How much influence Britain had on corporal punishment policy in Australian schools is an interesting question to begin with. I’d say culturally at least it had quite a bit – but it is important to understand that by the time the Australian colonies were setting up their own education systems, most of them had already been self governing for considerable periods of time – my state of Victoria (then the Colony of Victoria), for example, actually passed laws making education compulsory eight years before England did.
But what I want to address here is the idea that girls were most often corporally punished in Australian schools than in English ones, because I find that an odd idea.
Back around 1950 a comprehensive analysis of punishment in English schools – including punishment regulations was published.
Of the 144 LEAs at the time, not one banned the corporal punishment of girls – although just under a dozen stated it should be used rarely.