Daily Mail, London, 30 March 1905, p.3

New rules for punishment in school.

Yesterday the Leeds Education Committee adopted new regulations for the infliction of corporal punishment in schools. These provide that corporal punishment shall only be resorted to in extreme cases, and not until other means of discipline have been tried. Corporal punishment shall not be inflicted for dullness, inability to do school work, or absence from school, except in the case of truants. In senior departments there shall be one cane, and it shall be kept in possession of the head teacher. In infant departments there shall be no cane, the only punishment sanctioned being slight slaps with the hand upon the arm or hand of the child. All cases of corporal punishment, however slight, must be recorded at the time in a punishment book provided by the committee. While holding the head teacher directly responsible for the infliction of corporal punishment, the committee permits its delegation by the head teacher to assistants under certain conditions. Among these conditions are that punishment must be administered in the presence of the class and of some other member of the staff, and that an assistant must send to the head teacher for the cane and the punishment book, and must enter in the latter the name and age of the scholar, the nature of the offence, and the amount of punishment, which must not exceed two strokes.