The infant school was a completely separate department with its own headmistress. Many of the teachers would give a smack or two on the clothed bottom as a quick punishment – that happened quite a lot and was barely worth mentioning – it happened to me a couple of times, was not hard enough to make me cry but did remind me to do as I was told. If you were very bad (hard to imagine exactly how bad a 5-7 year old could be!), you could be sent to see the Headmistress, and it was said that she would put you over her knee and smack your bottom – but I don’t know if she actually did! I remember one little boy in my infant class who was sent to see her – it was widely assumed that she had smacked his bottom, but I don’t remember what the boy said about it, or if he said anything.
Memories of Corporal Punishment4
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