In retrospect, the latter possibly suffered from Tourette’s, which of course wasn’t recognised back in the mid-nineteen sixties.
On each occasion, the miscreants were ordered to bend over and received three hefty whacks with the spoon.
Nowadays that would seem barbaric, but I suppose it was nothing more than a ‘short, sharp shock’ that stung but didn’t leave marks, and generally kept boys on the straight and narrow.
As an example of just how much stricter discipline was in those days, the biggest scandal in my time there came when four boys were ordered to report to the headmaster’s study after assembly.
The basting spoon was applied to each of their bottoms in turn.
Their crime? Someone had seen them eating sweets at the town’s bus station (half a mile from the school) while still in uniform!