remember questioning it at the time.
Either-Connection775@reddit
Perfectly normal that 🤷🏻♂️
TofuSkins@reddit
We were allowed to leave school at break but had to have a letter to get back in. Didn't make any sense.
FunkyYoghurt@reddit
I went to a Roman Catholic secondary in the 90s-early 00s. Every boy had to have a number 2 or 3 back and sides and short on top. Anything else was an "extreme" haircut.
At the school I worked at until a couple of years ago: the weirdest rule was definitely "Keep your blazers on because it's smart. I don't care that it's 28 degrees and the air con is broken". Fuck that. Kids in my class didn't wear theirs, had their shirts untucked, and their ties all over the place: still sweating cobs. If SLT came in I'd take the slap on the wrist away from the kids.
HyperDogOwner458@reddit
After my secondary school became an academy, one of the rules was to not take your blazer off without permission. I remember one student taking his off and he got detention. And the teachers were always like "we don't want to do this, but we have to" or something.
Sea-Still5427@reddit
Curtseying when you shook hands with a teacher or anyone important.
Specialist_Heron4446@reddit
Only allowed to remove our blazers with permission, no backpack style bookbags, they had to be handle carried bags, no moccasin style shoes were allowed, only regular authorised school shoes. Hair had to be off the ear and not touching the collar, no talking in line or during assembly, no smoking anywhere. All were punishable by caning.
k0n3kt@reddit
Sit on the highest part of the climbing apparatus at the start of P.E I'm sure thats why I don't like heights 😆
HashDefTrueFalse@reddit
We weren't 'legally allowed to leave' if the teacher didn't turn up after 15 minutes. Disgusting.
BromleyReject@reddit
The snood button is only to be undone on the third Monday after exeats and only then with the express permission of Mr Cavinger
TheRealXyz_@reddit (OP)
Man why I get downvote 😭
sgehig@reddit
Because you kept posting the same thing...
TheRealXyz_@reddit (OP)
I won't now bro
ihavetakenthebiscuit@reddit
Our school had a rule where even during peak summer we weren’t allowed to remove our blazer unless a teacher said so. Another weird one was getting punished for talking in your native language during class breaks 😭
ihavetakenthebiscuit@reddit
Our school had a rule where even during peak summer we weren’t allowed to remove our blazer unless a teacher said so. Another weird one was getting punished for talking in your native language during class breaks 😭
ihavetakenthebiscuit@reddit
Our school had a rule where even during peak summer we weren’t allowed to remove our blazer unless a teacher said so. Another weird one was getting punished for talking in your native language during class breaks 😭
dronebox@reddit
Back in the eighties our school banned excessive use of Blakey’s Segs..
TheRealXyz_@reddit (OP)
Our school had a rule where even during peak summer we weren’t allowed to remove our blazer unless a teacher said so. Another weird one was getting punished for talking in your native language during class breaks 😭
TheAireon@reddit
Bot behaviour
ihavetakenthebiscuit@reddit
Yes we know, word for word, this is what you said in your post, was there also a rule where you had to repeat what you just said?
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