My step mother was headmistress of an infants school from early 70s until 1995. She’d started teaching in the late 1950s, and by the time I met her in the mid 70s was headmistress. The school (in Norfolk) took kids from 5 until 8 or 9 when they went to middle school. It was a small village school, no more than 80 kids.
I know she used to have a system where if she caught someone misbehaving, or another teacher sent them to her for mis behaving they would stand at the front in the ‘naughty corner’ at assembly the next day. Once Assembly was over the other kids would file out and my Step Mum would smack them on the bottom. She carried on doing this until the early/mid 80s when Corporal punishment in schools was under pressure. She had a reputation for being very strict and a ‘no nonsense’ headmistress.
I didn’t go to that school, didn’t move in with her and my father until I was 9. At the middle school the headmistress would give us the ruler. We’d get a note to take home and have signed saying we’d had the ruler. Whenever I took home a note (not often) I’d get the slipper at home. The ‘slipper’ was a Scholl sandal with a wooden sole, which hurt like hell, especially since she sometimes gave it to us on the bare backside.