"Bunking off" school as a child.

I never bunked off not did anyone else that I know of. School for me was a haven from home. I did however bunk off from home where I was badly treated. I would take my time at the end of the day by hanging round the school or in the town pretending I had extra classes or work to do. This happened especially in 6th form when we were allowed to stay off for revision. I used to go into school and spend the day in the sixth form room on my own to escape being used to do all the housework or cooking and generally being hit or shouted at.

At about 14 years old, when we did PE, we had a choice of what we could do. My friend and I always chose cross country. We were the only two who did.

We followed the course, which just happened to go past my friend's house, so we'd pop in, have a cup of tea and a peanut butter sandwich, and make our way back to school again.

We never ran a step once we were out of school's view, needless to say.

And isn't that a sign of the times - no school would let their pupils off the premises "for a run" these days.

GCE’s in my day not GCSE’s !

Yep! Friend & I never went to PE from age 14 onwards - straight over the road to have a fag or two! Didn’t really fancy getting changed & the communal showers.
Only got asked where had I been when report writing time came round. Told the truth! No one followed up? Guess PE teacher thought she’d be reprimanded if caught out. Did get told off by headteacher for going to the local pub at lunchtime aged 16 - with others, not alone. Grammar school.
1972- 6th form common room full of smokers, grass included & occasional LSD. I didn’t do that as parents would have been so disappointed. Obviously for me a step too far that would damage their reputation & careers
Passed all GCSE’s & A levels… didn’t affect me
Just for the record I was a strict mum & my daughters didn’t do much wrong or didn’t get caught either

I never bunked off school but my sister at a different school did quite regularly.

Oh yes and loved every minute of it I used to go in morning just late enough for the register to be placed in the foyer, put my attend! mark in , then off on my jollies back out the doors and out,same in afternoons.

My friend then started to do it, we got away with it for almost 3 weeks, it was our last year.

Anyway we were asked to "leave" hmm. so leave we did.

I got blamed as ringleader off my friends parents huh!

Also we would sneak off to my house during cross country and have a jam but.

I never regretted any of it. it felt like Freeeeeeedom

Was in 6th form in school. We had PE one afternoon a week. The local cinema took a lot of our money for those 2 years.

We called it mitching off. I didn’t in lower school, but in sixth form I did, we didn’t have to wear uniform on Fridays and we went to the pub at lunchtime.. different times, I bet teenagers today would never get away with it. I also learned to play bridge in free periods, and we ran tournaments which didn’t always finish before lessons started - more than once our teachers came and dragged us into class.

Marydoll

When I was in sixth year we went into town on a free period.
Someone had seen us and phoned the school, not because we weren't in school, but because we weren't wearing our hats!

OMG That happened to me too! We had taken off our school berets. To make it even worse I was with a girl whose Dad was a school governor AND we were seen eating chips!!!

It never entered my head and if caught I would have been punished at school, in Scotland, so a leather strap and if either parent found out I would not have been able to sit down for a couple of days. I was a good girl at school.

Never. My mam would have killed me if she'd found out. It really wasn't worth the risk.

I think the question whether we continued to bunk off work in our adulthood is an interesting one, because maybe, "once a bunker always a bunker!" I don't mind being asked about it. My take on that was that once I was at work other people were relying on my being there, I would be letting the side down, unlike at school where the only person losing out was me. I was extra conscientious at work, but I do know ALL my children bunked off school too, so maybe it is in the blood. (One is now in charge of 50+ engineers in his office. Works day and night, despite missing from school a few times!)

My friend Maisie and I decided to “run away from school” and have an adventure, the school gates were always open and we waited until everyone had gone in from the lunchtime/dinner break and set off for some fun. The school caretaker was sitting on a seat in the playground smoking his pipe. We told him what we were doing and he replied that he hadn’t seen us.

We walked half a mile or so to the station and asked for tickets to London, only to be told that tickets had to be paid for. We then felt at a loose end and decided we’d go back to school.

