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The Pranks You Played on your Teachers

we were in a brick building class at school.and we found our teachers phone number and address in the phone book.so we/perhaps me phoned his wife to say we had a lorry load of bricks to deliver.but we could not find the school where he taught.so we said we would deliver them to his house and dump them on his lawn.his wife was'nt to pleased and refused to accept what we were going to do.
next day he came (teacher) into school with a big grin on his face knowing we had done it.and we all had a good laugh about.he came into class every morning and told us to hide our fags.if he took them off us.he would give them back at the end of the day.happy days.
 
Just to turn this round a bit, but what about the tricks and things that teachers did to the pupils ? At Loxton St., we had a teacher who if he was going to give you the dreaded slipper, used to write on the sole of a pump/trainer, HOT, so that the letters where written on your back-side when you recieved your punishment. Another teacher used to ( if you where talking in class ), throw a piece of chalk at the offender, and thrown with speed, it was quite a missile, and the funny thing was, he never missed. He would then tell the recipient to pick it up and return it to him. I mean take it to him, not throw. Barry.
 
We used to work a hole into the buisness end of a piece of chalk with a match stick, break off the match head and put it into the hole, pack the hole with powdred chalk, put chalk back onto the board, and wait for bang.
 
Bazz, My dad was a teacher at Loxton Street Senior Boys from 1933 to about 1955 (except for war service), but I wouldn't think he would have done that sort of thing. Or his best mate Harold Martin in the woodwork and metalwork department, although they could both be quite hard.
Peter
 
Peter, I remember Mr. Martin. Didnt he play the violin ? But the teachers I was on about where, for the chalk routine, Mr. Greatrex, and the plimsol routine, if I remember right, was Mr. White. Happy days non the less. Barry.
 
They Got Away with it

We had a teacher who drove to school each day in his Volkswagon Beetle.
He used to park it between two school brick buildings with about 3' either side or thereabouts.
Some of the schoolboys were talking about bumping his car round 90 degrees when on study break, and when most of the teachers - including the victim - were hard at it teaching.
It happened to be the last period of the day and they carried out their plan. The school bell for the end of the day rung out and everyone in the know fled home.
Well we don't know what happened, but I expect he had to get the staff to bump it round again before he could drive home.
We arrived at school everyone as innocent as could be. The school went into assembly and the whole school were reprimanded for this act. To this day I do not know if ever the real culprits were found!!!! But it didn't happen again.
Anne
 
No chance at Hastings Rd Perry Common with Headmaster Mr Groves and Worrell he was sadistic.
 
Same at Fentham Girl's School in Erdington. The headmistress Miss L.A Vaughan gave five girls hand caning for playing up the Music Teacher one afternoon way back in the l950's. Never a smile and always disapproval:|
 
Jennyann, I was at school in 1951 wonder how long before things changed where we were.:)
 
Alf, I think it happened fairly gradually over the years as the generations of children were born and attended school in very different times socially.
I think the bullying back when we attended school came mostly from certain teachers in my opinion. Their strictness went too far overall and the forms of punishment were too severe. When I attended school in Brum we had a French teacher who was over the top in this regard. He was actually from France and I remember him locking a couple of male students out on the fire escape in the winter for a least 20 minutes also he was in the habit of not handing back exercise books that had been marked..he literally threw some of them in the direction of seated pupils...one day in the early summer one of the books flew out of the window and down into Corporation Street. He was a very good French teacher though.

These days someone like that would be suspended for doing such things.
It wasn't quite "Tom Brown's Schooldays" of course but correction by somewhat drastic punishment was quite ok. Slippers to the ready in the Boy's Grammar Schools in Brum as well as canes and flying blackboard cleaning brushes:Aah:
 
Sometimes I think a bit of fear isn't a bad thing. We had teachers who threw what was in their hand . One was the guardian of the keys, and over the years she had perfected her aim:Aah: We none of us really misbehaved, we were afraid of the consequences if we did, the keys would come if we spoke during lessons or couldn't answer a relevant question in a lesson. All very non U now, but just look where we are.
 
It's Not All Bad - just mischievous

Remember making an excuse to the Physics teacher during break time, to get into the locked biology lab. He had the key. A group of us dressed up the skeleton with the biology teacher's outdoor clothes, then locked the lab. up again.

Sat at the back of the classroom drawing a cartoon of our scripture teacher during his lesson. There were soft giggles around. His suspiciousness caused him to ask what I was doing as it seemed I wasn't paying attention. To my horror and embarrassment I had to hand in to him my drawing of him. Detention for me. But he kept the drawing, I found out later.

