I did dismally and was put into a bottom class. I cannot remember if all this happened within a day or over several days. Another aspect of this place was the reference of calling everyone by surname only. This felt very threatening and intimidating and enhanced the impersonal atmosphere of the school. It was a place where no one seemed to matter.
I remember my first experience of terror very well. This happened when some boys (the school was segregated) in my class, tried out some javelins that were lying out on the playing field. What happened came ‘out of the blue’ when the class was back in a classroom. This teacher came into the room raving and shouting and waving a cane. He demanded that those who touched a javelin to ‘own up’.