Viewing 34 posts - 1 through 34 (of 34 total)
  • First day of big school – What were you worried about?
  • sandwicheater
    Full Member

    Just got me thinking from a comment on another post.

    What were you told happened to the new kids who moved up to bigger school, if any?

    Re-call all the bigger kids telling us little scruffs that one and all would be chucked in the holly bush by the school gates.

    Bricking it i was. Just another day in the end but wandered if every school had similar stories to put the wind up the new starters.

    2unfit2ride
    Free Member

    I wasn’t worried when I went, but at the first break seeing some 5th year kids stuff a 1st year (yes I’m old enough to be called a first year at secondary school) into a netball hoop & hoist him up & leave him really bothered me, in hindsight that was just jolly japes as I later found out that they kicked the shit out of you if they didn’t actually like you 😯

    perchypanther
    Free Member

    Not stories. Actual events.

    “Do you want to see the Blue Fish”? – an affirmative answer to this question from a first year resulted in your head getting forced down a toilet and flushed.

    Avoided this. Mates didn’t.

    Used to also hang first years by the ankles off the retaining wall outside the music dept (four feet high on one side, about 12 feet high on the other) and shake them till all the stuff fell out of their pockets.
    I was a recipient of this. …Twice.
    On both occasions instigated by my older brother.

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    JAG
    Full Member

    I was a 1st year once. My main worry was bullying followed by theft.

    Never really got bullied but a couple of nice fountain pens got nicked in my 1st year 🙁

    bruneep
    Full Member

    a couple of nice fountain pens got nicked

    Posh Toff school eh?

    poah
    Free Member

    **** knows, that was 30 years ago

    mcmoonter
    Free Member

    Our Holly bush was the Biology pool. Threats of a dunking terrified me. It never happened though.

    kcal
    Full Member

    Our ‘Holly Bush’ was the Chinese Pond – a lovely feature in concrete with a big (if you’re 10) pond underneath, concrete walkway over it. Was rumoured there were actually fish in it though I’m not convinced. But yes, first years would be threatened with a dunking in the pond. It didn’t happen but I do recall being pretty worried.. 40+ years ago..

    PJM1974
    Free Member

    I went to a big Comprehensive school, with 1,500 pupils, three large classroom buildings and a myriad of portakabin type “temporary” classrooms (some of which survive, thirty one years on).

    Our timetables were complex, so I spent the first fortnight terrified that I’d walk into the wrong classroom, get my books out and then discover my error to the peals of laughter of my classmates.

    Thankfully it never happened, but I still have nightmares about it now.

    Oh and second year girls. They were bloody terrifying in my school. A large gang of them kept dragging me into the girls’ loos and barricading me in there.

    sandwicheater
    Full Member

    **** knows, that was 30 years ago

    That’s the kind if thing that can stick in the mind. 25 years ago and I still remember very clearly.

    rocketman
    Free Member

    Remember passing a couple of older lads in the corridor one of them said ‘it gets worse’

    He was right

    Tom_W1987
    Free Member

    Going back to school with some violent chavs from my previous school, it was lucky that I made friends with some big kids on my first day as we wound up giving them a pre-emptive shoeing in the changing rooms.

    Great times. I’m glad it’s over.

    Spin
    Free Member

    What house the sorting hat would put me in.

    andytherocketeer
    Full Member

    it wasn’t the first day that you had to be worried about, but the second.

    only the noobs had to go in on the first day for the induction. all the other years got a day off, other than maybe a select few to show around etc.

    the real initiation was the school bus, and could be at any time. “run for the back” it was called. if you could run for the back, and get both arse cheeks cleanly on the back seat, whilst being kicked* by all other back seat lads on the back seat and the sideways seats that are over the rear wheels, then you were entitled to sit on the back or side seats.
    (* only feet and kicking was permitted)

    still remember a 1st year getting there before all the 5th yr and 6th formers once, on the first proper day. he didn’t stay there long 😉 but iirc he did eventually pass the initiation properly.

    jon1973
    Free Member

    On my first day, Gripper took my lunch money.

    andytherocketeer
    Full Member

    oh and the only violent chav that concerned me, didn’t turn up.
    he got expelled on the 2nd last day of term of the last year at the previous school. I believe he got enrolled in to the school for young offenders, and then HMP Borstal proper a bit later.
    Never hurt me, but putting an 11 year old girl in hospital on the 2nd last day of term is not exactly going to do much good for your educational and criminal record.

    jamesgarbett
    Free Member

    Yep Blue Goldfish here too.