Our art and geography teacher was my married SISTER. The most awful days of my schooling. I got the blame for everyone else's misdeeds. After these accusations, when I got home, the first thing I did was go marching round to her house.............

There was so much more, but do you know that when we graduated into sixth form, we wore a different uniform, a very nice lilac open necked shirt (blouse then) with three quarter sleeves, and straight grey skirts and stockings. Gone were the black striped ties and green blouses and tunics, plus three quarter or ankle socks. We were all addressed as Miss..............and all those teachers we played pranks on always opened the doors for us to pass through first!!!!!! it was the custom. They reckoned it made us all work harder.
 
Any More Pranks?

Judging by the responses, you must have all been really very good!!!!!!
Perhaps it was the possibility of detention if found out?
and...what about those detentions:|
from8)
 
Slightly off subject I know, but the year before I left Loxton St., members of the class I was in, one day started a fire in the woodwork room ( which, if I remember correctly ), was on the ground floor. Then the very next day, the same lads managed to pull the water tap out of the sink on the desk in the science room, which I think was on the floor above the woodwork room, hence, managing to soak the room below with water, before the fire brigade rolled up with the same crew as the day before. Funny how some things stay in your head isn,t it ? Barry.
 
BazzM said:
Peter, I remember Mr. Martin. Didnt he play the violin ? But the teachers I was on about where, for the chalk routine, Mr. Greatrex, and the plimsol routine, if I remember right, was Mr. White. Happy days non the less. Barry.
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I was a pupil at Acocks Green secondary modern school 1956 to 60 we had a teacher Miss Jones who used to sit on a dias and always leant back on her chair, one day we placed her chair on the edge of the dias and when she leaned back the chair fell over all we could see was her legs flailing the air above her desk. I would like to know if there are any of the pupils from this era who may remember Basher Bill Lewis, Mollie Hudson, Katey Lavender.Junk shop Jessie (science teacher)Mrs Arundale (art) or Mr Livesey (carpentry) The headmistress was Miss Tomlins.
My name is Paul Whalley
 
We pinched the rubber bungs from bottles in the chem lab and when our geog teacher ( a lovely man whose career we ruined) had his back to us we threw the bung at the wall and it used to rebound in all directions. he would then "lose it" and grab the first boy who was laughing and literally thump him.
Handsworth grammar 1959-65. Also did the chalk/match trick....brilliant.
 
I once hid the teachers keys, in a light shade that was like an upside down bowl, we missed needlework, because of the lack of keys, she made us all search for them, and after an hour or so decided she must have left them in the staff room, while she was out, I put the chair on the table to get them, she came back, and apart from looking at me as though I was ridiculous, had very little to say, I think that got at me more than a detention would have.
We also put a drawing pin on a teachers chair, ouch
icon9.png
brings tears to my eyes.
 
My old art teacher at Slade Road Boy,s(later to become Erdington Boys on Fentham Road)used to write SAMSON on a plimsole in chalk,in such a way that it was printed correctly on the offenders rear,he was a great teacher,and an equally great shot with that plimsole.
 
I and others have mentioned most of our school pranks in the Handsworth Technical School thread here. The water bomb one might be unique to that place !
Tales about water bombs Here
Water bombs dropping, black-board rubbers and chalk flying...I remember the Electrical teacher throwing a black-board rubber at someone who ducked and a glass cabinet got smashed behind him, splinters of glass everywhere.
The 'target' was in trouble for ducking...and we did not wear helmets or safety glasses !
 
While attending Chance Technical College Smethwick, a few of us made a mildly explosive mixture of ?????? and iodine. This ,when dried out gave a report not dissimilar from the old type cap gun. We placed small particles of this wet substance into the wooden floor boards in front of the blackboard. During the lesson this would dry out and when trodden upon by the lecturer would let off a small bang. The person in question did not flinch but simply dragged his foot across the floor clearing away so that, with one hand resting on the blackboard as a means of support , would continue writing his text. He would then clean off the script,without moving from the cleared area, and continue his lesson. In all he only had about 3 sq ft of blackboard, At the finish of the lesson he simply left as though noting had happened !!!
 
Nitrogen Tri-iodide .....we all knew of that trick but our chemistry teacher threatened to have us expelled if we ever tried it!
 
On the last day of school some bright sparks decided to borrow the huge kettle from the staff room and suspend it from the rafters above the stage.

As the leaving service progressed one of them gradually lowered the missing kettle until it came into view of the assembled staff and pupils swinging

gently from one side of the stage to the other. It was hilarious, although the staff didn't find it so having missed out on tea all day.

