Rules Every School Had That Didn't Make Sense

a black chalkboard with rules written at the top and underneath is 1 2 3 with lines written in white chalk

If you went to a British school, I'm sure you are more than familiar with the random rules that were put in place that we were all meant to adhere to. Some of these rules were so ridiculous that I felt it was only fair to put them into a blog post:

Not being allowed to go to the toilet during lessons

a white toilet with a silver toilet roll holder and a silver toilet brush

I never understood this rule. So apparently our teachers would rather we peed on their classroom carpet instead of letting us go to the toilet. "If I can hold my bladder until break/lunch then so can you". Oh, I'm sorry, let me just tell my bladder to stop being so inconvenient in telling me I need to go and have a wee during your lesson and make it aware of when break and lunch are. I don't know if anyone else's school did this, but if we sneezed or our pen exploded and we needed to go and wash our hands, they would let us do that, but when it came to releasing our bladder, apparently that was not allowed. Make it make sense, please.

Not being allowed to re-fill our water bottle

two cartoon clear plastic water bottles

Quite similar to the rule about not being allowed to go to the toilet during lessons, we also weren't allowed to go and fill our water bottle up during lessons. Apparently, even if you're dehydrated on a hot summers day, it still means you're not allowed to get some water to hydrate yourself. The only time this was allowed was if we had a double lesson and the teacher would let one, possibly two, people take theirs and everyone else's water bottles to the water fountain to fill them up during the gap between lessons. I guess our teachers would rather we became really dehydrated over missing two minutes of maths to go and get some water.

Removing your blazer without asking (except when in summer uniform)

black cartoon blazer

This was one thing I never understood. I'm not sure if anyone else's school had this, but from September to May, we would have normal uniform, where you would have to wear everything and if you wanted to remove your blazer during lessons, you had to ask the teacher's permission. Then from May/June onwards, we had summer uniform, where we didn't have to wear a blazer to/around school and if we did wear one, we could take it off at any point without having to ask. You only had to begin to slowly take your blazer off in the winter months for a teacher to start screaming at you and telling you to put your blazer back on and to ask next time, only when you do ask, they still say no.

Chewing gum

a packet of chewing gum

We all know that the second you opened a packet of these in school, everyone would be swarming around you trying to get a piece like flies around an overflowing bin. Teachers would also swarm around you, however, this was to tell you to take the chewing gum out and put it in the bin. Personally, I find that chewing gum helps me concentrate and it also means not having to sit next to someone with bad breath. In schools, chewing gum was seen as being highly illegal; whereas in the real world, no one really cares about whether you have chewing gum or not.

Pressing the DJ button on the keyboard

a keyboard piano

It wasn't really a music lesson if you didn't put on the keyboards and press the DJ button to really wind the teacher up. I don't know why they would get so annoyed about this button in particular as if any other buttons were pressed they were pretty fine with it. What can I say? We were just taking an interest in a possible career as a DJ.

Not wearing white socks for PE

a pair of white socks hanging on a washing line with a blue sky, a few clouds and the sun

I'm not sure if this applied to anyone else's school, but at mine, it was a rule for some reason that you had to wear white socks for PE and absolutely no other colour. I seem to remember once someone had forgotten their socks so had to wear the black ones they wore with their normal uniform and they were made to take those socks off and just wear their trainers with no socks on. It's nice nowadays to just be able to wear whatever colour socks I want.

Not wearing white trainers for PE

a pair of white sports trainers

Like the situation with PE and white socks, my school also had a rule where you had to wear predominantly white trainers for PE. Not only that, but they had to be trainers that had good ankle support and without a logo. On paper, that sounds simple enough to find. However, my Mum spent many months of her life trying to find me a pair of trainers that fit this exact description. Why did it have to be white trainers? What's wrong with all the other coloured trainers?

Girls can't wear shorts

a pair of long black gym shorts

At my school, the girls had to wear skorts and the boys had to wear shorts. I don't know if any of you have ever worn a skort before, but you are pretty much left with a constant wedgie. The PE teachers were fine with us wearing shorts, but the headteacher said otherwise and we had to adhere to what he said. I wasn't too bothered about not being able to wear shorts, however, I know many of the girls did want to have that option and I don't see why we couldn't wear them.

Not being allowed in the corridors

a school corridor with lockers on either side

I'm hoping other schools had this rule as well, but we were made to feel that if we were seen in the corridors before school/during break/lunch, that we were breaking the law in some way. Even if it was cold or raining we were made to go back outside, even if we were just there outside our classroom a couple of minutes before our class was due to start, only to then be told off for being late. What is so wrong with us being inside the school? If we were causing trouble then fair enough, but we were literally just stood there having a bit of a chat.

Trousers above the ankle

a pair of black women's trousers that stop just above the ankle

So according to my school, girls, in particular, couldn't wear trousers that stopped just above the ankle because, as our ankles were on show, they were distracting to male members of staff. I personally believe that if a male member of staff who works in a school finds girls ankles distracting (and we all know what I mean by distracting), then maybe, just maybe, they shouldn't be working in a school. I think this style of trouser looks quite smart and, as far as I know, workplaces don't have a problem with them, so why should schools?

Skirts that weren't directly at the knee

black knee length pencil skirt

If someone had a skirt that was too below the knee, it was irresponsible and needed to be shorter. However, if the skirt was anywhere above the knee, it was too short and needed to be longer. There really was no winning if you wore a skirt to school.

Only having one piercing (and it had to be in the ear)

singular ear lobe piercing

I believe that piercings are unique to everyone and are a way for people to express their individuality. Unfortunately for me, schools didn't see it like this and instead made us wear one individual piercing that was a small, plain stud. I think as soon as everyone realises that piercings don't make someone look unprofessional, the better. And even if you did wear a small, plain stud, you had to take it out for PE because apparently to leave a piercing in whilst playing sports was an incredibly bad idea.

Getting detention because your planner wasn't signed

planner with days of the week

So let me get this straight. I go a whole week without any teacher writing a note to my parents in my planner. I then either forget to ask them to sign it or I ask them to sign it and they forget and because it's not signed by Monday morning, I get a detention? How is that even fair?

Not being allowed to wear your coat/hat/scarf/gloves indoors

a woman wrapped up in a warm, grey, soft winter coat

One time, I had genuinely just walked into school and I was walking down a busy corridor, when a teacher, who was wearing a coat, stopped me, meaning I was getting in the way of hundreds of students trying to get to their classes and made me take my scarf off. Apparently, we weren't even allowed to at least get to our class to take our winter clothing off and were supposed to stop and take it off before we stepped foot in the school.

I feel that there must definitely be more weird rules that were in place that I have either completely forgotten about or weren't put in place at my school. If that's the case, let me know in the comments below. I love reminiscing about the stupid school rules that were put in place that don't even apply to the real world (which, let's face it, is pretty much all of them).

Love Beth xx

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