18. Conkers
Gareth Fuller/PA Archive/Press Association ImagesEvery autumn, you could bet your bottom dollar that playgrounds would be home to an informal school conker championship. After a few days in the airing cupboard (and a few coats of your mother's nail varnish), your conkers were ready for action - and it was always heartbreaking when your "niner" (a conker that had successfully seen off nine others) was finally smashed by some brash older kid with an anger issue. These days, it's a dying art (and when kids do try to play it they're either encouraged to wear goggles for safety purposes or banned from doing so entirely - seriously), which is something of a shame.
17. Going Outside And Getting Muddy
wikiImagine actually going outside and playing in the mud or on the wet grass! Perish the thought! But that's what we did for lack of anything better to do. We were the last generation who didn't have easy-to-carry hand-held mobile devices to take everywhere (so we couldn't sit playing Angry Birds, 4 Pics 1 Word, Temple Run or Tap the Frog at playtime - and yes, we realise we are probably two years behind with those game descriptions), so we had to make our own entertainment - and if that meant getting a bit of mud on our shiny school shoes, trousers or jumper then so be it. Running around on the wet grass, with our coats above our heads, against the wind or playing football with our jumpers for goalposts in all weather - that's how it used to be - and we'd sit in subsequent lessons up to the eyeballs in muck.
16. Dinner Time
tumblrBefore Jamie Oliver got his grubby mits all over them, school dinners were the stereotypical slop-fests that so many people envisage them as being. Forget enforced healthy food, you got what you were given and if the sausage and chips that you wanted were all gone you were stuck with the spam, green beans and whatever else was left. All of said delights were served up on plastic green trays with compartments for each part of your meal. Water was poured from big metal water jugs, everyone had a favourite "dinner nanny" (because most of the others were stern-faced monsters and it was never a surprise to find bits of their moustaches in your mashed potato) and culinary delights like mint custard would often make up for the muck you'd eaten beforehand. They were generally awful, but they were essential to the school experience. Oliver can shove his mushroom and lentil bake right up his arse.