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

That made me cry, Carol - thanks!

Butternut brilliant!

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!

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.

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

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!

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.

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.

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"

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.

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.

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!