I’ve seen lots of extracts from punishment books covering many periods but they’ve all recorded the ‘nuclear deterrent’ for the particular school, usually the cane. ‘One slap on back of leg’ is certainly way milder than anything I’ve seen recorded before, especially as the recipient was an 11 year old boy! Perhaps that’s why it made the cut – so unusual as to be worthy of recording!
We had a one-time regular contributor who was a school governor in, I think. East Anglia and who made something of a study of local school punishment books. If you’re still out there to my shame I’ve forgotten your pseudonym, for which I apologise, but it would be very interesting to know if you ever encountered fairly mild ‘classroom’ punishments like this entered in punishment books. Or indeed if anyone else knows of this happening.