I’m not dismissive of negative experiences – but since 1983, when I first got primary responsibility for discipline policy in my school, I’ve made massive efforts to make negative experiences as unlikely to occur as I believe is humanly possible. I introduced detailed appeals processes giving students three separate and absolute rights of appeal on three different grounds if they believed they were either being punished unfairly, or if there were reasons why corporal punishment should not be used in a particular case even if they were guilty. I introduced policies by which any boy who any relevant person believed should not be subjected to corporal punishment, or where it should be used only with even greater care than normal, would be specifically identified and placed on lists that ensured corporal punishment would either not be used, or only be used with extra special care.

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