How was school for you?

That must have been awful to be held back but no extra help.

I hated school!

Yes, Schools became Warzones. Plus, the Troublemakers' Mums and Dads would threaten the school with legal procedures; should anything happen the kid.

My village was basically Hardline Republican. The IRA were treated like Gods. I wanted nothing, whatsoever, to do with that. We were a breed all of our own.

primary school was ok for me. the classes were taught good and controlled and my brain felt like it had a workout... i was lonely at lunch times but i seemed to have deluded myself into believing that i had some friends even though looking back it was plainly obvious they wasnt my friends, which became more obvious when they turned on me to the very end of primary school and start of high school.

high school was bloody aweful and chaotic and full of chavs and bullies wanting to find anyone to pick on to elevate themselves.... they didnt even stop in lesson too, lessons were not taught because the teacher had no control of the class and the teachers that tried to be strict and reign in the class ended up getting pelted with hard back books in their face. so no, high school is a absolute avoid and no go zone for anyone whether they are autistic or anything else. i wouldnt even reccomend a NT go to high school, id reccomend they all be closed down and introduce some other form of discipline or teaching.

I hated school, I couldn't concentrate and got into trouble for messing about in class. I got laughed at when I had new shoes which my parents had chosen. (I had no concept of what was "trendy"). When I was in my teens one of my classmates asked me what I was going to be when I grew up, a social outcast? That sums it up really. 

I was at school from the early 90s to the mid 2000s. Academically I was very successful, but in every other way it was hell.

Looking back, it seems so obvious that the issues I had and the bullying I experienced were mostly because I was autistic, but of course in the 90s nobody really considered autism a possibility in little girls unless they had very clear intellectual disabilities as well, which I didn't. So I just carried on being the clumsy, socially awkward know-it-all who ate the same packed lunch every day for about a decade.

Whenever I read about parents worried that their kid is alone at breaktime I always think that I would have LOVED to be left alone. I always wanted to stay inside away from the other kids because they treated me terribly- as soon as I was in secondary school with lunchtime clubs and library access I never went into the playground again unless I was made to go!

I hated and feared school to a greater or lesser extent from my first day to my last. As Jean-Paul Sartre famously said, "Hell is other people", and at school there were far too many of them. Luckily, I was reasonably bright academically, so learning was no problem, it was the other people, kids and teachers, who were the problem for me. I hated the arbitrary exercise of power by teachers and the random unpleasantness of other children. I didn't bother other people, why did they bother me? Until I realised that I was probably autistic, very late in life, I had no understanding of people I knew saying that they enjoyed school; the very same schools I went to, that were so Hellish for me. As a child, I remember seeing Australian TV shows where kids living in remote sheep stations would be taught over the radio, I always thought, 'You lucky buggers!'

Infant and Primary school lunchtimes were horrible, it was a set meal, things like cabbage, liver and  smash. Always found it hard to find anything I could eat. Metal water jugs and metal beakers. The serving dishes were metal, the smash would be banged onto a plates with large metal serving spoons. The noise was unbearable. Secondary school would have been 1980, cafeteria system so better, would often hide in the library after my daily chips and pizza, it was the first time I had ever seen a pizza. The last year of school we were allowed out at lunchtime and I had a moped, finally freedom. I did a paper round in the early mornings so could fund myself. I can’t say I actually enjoyed one day of school, it was violent and abusive. The general ethos of schooling then was that we were required by law to attend school, that’s all, there was no expectation of gaining anything from it.

On my first day at infant school, I can remember walking into the school hall with my 1970s 'Morph' lunchbox and having my senses assaulted by an overpowering smell of burgers, chips, and tomato ketchup. A few minutes later, I threw up. Turns out I had Tonsillitis, but the combination of food smells put me off enjoying lunchtime in the school hall. 

After starting junior school, my parents decided to let me have my own house key. This was mainly because when I was playing outside, I had a tendency to want to be let into the house to use the toilet, get a snack, a toy, etc. Having my own key meant that my mother wasn't constantly having to drop whatever she was busy with to keep answering the door to me. What my parents didn't realise until several months later was that I had been coming home at lunchtime. As I didn't really enjoy school, spending my lunch hour at home helped to make the school day slightly more bearable.

Things changed when I went to secondary school. It wasn't local, and only 6th-form students were allowed to leave the school premises at lunchtime. 

What seems almost laughable to me now is that considering how much I disliked school, I thought I wanted to be a nursery or primary school teacher. When I realised that I would need to go away to university, it put me right off. From my perspective, school was like a prison sentence, and the prospect of spending another two or three years at university would just be extending that sentence.

