Sixth form antics

It was traditional for school leavers from my all girls school to throw their hats into the River Wear in Durham from Framwellgate Bridge. Some added their satchels, but pretty tame judging by other posts.

Mine is very tame compared to some already posted. My academy had a very large, immaculately kept lawn in front of the school. Woe betide any pupil who was ever found on it during school hours. But on the last day of term, everyone who was leaving would run around, sit on the grass, etc. No real damage was ever done, and on reflection, even aged 17/18, we were all too scared of the teachers, especially the boy’s deputy head and the rector himself.
Loved the chicken prank.

My 6th form antic- agreeing on the last day to go out on a date with my PE teacher!!?

We had our prizegiving on the last day of school. The sixth form boys in my year (1958) advertised a jumble sale to be held in our school hall on the date and at the time of the prizegiving. The janitor was puzzled when a queue of women, not exactly dressed for a school ceremony, began to form at the entrance. Somehow or other, it all got smoothed over before anything untoward happened and the culprits got away scot free because they had just left school for good!

It wasn’t in the sixth form but we locked a teacher in a stock room and demanded a ransom off teachers in other classes. He was a bit of a drip and one teacher offered us more money to keep him there. All the cash went to a local charity.

B9exchange when I was at art school one of the boys had a bubble car. I think he was the only one of us who had any sort of car. After one end of term celebration his bubble car was found perched on top of a telephone box! He was only a little chap and it took him ages to get anyone to help him get it down. He didn't have much sense of humour and he never did see the funny side.

When I was in sixth form our girls' grammar school did a joint production of a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta with the nearby boys' grammar school. Rehearsals were held at the girls' school. Some of our staff were quite traumatised when some boys turned a few corridor pictures to face the wall ?

No antics and boy would there have be repercussions if there had been.
Discipline was always stern but fair, at least I thought so. If anyone had been found to have been up to highjinks and it was obvious we would have known about it, we were all disciplined. Run with the crows caught with the crows, was almost the school motto! Don't know how people put up with what is basically vandalism nowadays.

My school was so straight laced and old fashioned that we would never have dared, but it later became a comprehensive and I heard hilarious tales about the end of term - highly inventive!

Attending an all girls' school, nothing like that, but I do recall the medical students at my training hospital getting a mini up into the lifts and leaving it parked in one of the operating theatres!

On my last day at school we just went down the pub. We were all still in uniform and loved the rebelliousness of drinking when no-one could give us detention for it any more!

We signed each others shirts, cut each others ties in half and floured and egged unsuspecting victims, which looking back was a bit cruel but it was accepted as a right of passage.

We were daring enough to skim our boaters, like frisbees, from the railway bridge. Very tame compared to the high jinks described here!

The year I left (1966) the boys set alight to the music teachers bubble car. The poor man was probably the most unpopular teacher in the school. Everyone was cheering for it to explode, lots of kids threw their hats, ties and blazers on the fire, I remember one boy was down to his underwear! Unfortunately our school was right next door to a fire station and the fire was put out before the car was destroyed, but it was an awful mess.

Another year all the bathrooms were flooded because someone cut through the plumbing pipes.

And someone locked the headmistress in a store room and moved her car along the road, so the caretaker thought she'd left when he locked up and went home! She was only found when her husband called the police late that night. She was a fearsome woman so I can just imagine her temper when they let her out.

Happy days!

On the last day of summer term the main tradition amongst the 5th and 6th formers was "de bagging the head boy."
His trousers were removed, by force if necessary, then they were hoisted up the flagpole. Head boy was given an overall to wear for modesty.

In Denmark the 16 year olds who finish elementary school that year, dress up in fantastic costumes on their last school day and bring sweeties and water pistols to school.

They throw the sweeties to the younger children and soak each other, the younger pupils and any teacher they happen to dislike with the water pistols.

In most schools one or two teachers volunteer to man a capious water-butt and one or two hoses and retaliate.

All these water fights take place in the playground. Some classes put on a skit in the assembly hall, where the staff are of course fair game. It is usually all very good fun with no malicious jokes.

I always wore my biking rain gear when manning a hose in the yard - one of my colleagues preferred his wet suit!

The Deputy Head at my school was in charge of timetabling. He was very proud of the enormous board with all the different timetables displayed for each year. We hid it on the roof. I’m sure he found it at some point! This was 50 years ago.

We did nothing, but my daughter’s year all signed each other’s shirts.

The school I taught in had to clamp down on silliness as it turned into nastiness. Some of the seniors took it as carte blanche to be unpleasant and their antics left a very poor impression of their year as a whole. It was often the ones who hadn't worked much and whose attendance had been problematic who behaved worst. Like many things, the ones who took it too far ruined it for the majority.

Sago

My sons school was famous for it!
I think more effort went into the leaving japes than the A levels.

Same here. I won't say what exactly but it involved a large rectangular receptacle of water at the school in the middle of the night. I can't remember whether they were caught in the act but someone certainly found out.

It was apparently a tradition at my school to make a bonfire and burn your hats on the last day, but somehow my lot never did. My elder sister did - it was Panama hats then, but we had boaters.

Oh I like that, SueDonim! What a brilliant idea!

It didn’t happen at my school and a lot of schools have clamped down on it in the UK, because it caused costly damage.

One year, though, at my children’s school in a rural area, they obtained two chickens, put labels round their necks saying 1 and 3 and let them loose in the building. Staff soon rounded up the chickens but spent ages looking for chicken no 2.

My sons school was famous for it!
I think more effort went into the leaving japes than the A levels.