"Bunking off" school as a child.

Probably best not to write too much here or my reputation as a shining Head Girl would be tarnished! But yes, from the age of 14 plus. Not to do anything terrible as such, I think I was just interested in the thrills of the outside world. (London).
My mother was deputy Head at a neighbouring school, I don't think she ever found out!

No but I hated it so much I left as soon as I was allowed by law.My parents and the head teacher thought they were being clever telling me I had to get a job by the end of the Christmas holidays or be back at school on that day.I had 6 interviews in a week and took the first job I was offered .I started the day the school went back .
Was in that industry all my life and loved every minute of it .

Yes - in the sixth form when we had free periods and didn't wear uniform.

Joseanne you were fortunate. My brother bunked off when he was 14 or so. As both parents were teachers we were well-known in our town and someone had told Mum before the end of the school day! It was a rather uncomfortable evening at home!

I bunked off regularly when I got to sixteen and never got caught. It was beyond my comprehension why, if I was old enough to have a baby, or get married I was treated exactly like a small child at school. I also hated having to stand around in the cold and rain for "games". Looking back I think a lot of my absenteeism was driven by sadistic teachers rather than rebellion.

Yes, regularly after I turned about 14. I hated school (ironic, I'm a teacher now). Only ever got caught once, coming back into school. Should have stayed off all day!

Our expression for bunking off was ticking school I don't know why?

I didn’t miss lessons but in the sixth form of my Fife high school, some of us regularly left the school grounds when we had free periods and headed for a local cafe. The school must have seen us leaving but no one ever queried it. There was a tuck shop too, just across the road, selling sausage rolls, cream buns, bridies and single cigarettes. Mind you, in those days if you were caught doing wrong the teachers all freely used the belt (or tawse).

Never did, not crossed my mind. We lived in a small village, and in those days we had school inspectors, who would come knocking if child not in school. Remember answering the door, covered in spots, but checking kids are OK is no bad thing.

I did it once. When I started grammar school, I hated it. I felt out of my depth. I got the bus one morning and an older girl from my school asked me how I like it. I said I hated it. She said 'Why don't we not go?' We spent the day in town.
Unfortunately the school board man went to my house a while later. My 'father' beat me up so badly that I had to have time off school until my cuts and bruises healed.
We were taken to the headmaster and I got most of the blame as the other girl cried and I didn't. He said he wouldn't expel us on this I occasion.

A fellow teacher rang in sick one summer day and was promptly spotted by several staff room tennis fans sitting watching a match at Centre Court in Wimbledon...

Kate1949 how awful for you. I felt sick reading your post 💐

Sorry Grannywn. Apparently it was because I showed him up by bringing the school board man to the door.

What a dreadful story Kate. You have written before about your dreadful childhood. So sorry.

I never bunked off. I quite enjoyed school.

Never even entered my head to “skive”school as we called it..

I might have bunked off, just to get away from the bullies, LA, LB and DW, if our school hadn’t been 5 miles away down narrow country lanes. I got there and back by school bus. If you walked down the school drive and past about 50 houses there was public transport, but the risk of being seen and the lack of bus fare stopped that. As it was, I loved any lessons where we had to sit in alphabet order.

No I liked school, on the whole. In any case it would have been noticed.

I was very good at getting out of games, though, and in junior school I used to get out of answering maths questions by asking to “be excused” (ie go to the loo) just before my turn to answer. I was shocked to discover this didn’t work in the seniors.

Looking back I can see that my bunking off school and being sly enough to get off with it gave some indication of how I developed as an adult. I have always had the imagination and spirit to test the boundaries to see what I could get away with.

During the last year when we were supposed to be preparing for GCE out beloved class teacher died. We then had a succession of stand in teachers who, frankly, did not have a clue about the assigned books we were supposed to study. My friend and I ran through the list on our own and spent several nights a week studying in her house. The afternoons we skived off were always the double period with a bubstitute teacher. We never bunked off in the morning and only pm after we had registered.

We both loved school but saw going in to be "taught" by a sub teacher who had no real interest in us as a waste of time. Liverpool is a big city and the likelihood of our bumping into anyone from the school was pretty slim.

In the event we both passed our exams with excellent marks. My friend went on to teacher training college because her father was in business and could afford to support her. I went into the civil service and later into librarianship. So we both did well for ourselves despite "bunking off".

We never did smoke behind the bike sheds, drink or do drugs as they do now. In spite of the skiving off we were real little goody goodies.

I am still on contact with my old chum and sometimes we have a laugh about it.

Never, it didn't cross my mind at all. It just wasn't something we did.

I do remember at college we bunked off to watch Wimbledon and the dressing down we got from the Principal was terrible. We were told if we did not value the place we'd been given we could leave altogether 😲

Yes, there was a radio show called The Joe Loss show ,a lunch time radio show that broadcast from the theatre round the corfrom where Ilived, they always had the latest groups play their hit song,
My friend and myself got tickets regularly so we bunked off to see the latest groups playing, Who,Small faces,Manfield Mann and loads more, we had autographs and pics taken now all lost, we were 13 but looked much older, bit of a wild child I'm afraid, also in the band singing was Ross mcmanus ,can't remember who got the tickers for us but no regrets enjoyed my youth

I threw sickies, bunked off, and skived off PE and games. I forged notes for all of them.
Interestingly I became a teacher as well and had a reputation for never being ill or taking time off.

No, Calendargirl
I think this question is rather rude and judgemental:
Did those of you who bunked off carried on doing this in your working life, throwing ‘sickies’ at every touch and turn?

It would never have occurred to me to link the two things!

School, for many is something that is proscribed. Work is a contract between you and your employer. We have some choice in who we work for and the jobs we do. At school, particularly in "study periods" such as in the 6th form I have no problem with students being autonomous in the way they learn. If the students aren't motivated to learn in their own time there should be better supported provision.

So, yes. some of us bunked off to go out of school in "free" periods but not to the detriment of our grades. Some of us studied at weekends, one really didn't need to study ! Some of us used the time "bunking off" to go to a better library than the one in school. One girl I bunked off with twice, once to go to an art exhibition and once to see a matinée of "Uncle Vanya"

I doubt any of my friends who "bunked off" in free periods would go on to miss work without good reason (unlike one very well-behaved person I know who is "sick" all the time).
For us it was not about missing lessons it was about better use of our time.
Missing lessons would definitely have been picked up as you say. It was a pretty strict grammar school.

I loved school too much to ever want to bunk off. School was my refuge. The rules were very strict anyway at my all girls grammar school.

No I never did but I’m a wimp scared of my own shadow. Probably be the one that would get caught!

Yes henetha it was mine too. Didn’t have a very happy childhood felt safer at school than I did at home no wonder I went into teaching.

Oh, Kate1949, I am so sorry. I did say that I never bunked off because I was afraid of incurring my mother's wrath, but her punishments were entirely verbal (which were bad enough at the time). I can't imagine how horrible that must have been for you.