This school was one of two preparatory schools to the state’s most prestigious Catholic secondary school – even though that school was Catholic as where its two prep schools, they weren’t part of the Catholic system – they were part of the independent system.
I’d discovered very soon after starting there that corporal punishment was still in regular use when I saw a pupil strapped across the hand in the middle of the playground about a week after I started at the school.
Use of the strap was common and routine
though only one teacher (a Jesuit Brother) actually strapped in the middle of the playground.
Year 7 and 8 boys were strapped quite a bit,
generally across the hand for minor offenses.