I read recently that someone doubted the truth of stories of corporal punishment experienced by girls at school beyond primary school, suggesting that these were actually the fertile imagination of guys. To be fair, it is a fact that a significant proportion of anecdotes involving spanking are written by men who probably get a kick out of it, sometimes even pretending to be girls themselves. In my humble experience, I tend to find that one giveaway is that guys tend to concentrate on the intimate aspects of these stories, whilst girls often tend to skate over such matters. However, that doesn’t mean to say that all stories about girls receiving corporal punishment in secondary schools – even in mixed company – are fictitious. If you surf the internet as much as I do, you’ll encounter a number of experiences that actually sound quite authentic. One girl cheerfully admitted that she used to deliberately forget her games kit, knowing that it would mean three whacks over her knickers with a gym shoe (known in British schools as the slipper), which she found preferable to doing games in freezing or wet weather. I think it was the same school that offered the pupils, both boys, and girls, a choice between detention and a three-stroke slippering in front of the class for forgetting their homework. Many pupils of both sexes chose the slipper! It appears that there was little embarrassment attached to the punishments, as they occurred so frequently. In single-sex schools in this era (1950s to 1970s), the spanking and caning of girls was more widespread, especially in private, independent schools. Back in the 90s, I corresponded with a South African nurse who had a keen interest in spanking. You’re probably aware that CP in South Africa has always been quite common, and may well still take place, for all I know. My correspondent had attended a boarding school where the strap (on the seat, rather than the hands) was quite common. She was strapped by her housemistress on a number of occasions. This lady’s most memorable punishment came from the headmistress after she’d been caught out of bounds with a young man by a duty mistress. Although I attended five different schools in my childhood, both state and independent, and witnessed spankings on a number of occasions, I was only once present when a girl in school uniform was punished. This was my sister, at home.  I should say that our parents rarely spanked. It was a short, sharp shock and over in seconds, and I gather it was something her own mother had used as discipline. On this occasion, I don’t recall what my sister had done wrong. Maybe she’d ‘answered back’ (something which definitely wasn’t tolerated) or possibly she hadn’t changed out of her school uniform. But I do recall her being spanked with a plastic spatula in a standing position with her navy blue knickers down and her school skirt held up out of the way.