We were 8 years old and “safeguarding” hadn’t been invented. We slipped back into school and hid in the cloakroom till the bell went for the next lesson. Nobody had missed us.

At secondary school I did try to get out of gym activities as I didn’t like vaulting over the “horse”, hanging from the bars or climbing ropes.

How I love modern gyms. Wish ours had been like that!

I agree biglouis, and I speak as a teacher. Some of the most rebellious students go on to do great things in later life. Because they're risk takers and don't accept the status quo. Doesn't for a second mean they're under achievers or unintelligent. And some of the most rule following, obedient children, settle into lives of under achievement because they're not willing to take risks. I've seen it time and time again.

No, never at school. Went swimming one afternoon with a friend from college and met a boy I knew at the pool. I think that we were supposed to be be doing a community thingy. We three laughed and talked the afternoon away. The pool was deserted. More than half a century ago 😃.

Very surprised at the apparently high moral tone some folks on this thread have taken. Equating what teenagers do with being idle or cheating their employer at a later stage in life. Testing the boundaries from time to time is something that children - especially teenagers - will often do. Its a normal part of growing up.

There are far worse things that teens can do now than bunking off school for the occasional half day. Such as refusing scholl alltogether, getting involved with gangs, petty shoplifting or even county lines

My friends and I bunked off school as The Beatles were appearing in our nearest city and we wanted to meet them. We asked the venue manager where they were staying. He gave us the name of the hotel (obviously not true) and we went there and hung around. Of course we never saw them. It never occurred to us that we could have been reported as we were wearing school uniform.

Where I live is near to schools with a lot of Moslem children and when they get to a certain age (1bout 14/15) the parents dont like the sexes to mix. They used to gather in groups in between the houses - not really doing any harm. They smoke, drink coke and eat crisps. They are there for about 15 minutes after school. Not being a Moslem parent I have no skin in the game except that they do leave a bit of rubbish. Im surprised they havn't noticed my ring type doorbell camera which collects (but does not save) some very good pictures of them. I suppose in a way they are "playing hookey" from their parents. I have better things to do than report them or send mug shots to the school.

I believe thats more an American expression. We always called it bunking or skiving off. The school called it truanting.

Calendargirl

No, would never have thought of doing it.

I think it would have been picked up at our school. If you registered in the morning, but didn’t turn up for an afternoon’s class, the teacher would have queried it and someone would have said “Well, Calendar was here this morning”.

Did those of you who bunked off carried on doing this in your working life, throwing ‘sickies’ at every touch and turn?

Nope. The reverse. I've been a workaholic all my adult life.

I even worked through cancer surgery and treatment, other than when I was too sick to.

Don't make offensive assumptions. Teenagers are frequently rebellious. It's a phase.

Oh, I'm not disputing that it happened. I just can't understand that mentality at all. I felt the same about people reporting others for having what they considered to be 'non-essential' items in their supermarket baskets during Covid.

Life's hard enough sometimes without trying to make things worse for one another, surely?

Norah I think that was my school too!

Doodledog and others, yes.
Taking hats off was 😱 and reported at my school too. Also "gangs of girls larking about at the bus stop" "chatting loudly" "behaving in an unladylike manner in town, in the park or whatever" "wearing too short skirts" "without ties and with collar undone"... anything really.

How true Monica! I went to a convent school.

Schools were surrounded by people who considered themselves 'friends' of the school and had nothing better to do than ring the school to report every trivial breach of school rules. This was es[ecially so with convent schools.

'Friends' of the school rang in reporting gir;s not wearing gloves, hats, indoor shoes outside, talking to boys. It was endless. Far too many people with too much time on their hands.

Callistemon21

Yes, you could get an order mark if you were seen eating in the street in school uniform, even just an apple!

Our uniforms were navy, even an apple would show in hands - I never wanted to disappoint my parents, no eating in uniform.

We had school straw hats after Easter, mum wanted us tidy - oh my.