    Not sure if it was an urban myth but it certainly put the fear of god into us during last year of Primary.

    gallowayboy
    Full Member

    Theft, extortion, casual violence……
    Didn’t happen that much but the threat was there. Being called for a fight – if you didn’t turn up you were finished, dead man walking.
    Oh yes the biology pond – every week some poor kids bag, books, blazer and new calculator got chucked in.
    Happy Days!

    beagle
    Free Member

    Getting thrown down tuck shop hill.

    Getting ripped for my blazer. Got handed one down but the school had stopped insisting on them. One of two in our year to wear one on first day. Didn’t get worn again!

    P-Jay
    Free Member

    Well, the first time we went there towards the end of Primary School for a taster day happened to be the day of one of the biggest storms in British History and the ‘temporary’ 25 year old Building they put us in collapsed a few minutes after someone remembered we were there and brought us all into the main building – it didn’t do much to calm our nerves.

    Mostly it was tales older brothers and sister told us, in these stories Bunsen Burners were like flame throwers, ready to kill any kid who dared look at them, and in ‘Technology’ you were expected to use Welders and Bandsaws without supervision and every year a couple of kids lost fingers and eyes, those lucky enough not to have lost and eye or stabbed themself in the back of their own head with a javelin anyway – none of it was true, even back in the late 80’s they didn’t let teenagers loose on anything like that unsupervised.

    Homework was something that took hours to complete and flogging was the punishment for not doing it, Teachers would scream and shout at you or throw board rubbers at you (saw it happen, left a massive red mark on a couple of kids heads, no one said a thing about it) or if you were a complete shit you’d be asked to go and see one of the PE teachers who’d take you into their office (which locked) and knock you about the head until you saw sense – never happened to me, but wasn’t actually a complete myth, for milder offenses there was detention – very few teachers actually enforced it, unpaid overtime to baby sit a bunch of moody kids – sod that.

    ‘Fifth Years’ we’re all bullies, no on knew why, but kids were completely normal for 4 years, but in the fifth years turned into maniacs who beat you up for fun – this wasn’t really true at all, but as someone else said, the size difference between an 11 year old and a 16 year old is HUGE and it’s hard not to be intimidated when you’re nervy anyway. I was actually bullied for a time by a ‘fifth year’ when I was about 12, I don’t know why, he just chose me – it ended quite quickly simple maths – 6×12 is greater than 1×15 – he went for me, as usual on the walk home from school, 5 of my mates jumped in and kicked the shit out of him. He wasn’t a bully because he was a Fifth Year, he was a bully because he was an arsehole.

    Oh and because we all watched Grange Hill we assumed we’d all be forced to eat skag to get us addicted to it.

    P-Jay
    Free Member

    beagle – Member

    Getting ripped for my blazer. Got handed one down but the school had stopped insisting on them. One of two in our year to wear one on first day. Didn’t get worn again!

    Ha ha, until a few years after I left our School had a “strict” Blazer policy, that no one, bar one poor soul took the slightest bit of notice of – to the point when they sent us all letter at the start of school explaining this policy to which all our parents said “sod that”.

    That poor soul was one of the Senior Teacher’s Son so had to be seen to follow, no one ripped him much though, his Dad was one of the best teachers and he was a good Lad.

    MoreCashThanDash
    Full Member

    Blue fish at our school. I avoided it!

    vickypea
    Free Member

    I was worried about the threats of first years being thrown in the prickle bush or having their heads flushed down the toilet!

    muddydwarf
    Free Member

    Binning – head first into one of the many dirty & smelly litter bins around the school grounds. Never actually saw it happen but it was fiercely believed that it would happen.

