What were you like at school........?

Miserable! Hated it went to a boarding grammar school and did not fit in. I was bookish and hated games. It was very religious and anti sex. The food was uneatable, the matron and house mistress kept cats, 7 in total and they give me asthma eczema hay fever and any other allergic symptom you can think of. I left after o levels as it didn't offer a level physics chemistry and biology and they were pressuring me to take re, history and English instead. When iasked what I could do with these I was told I should read theology at Oxford! ME theology?
I think you can tell I was not happy!

I must have had a naughty streak because I often got the belt (remember, this was Scotland) and was the last girl in my class to have this punishment also one of the last two to get into a fight. After about 14, we seemingly reformed. However, I was also academic, a voracious reader and enjoyed hockey. They were short of sixth formers in my year, so all the girls (though not all the boys) were made prefects.

I was a rascal inside and a sort of budding saint on the outside. All mixed-up Although not a Catholic, I prayed far too willingly. The Lady Chapel was my refuge. Somehow my prayers went unheeded. The convent was strict and whenever I could get away with being a bit of a rebel I felt duty bound to succomb. I was the girl who stood outside Mother Superior's study more often than any other pupil for such sins as breaking the uniform code - wearing a hat [dented like a pork pie] because it was trendier - writing love stories during Latin and having my novels confiscated - permitting my boyfriend to carry my satchel and peck me on the cheek at the school entrance - having a glamorous friend who, when asked ...'What are you hoping to do when you leave school?' replied...'be a show-girl...' And so she did! I found the serious side of life amusing - and that was not a good thing. I was a prefect of the house of St Thomas Aquinas [the girls voted, not the nuns!] The only time I was praised for effort was when, as a member of the swimming team, I helped to win trophies. Mind you, for all my rebelliousness, I still managed to leave school with high grades. I realise now, that I could/should have gone to university. That missed opportunity still saddens me more than I can say.

At university there was a category for "swots" where a girl was called a "wee Mary" and the male version "Iain Clottys".
I am afraid I was a "wee Mary" at my small Scottish High school - goody goody, "top" of the class, Head Girl blah blah blah. Gosh how I envied the idea of a school "rebel" but she existed only in fiction. With hindsight I genuinely regret my inability to rebel, but we are talking small town in Scottish Borders in 60's, respectable and conventional.
Gives a whole new meaning to "wasted youth"

lonely

I had no friends at senior school, I was the chubby bullied girl. I didn't hate school despite that, and did reasonably well. Behaviour wise I was a little saint I did make life long friends (still in touch) with a girl I met at my first Saturday/summer job when we were both 15. But in school I spent my break and lunch times alone.

I did everything in my power to ensure my DD wasn't overweight as I didn't want her to suffer the way I had.

I don't remember those terms for 'swots' at St Andrews, gracesmum. Maybe after my time. But small-town Scotland, oh, yes. If I did something out of order, my mum would hear about it before I got home. Everyone knew everyone else and my ancestors were built into the bricks. Mum had been taught by several of my teachers and been at school with quite a few others.

Secondary Modern B grade, written off, which I embraced because I could hide, although utterly miserable. My writing and any artistic talent was derided.
Got my Masters in my 40's - best thing I ever did!

So, not "the best days of our lives" eh?

I went to a girls grammar school in Swansea that was housed in wooden huts. Fortunately it had no sports facilities beyond netball courts as I hated games.
I played down my abilities to some extent as did not want to be a swot. Unlike Jeni I was interested in the opposite sex and it is just as well it was not a mixed school. In the sixth form I did sciences (you guessed) and I was one of a tiny number of 6th formers who were not voted by my peers to be a prefect (a slightly rebellious and scatty image, which was exacerbated by having a very scatty younger sister)
Later in life one of my jobs was a training manager in the water industry. All the other women in the department had, it transpired, been head girl. The school definitely recognise or tap into that aspect of my personality. Interesting.

I was often to be found outside the head teacher's office, for shaking my pen and getting ink all over the register and the English teacher's bald head (well, he would insist I sat right in front of him!), for arriving late at school, for refusing to hold my hands still whilst the slipper was administered, for forgetting my gym kit, for laughing when the netball post fell on the PE teacher's head. I rarely did my homework, played truant from the age of 12, sold my school dinner tickets for cigarettes....and the list is endless!

I have said before that we get an education despite school. I was miserable for most of the time and if it wasn't for my friends and my books, I would have been miserable in my spare time, too. My parents labelled me as the black sheep of the family, and shook their heads in confusion in later years when I quietly got on with getting a degree and a career. Thank goodness for the Open University!

Butternut brilliant!

That made me cry, Carol - thanks!

I can remember getting the ruler for talking! It was a really awful woman teacher, and she used to bend your fingers back while she did it, which hurt more than the ruler.

Carol - You clearly did extremely well. (smile)

I was also very scruffy, probably smelly and wore NHS pink wire rims!! Not a pretty picture. - and yep, I finally got an education (in determination and bloody-mindedness) despite school, and contrary to expectations, became very successful in my field. My husband's nickname for me is 'little soldier'.

jingl - it wasn't a science teacher by any chance, was it? . Mine was good at that!

jessM hey who said I wasn't interested? It just wasn't allowed Strictly forbidden, verboten! Got the picture. Besides it's difficult to be interested in men when you never meet them. In fact I felt a bit like Miranda when I went to tech:- oh brave new world that has such creatures in it!

Just beeping miserable!

jingle In primary school, teacher would leave the class unattented and slip out to buy cigs. Before leaving, he gave strict "No talking" instructions. Nevertheless we all gassed umpteen to the nine in his absence. When he returned he would suck his teeth and ask..."Who broke the rule?" How come I was the only one to own up? The punishment was the cane across the outstretched hand [which to his annoyance I could barely keep still long enough for the THWACK as the cane whizzed through the air at supersonic speed.]

jeni - 'Miranda' as in the recently successful comic??
Think she's brilliant.

Butternut, no. It was primary school so she was a general purpose teacher.

butternut no Miranda as in shakespeare, the tempest.

- so much for my education, jeni!

I was the opposite of Carol, following 1 year behind my model pupil, top of the class, sister throughout school. I started school able to read fluently and count and after 3 months in Primary one was sent up into primary two. The Primary two teacher did not appreciate my efforts to show her (and the other pupils) easier ways to do the sums we were set, any more than Primary one teacher had done and we had a big stand off when I pointed out to her that it did not matter whether the counters on the number board were red side or blue side up when we were doing addition. The turning some blue was only useful when subtracting.

In Primary 4 I was sent to the Headmaster and put into another class again - my crime? - calmly telling the teacher that there was no point in belting the class dunce for not having learnt his spelling, when it was obvious that he just was not bright enough to cope with such hard words. This kind of incident occurred regularly throughout my schooling and although I remained always and easily top of the class, I got on well with all the other pupils, was never bullied and usually appointed class spokesperson in any dispute - unlike my sister who was deemed 'a swot' and 'stuck up'.

The Rector, at High School, called me into his office specifically to tell me that I was NOT going to be appointed as a Prefect because of my rebellious attitude, which, he implied, would blight the rest of my life. I told him that I would have refused the Prefects badge anyway as I had no wish to boss about my fellow pupils (or waste break times herding first years into 'lines' of boys and girls, or supervise detention - imposed when the school bus rendered a whole village late, someone forgot their gym kit etc.) I suppose it must have been difficult for the teachers but I have no regrets. If they would insist on setting up such silly, petty, useless and convoluted rules, they should have expected that someone would challenge them.

Respect granny23, I had much the same attitude but my lacked your ability