How naughty were you at school?

My best friend and I at my convent school were given a punishment (I can’t remember what for.) We were told to report to the scullery the next lunchtime to do the washing up. We thought this would be great fun: it was winter, and huddling in the playground didn’t appeal. I brought my tiny transistor radio in and we thought we would have fun chatting and listening to radio 1. However, the sister who usually did all the washing up and drying too didn’t leave us alone. She greeted us very kindly, then sat on a stool and opened her breviary, and spent the whole period in silent reading. We felt so guilty we worked in silence too.

LOL bet you could recite them all.

Domestic Science! My bestie friend in class (and still is 60 years on) threw a wet dishcloth at me as we were wiping down the white wooden table. I threw it back at her, just as Miss Pascoe turned round to see,so I was the one who got the detention!

Forgot to mention the time I got sent to the Rector (head teacher) for grimacing at his secretary when I saw her looking through the window. I expected 'the belt' but said, very innocently, 'Please sir, I was only smiling at her'. Inexplicably, he believed me and I got off scot free! Looking back 60 years, I really shouldn't boast about that incident.

I once gave a boy a bloody nose too, Happysexagenarian, in the junior school playground. Oddly, neither the staff nor my parents said a word about it, even though he was sent home. He was part of a group of nasty bullies who’d cornered a smaller boy - I think they all thought he’d deserved it!

I can't believe how wilfully naughty some of you were!
I hope I'm past the stage of being easily led. (Taurus, so not likely!)

Yes Glammagran animals have often got me into trouble!
I once tackled a group of older boys who had tied a firework to the tail of a cat. I managed to rescue the cat and one of the boys went home with a very bloody nose. And in my second week in my very first job I was very late one morning because I got off the bus to help a dog that had been run over. I wouldn't leave it until an animal ambulance turned up to take over. My boss was far from sympathetic. She said I needed to decide what was more important to me, my job or a stray dog. I apologised for being late but said I could always get another job, but the dog couldn't get another life. I'll never forget her face!

I was a well behaved, shy child but remember being slapped across the legs whilst reading out loud for pronouncing a word wrongly. I hated Brer Rabbit after that.

It was obviously a sign of my Bolshie nature, that I got real pleasure when I did much better in my O levels than expected by my teachers. I knew I was capable of the results I got, but the school had written me me off.

I passed my A levels and got into university and it was only then that the teachers realised I wasn't going to study history but economics. A subject no-one in the school had ever been known to apply for. It was still a very male subject.

I was a good, very shy child at primary school. Then went to a strict all girls' grammar. The headmistress had a sign "cave canem " (beware of the dog!!) on her office door.
My parents had a bitter divorce (almost unheard of then) and I went right off the rails. Truancy, smoking, you name it. Dire predictions were made. With the arrogance of youth, I swanned into school for final exams and with some very good luck and a natural academic bent, I passed the lot with very good grades!
I think the teachers hated me, as they weren't able to say "told you so". I look back and think it might've been better had I failed, as of course the only lesson I learned was that I could get away with anything.
Took many years and some hard knocks to finally disabuse me of my delusions of invincibility!!

My bad behaviour didn’t include bullying though. I was still kind to the other kids.

I was very good at primary school, never put a foot wrong.
Something happened to me at age 13, and ‘naughty’ wouldn’t cover it. My behaviour was appalling, I was almost out of control, I was threatened with expulsion, and I don’t really know how I was’t.
I completely wasted my education and can’t tell you how much I regret that, and the pain I caused my parents because of it, especially mum.
I know this is meant to be a lighthearted thread, so sorry if I’ve put a damper on it.

I loved my village infants school as I was always the brightest child but I hated my junior school and how I got to Grammar school remains a mystery and a pity.

I hated grammar school and just kept my head down. I was think i was marking time until I could escape from the bullies.

I was always in trouble as a child and could never quite work out why, I wasn't particularly naughty.

Now I can see why I was always in trouble, the problem was I had an innate sense of justice and fairness and always expected that in any situation I was entitled to put my side of the story. Also I could always see if an adult was illogical in their argument and would query it. DD is/was rather like me and I can see how infuriating it must have been.
So I was always in trouble for rudeness, insolence and, if all else failed , 'dumb insolence', in other words the expression on my face.

The worst thing I did was when I was at my lovely little prep day school. I was about 8. We had a new teacher who didn’t realise that I went home for lunch everyday and I had to catch a certain bus or I couldn’t make it home, have lunch and get back in time for afternoon school. She kept the whole class in to finish some work. I put my hand up and told her I had to leave, and explained why, but she wouldn’t let me. I was desperate, so I got out of the window, which, fortunately, was very low, and caught the bus. When I got home I was in floods of tears,as I thought I would get into terrible trouble (I was a very law-abiding child), so my parents kept me home for the afternoon and my father (also a teacher) rang the school to explain what had happened. I didn’t get into trouble the next day,but was just told not to do it again! When the teacher noticed I had gone and asked the rest of the class where I was, some one told her: “ She got out of the window with her umbrella, Miss!”

