When your behaviour was felt to have crossed a certain threshold, you were called out from your seat, told to bend over, received your whacks and returned to your seat.
The spanking stung and brought tears to your eyes but it was generally only around three strokes and was quite bearable.
Then the lesson continued.
One of the few occasions when I recall the master actually sounding angry was when one boy was heard in conversation with a boy from another class in the corridor, and they used ‘naughty’ words.
The resultant whacking seemed more severe than most.
Girls never got their bottoms smacked – at least not in school.
Maybe they were simply better behaved than the boys, but more likely it might have been against the local regulations.
After we finally moved house, I spent just over a year at another state primary school.