    Fountain pens – when I started High School in 1979 (I think) fountain pens were required equipment, but if I recall we all had cartridge pens.
    Still cant write properly with one!

    JonEdwards
    Free Member

    We tended to get used as black board rubbers. Particularly one lad who had an elder brother in the 5th form – he quite often got used to wipe every board on the ground floor clean before morning register. Mind you he was a mouthy sod, so had it coming.

    jamj1974
    Full Member

    “Do you want to see the Blue Fish”? – an affirmative answer to this question from a first year resulted in your head getting forced down a toilet and flushed.

    This was the legend that was told about our secondary school – but never knew it to happen.

    Was also told to always have my rugby socks in my bag – in case there was a fight with the local RC school. Apparently, over the years there were a few of these battles with socks filled with stones used as an improvised cosh…

    badllama
    Free Member

    Ours was a little different as the 1st and 2nd years were in one building and 3,4,5 in another.

    The lower building was an old Victorian place where A) never get caught in the outside toilets by 2nd years and B) NEVER go into the cloak rooms full stop! They were in a cellar area very dark and dodgy.

    The 2nd years were complete bunch of psychos TBH random violence, on a daily bases and even some of the girls were not to be messed with!! Most of these were all know to the local police.
    Yearsty beats were a rights of passage and we all were bloody terrified for the first couple of months.

    Pay back came when we ended up in the upper building as 3rd years , psychos were 4 and unbeknown to them my cus and his mates in the 5th they started the same shit again as we moved up to the next building until one tried gripping me one day and found themselves up off the floor held by the throat lol. Never got bother again 😀

    Last time I heard some of those nut jobs had been done for, murder, rape, topped themselves, became drug dealers TBH I’m not surprised.

    I’m sure internet bulling is not very pleasant at all but I think back in the day they really were some proper nut jobs about.

    ferrals
    Free Member

    We were told to watch out as we’d all be pressurised by older kids to smoke and drink, in the end it turned out no pressure was needed 😆

    JAG
    Full Member

    Bruneep said

    Toff school eh?

    No – It was 1978, South West Birmingham Comprehensive Boys only School with about 700 kids but a fountain pen was required for all writing. I had a couple of fancy pens (as gifts if I recall correctly) they got nicked so they were replaced with a cheap cartridge fountain pen.

    It worked – my handwriting is still pretty good. Especially for a professional Engineer 😆

    thegreatape
    Free Member

    Whether or not to believe the 2nd years who insisted that the thalidomide boy in the 4th year insisted on being known as T-Rex and headbutted anyone who didn’t address him as such.

    tang
    Free Member

    I was the kid who smelt of woodsmoke not lenor. That and my dad had long hair and drove a VW split screen and a variant estate.

    Malvern Rider
    Free Member

    At the time our junior school was rife with the certainty that 1st day at big school entailed initiation ritual of older boys grabbing you and flushing yr head down a school toilet.

    It never happened. All the bullies/petty thieves/scumbuckets seemed to be in my own year, they were just waiting to come into their own.

    MrOvershoot
    Full Member

    I remember it well despite it being 39 years ago!!

    2nd year lad grabbed my bag and threw it onto the roof of one of the portacabins, now I wasn’t the 6’3″ lump I am now but I just got the red mist and went in windmilling I got lucky and one connected so he went down like a sack of spuds.
    I didn’t exactly play fair after that as I kicked the little shit while he was down 😮
    It earned me 1 months detention from the deputy head (detention was Rugby training as he saw a potential second row in me)

    That one incident earned me a bully free passage through school 🙂

    makecoldplayhistory
    Free Member

    number 1 was the cough/teaspoon on your balls test. I was petrified as the nurse was hot and an impromptu erection was on the cards.

    number 2 was bog-flushing.

    Neither happened. I loved school. Yes, first years took a bashing but taught you to toughen up.

    What should I have been afraid of?

    Prefect vs teachers rugby. F£$k me they were b!”£$%ds.

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