Quite a story [sexagenarian]. You were really brave to take on that horse driver and I admire you. I wouldn’t have been so brave in your position but hate animal cruelty.

“Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon behind them Volley'd and thunder'd; Storm'd at with shot and shell, While horse and hero fell, They that had fought so well Came thro' the jaws of Death, Back from the mouth of Hell, All that was left of them, Left of six hundred.”
I had to learn Charge of the Light Brigade, as I got caught passing the ‘love letters’ to a boy at communion. We were an all Girls School, and only saw the boys at Church, so we had to take it in turn to do the bidding of the Prefects, last girl at Communion, passed letters to the first boy. Stupid little sod dropped them.

Ormstongran I was the youngest in my year.
Another 12 hours and I’d have been the year below.

Oh the things we got up to in our school days, but none of them (yet) as bad as some kids do these days!
For the most part I enjoyed my school days despite often being teased (bullied?) about my home environment.
But I didn't get off to a good start. In my first week in Infants at the tender age of 5 I was given the ruler across my palm for talking and made to stand in a corner with my back to the class. When the teacher caught me looking round at the other children she slapped the back of my legs with the ruler! I didn't dare tell my mother or I'd have been in even more trouble. Throughout primary school I was often in trouble for talking or answering back.

In secondary school I was better behaved, probably because of our fearsome Headmistress. I worked hard in the lessons I enjoyed and for the teachers I liked. When I found a lesson boring I'd start doodling cartoons in my workbook. The geography teacher caught me and hauled me to the front of the class. Picking up the ruler he told me to hold my hand out. He put his hand under mine and raised the ruler, as it came down I snatched my hand away and he hit his own hand! The whole class roared with laughter. His face looked as though he might explode - then he began to laugh too. I got away with that one and he let me sit down again.

Sometimes I liberated a white rat from the science labs and took it to lessons with me in my blazer pocket releasing it in a class when I knew it would make the teacher scream! And I once broke a window of the dinner hall while playing football with the boys.

But the most trouble I ever got into was actually out of school but I was in uniform. While walking home after school one day I passed a horse drawn scrap metal wagon stopped at the traffic lights. When the lights changed the horse refused to move and the driver jumped down and started beating it with a stick. Well, I wasn't going to stand for any cruelty to an animal, so I gave him a right mouthful. He carried on hitting the poor horse so I literally jumped on him knocking him over, and grabbed the stick from him. I threatened to report him to the RSPCA, he threatened to call the police. A man passing by told him to leave me alone and get on his way, he was holding up the traffic. The following morning I was summoned to the Headmistresses Office where the Deputy Head (a lovely kind lady) said that a member of the public had made a serious complaint about me. How did he know my name - must have looked at the class photos. I explained my side of the incident and was told that such behaviour would usually result in instant dismissal. BUT she sympathised with my good intentions, and as the Headmistress was away on a course, she would reduce the punishment to five strokes of the cane, 500 lines and a written apology to the man. I refused to apologise so she said she'd have to speak to my mother. I gave in and wrote the letter, but I did not say 'sorry' in it and actually said I would do the same again if I ever saw him hitting his horse. I was caned but not very hard, Mrs Palmer hated caning anyone, and as it was a Friday I had all weekend to write the 500 lines.

Later that year I was made a Prefect and the following year Head Girl. I eventually left school with very good reports from all my teachers.

in my very first hour at grammar school.
What an accolade!

Even I didn't manage that
Well done!

Did anyone else have a Silence Bell?

When I compare the DGC's schools with school in my day it is like a different world.

Did anyone else write lines like we did?

Me, Jalima! I also tried the supposed trick of fastening 3 or 4 pens together (it didn’t work ).

I got 100 lines in my very first hour at grammar school. I am a stupid and clumsy child. My illegally swinging satchel laddered one of the teacher’s stockings.

Gosh these tales! Ofsted would hav a hay day nowadays!
Poor Horatia Fri 22-Feb-19 14:18:30 about the Christmas cake. Your mum had done her best & you were made ‘an example’ of. Stupid teacher!

I was always being cheeky and cruel to the young teachers. the worst time was Fridays double maths and a hopeless teacher near to tears. One Friday we had rehearsed a sort of high kicking chorus line with me at the front.
As soon as MissX was installed behind her desk we chorus girsl who were waiting outside made our entrance. Singing at the top of our voices and high kicking we danced in a line into the classroom expecting applause but there was a deadly silence!
I saw the dreaded headmistress sitting at the back.
'Go outside and come back in properly' she demanded - which we did.
I'll see you all after school in my office.!
Later at a parents evening a teacher said she had trouble with me and my mother said - yes so do I.
I must have been 14 at the time....

Did anyone else write lines like we did?

A whole sheet of:
I
I
I
then:
must
must
must

then:
not
not
not

etc
etc
etc

200+ times

It got them done in half the time.