“Occasionally a “smart aleck” would produce a steel ball-bearing and endeavour to split up the “glassies” and “agates” in the ring. If he was a small kid, the players would demand immediate relief under the “no ball bearings” rule, and expel him from the game. If he was one of the big kids there was […]

“There were mean-spirited boys who would insert wads of blotting paper into their classmates’ inkwells so that the dipped pen would emerge with an inky blot that flopped out onto a page of neat work, ruining it, and earning the owner a bad mark, or the cuts, or both.”

The nib, when its prongs had separated too much for writing purposes, could be attached to a paper dart and, with perseverance, this could be made to stick upside down in the ceiling by vigorous throwing when the teacher was distracted or out of the room. When Brothers changed classrooms at the end of periods, […]

The classroom of the 1940’s was often a dreary place for the student. Time passed on tortoise legs as endless periods of algebra or “Mort d’Arthur” filled the day. In those war-time classroom the distractions had to be manufactured from the few possibilities available. Before ball-points, the school-boy used a pen with a steel nib […]

Even the Brothers who taught well, and were liked by their students, used the strap or the ruler turned on its edge. The reasons for this were that classes grew larger and more difficult to handle, staff changes brought Brothers who were less attuned to the friendly spirit of the pioneering years, and people in […]

Corporal punishment had been used sparingly in the first few years of St Bede’s. The seniors in their tiny classes were treated as responsible “near adults” and a friendly relationship between teacher and pupil developed. George Laube, who had attended De La Salle Malvern in 1937, recalled that the atmosphere at St Bede’s was much […]

On one occasion, he and a Mordialloc boy called “Gabby” Gray had a fist fight up and down the aisle between the desks while the class cowered in their seats not knowing whom to barrack for. When Gray finally retreated, Julian informed him that he was expelled, so the boy packed his bag and left […]

Boys returned to their desk with fingers on fire with pain and faced whit with the effort of holding back the tears. Some tears did flow and even the tough boys sometimes writhed noticeably as the cane did its work. A favourite remedy was to put the offended fingers on the cold bolts which held […]

St Bede’s: Brother Julian, Headmaster: “In each class there was always a bright student who somehow translated Julian’s incomprehensible instructions and was able to keep him at bay by answering the hard questions. But the day would come (frequently) when the bright boy would be away, or would make a mistake, and the Julian would […]

  One ex-boarder remembers a friend trying to pass a note to a day student requesting the latter to buy him a packet of cigarettes after school. McCristal intercepted the note and the lad received a strapping and certainly no cigarettes. None of the Old Collegians remembered McCristal’s discipline as being unfair in any way. […]