Thinking back to when I was at junior school, it generally tended to be the case during break times that the boys would play on one side of the playground, whilst the girls played on the other side. As I was a bit of a Tomboy, I wanted to be kicking a football around with the boys. Unfortunately, the boys made it clear that they weren't happy to have a girl invading their territory. At the time, this seemed terribly unfair.

1960s - I lived just over a mile from my junior school and would get the bus home for lunch every day from when I was nine or ten. My Dad worked locally and he would walk home from his office. If I got home first by a few minutes I would let myself in and put the kettle on and make the coffee. We had about half an hour, just long enough for a sandwich or something on toast, a cup of coffee, then back to school. If there was time I would stop at the sweet shop. Often the kids who went home had a "shopping list" for the kids who were not allowed out of school.

Year six was great. Our school had been a Central school and still had a science lab, and as my geeky interest was chemistry that was great. A few of us were interested in chemistry, and sometimes we would bring test tubes of chemicals to swap. That was the year that my scientific exploits were relegated from the house to the shed after a very successful attempt at making hydrogen sulfide. I think if I had a guardian angel he was probably clocking up overtime.

Our class teacher was brilliant at maths, and at eleven we were doing algebra that was on the syllabus for year eight at a Grammar school. Other specialist teachers taught us science, "Nature study" and art. There was a proper art room and a library. So going to secondary school was not such a change.

In hindsight, I think that most of my friends were probably on the spectrum, although in the '60s none of us was diagnosed.  When I was four the pediatrician told my parents "He's hyperactive. Some kids are that way, you will get used to it " This was before ADHD and Asperger's were widely recognized in UK. Fortunately, I had teachers who were good at keeping me and my small peer group of other "weirdly wired" kids engaged.

Then on to Grammar school, where again the geeks were tolerated, even encouraged. I could spend breaks in the library or attend one of the clubs, or the photographic society had a darkroom, a somewhat insalubrious shed next to the outdoor lavatories. I joined the CCF and spent lunch breaks and free periods in the radio room. There was a kettle and I self-medicated with strong black coffee and played chess with cadets from a neighbouring school on the short wave radio net.

So I was pretty lucky ...

Donner ladies were the worst bullies

At least there was the library in high school.

Got the eating business over with then hide in library in the warm with a good book until I got back to the safety of the classroom.

Dunno about modern kids, but my 1970s lunch was a nightmare.

It was the stench of school lunch day one a school which kick started my food issues.

From middle school I had sandwiches- lots of memories of the smell of cooked dinners in the background making me feel sick and dinner ladies shouting at me for not eating my sandwiches quickly enough - caused a god almighty melt down one day.

Also, the ''playtime' part of lunch was rife with opportunities for the bullies to get me.

I used to spend a huge part of the day worrying about lunchtime. Let me stay behind for extra maths anytime.

Modern kids - dunno. But at least they are more likely to serve them pizza or pasta (God bless the Italians for saving my life) than overpoweringly stinky boiled cabbage and unchewable liver these days.

Lunch breaks were very challenging for me at school.  I'd play with other children, which was great when they accepted me and I had friends, but dreadful in my next primary school where my whole year ostracized me. I hated eating alone at lunch and being very consciously aware I was playing alone because no one wanted to be with me. I used to make imaginary friends and count the minutes until lunch break was over.

Being able to go home at lunch would've eliminated my loneliness and been a welcome break. 

I made an effort, at School, which lead to me being manipulated by the Teachers; I was such a People-Pleaser as a boy.

On reflection, I see now why my generation grew up resentful towards society. Schools were a Warzone. I was caught in the crossfire.

early schooling ... 'kin miserable - really struggled with the friend thing.
middle school ... 'kin miserable - bullied (including psychological bullying by a teacher)
high school ... maybe slightly less 'kin miserable ... but not by much.

A living nightmare. Pressure to do well, bullying and the staff didn't want to know or help. Not my fondest memories. 

Yeah it was pretty rough. Did people really used to go home for lunch at school? Like I went home at lunch a lot in secondary school, but that was because I hated it (bullied, few friends, had bad anxiety without knowing what it was and wanted to die a lot) and I realised that no one really noticed that I didn't show up to afternoon lessons. Tbh even after I started skipping school entirely it took several weeks for anyone to realise. I went straight from year 11 to a psych unit and the psych unit was 1000x better.

I hated school. I was the school pariah. Best days of my life. Not. 

Absolutely horrible.

They were the worst years of my life and responsible for three suicide attempts when I was between 13 and 17.

Anyone who has to go to school has my sympathy.