They got their revenge though, the two boys involved were caned on there last day at school.
 
Went to the teacher one day after collecting shrapnel from a bomb crater with a finger in a match box. It was my own finger of course sticking through the match box end wrapped in some lint and covered in red ink. Wow, did I cop it. Not because of the finger but the big sign wich said KEEP OUT UNEXPLODED BOMB.Regards, David.
 
At Saltley Grammar School (about 1962) we jammed a chair behind the door to prevent the english teacher getting into the classroom. To this day i remember him rattling the door and shouting 'let me in immediately'.

Unfortunately soon afterwards mum and dad decided to go to parents evening (first time they had ever done this), when they came home they told me the report from the english teacher was so bad that he recommended they stopped my pocket money.

That would have been very difficult, I was never given pocket money.
 
paulwhalley said:
I was a pupil at Acocks Green secondary modern school 1956 to 60 we had a teacher Miss Jones who used to sit on a dias and always leant back on her chair, one day we placed her chair on the edge of the dias and when she leaned back the chair fell over all we could see was her legs flailing the air above her desk. I would like to know if there are any of the pupils from this era who may remember Basher Bill Lewis, Mollie Hudson, Katey Lavender.Junk shop Jessie (science teacher)Mrs Arundale (art) or Mr Livesey (carpentry) The headmistress was Miss Tomlins.

Hi Paul, My name is Roger Padfield and I aattended Acocks Green Secondry from1947 to 1957. I well remember all of the teachers you refered to Basher Bill Lewis, Miss Jones, Mr James and all the rest. I am still trying to place you, but perhaps you were a year ahead of me? I will mention a few schoolmates to see if they ring a bell with you. Maurice Bevan,John Scott,Geofrey Lovegrove,Gordon Williams,Kieth Ratcliffe,Barie Owens, and two particullar mates in my last year in the seniors Ed Stanton & Kenny Wesson. As for the girls.. Norma Deacon, Marjorie Clarke,Shirley Shields,Meryl James &Yvone Framton. I'm sure there is common ground between us. Hope to speak with you one day,
Roger
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I went to Ilmington Road, Weoley Castle left Easter 1962, my last teacher was Mr Leonard, known to generations as "Glory Be", as he always had a pipe and had a catchphrase of "Glory be boy" etc, he was also forgetful, and we would rush in from break and hide the new "Black board Duster", the one for the latest typ eof board which was on a roller system, it had a felt base with awooden top, you could not clean this board with any other type of cloth, it wa hilarious to see him looking everywhere for it and delaying lessons for up to 40 mins.
paul stacey
 
HI bAZZ,
Thats the sort of nasty things the kids in our class of our school [ which was Ickneild sec mod;] Ickneild street hockley brook
I felt sorry for the teachers we had one teachers whom was disabled with one arm they played him up rotton in every way and form
it got to him in the end they used to throw things at him and never listened to him then one day he shouted out loud and clear
right i have had enough of you lot he ran towards the class door and staring kicking the dustbin to a pulp and battered well and truely
the next teacher they brought in was a big guy named mr fortune in those days we had ink wells with those old horrible dip pen into the ink
and kids started to throw ink over his back he used to wear nice clothes and always a suit every day ;they destroyed him left right and centre
but the head master at the time was mr fred kitchen and his dep was mr urch well known for belting you you with the slipper and by golly did he make tsmart ;and oh yes fortune used to walk around the isles and clip you around the ear hole and throw his hard back rubber board at you
best wishes astonian;
 
One of our teachers was a Mr Roberts , red headed big man 6'2", ex Para from the war, I asked him one day why he was a teacher and he said when he was being demobbed at the end of the war some said if you want to teach join that line over there. He said he never had a University degree or formal training??? Teaching working class cannon fodder, for the services and, the lines at Cadbury, and the Austin.
paul
paul
 
I was at Bishop Vesey's Grammar School in the 60's ... (complete mistake I passed my 11+, or more likely someone else with my name did !). I was the big country lad in hobnail boots who no-one messed with, including Teachers. I did several things to make my classmates laugh. One of the best was taking the square spindle out of the door knob, so that once the door was shut by a Teacher, we were locked in. The easiest was to fill the blackboard with strange algebraic symbols and then write a forceful "PLEASE LEAVE" on the bottom. I once spent 1/2 an hour stood BEHIND a mobile blackboard without the Teacher noticing. He was always popping out for a cigarette. He never figured out what the laughter was for.
 
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