When I attended school there was no way any prefect could administer any type of cp,not even a quick smack across the bottom. I am not even sure if student teachers were allowed to smack either but once at a school camp I received a really sound smacking from one of the student teachers who was in charge of our room at the hostel we were staying at. I will admit it was well deserved since I was out of control at the time. I never mentioned it to anybody since I would most likely have got into more trouble.
Anyway in those days smacking was no big deal. You forgot about it about one hour after it happened, but I will admit I did behave myself after that. got on well with that particular student teacher after that and everything was ok. If I had misbehaved like that back at the actual school I would have been slippered for sure.