I Got The Cane Or Slipper In The Sixth Form

I was caned twice during my sixth form years in the early 1960s, once for skipping school and smoking and once for an offence which embarrassed the Headmistress – an agonising six of the best on both occasions. At my school the girl’s age seemed irrelevant when she was to be disciplined. It was entirely the nature and seriousness of your offence that determined your punishment. It mattered not whether you were a trembling 11 year old or a hardened sixth former - a caning offence was a caning offence. The only thing that changed was that the canings became more severe as you got older. The other change of course was that as you matured and became more worldly-wise, you were much more careful to stick to the rules (a plus in favour of corporal punishment) but equally rather more careful to avoid being caught when you did misbehave. So from memory, there was a significant decline in the frequency of canings as we progressed, and by sixth form, it was becoming much more of an ‘event’ when one of us was caned.

Few, if any, of the girls would have avoided the cane in their seven years at the school, but I think only a minority of us sixth-formers got the cane.

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NortiusMaximus · M

My girlfriend and I got the slipper together quite a few times in sixth form.

MaryWat · 70-79, F

@NortiusMaximus Having attended an all-girls school, I found it bad enough having my bottom punished in front of other girls at sixth form age. Surely it must have been deeply embarrassing for both of you, even if you were in an intimate relationship?

NortiusMaximus · M

@MaryWat No, getting the slipper in class was no big deal. Seeing someone getting the slipper was an everyday event so it wasn't embarrassing. Being all treated the same probably helped. Maybe it's different in single sex schools.

What did you get it for in 6th form?

MaryWat · 70-79, F

@NortiusMaximus The slippering I remember best during sixth form was when a number of us (probably 6-7) had a free period, and rather than go to the school library, we found a empty classroom that was tucked away in a secluded Victorian annex to the school. We were having an hysterical time playing a form of shuttlecock to a unique set of netless rules when, presumably attracted by the noise we had made, the deputy Headmistress strode in. It was one of those excuseless offences, and we all trooped behind her to her study, probably expecting the cane. I am sure we felt some sort of relief when she pulled her punishment plimsoll from her desk drawer. We each got 6 hearty whacks. Not as bad as a caning, but very painful all the same.

jackcros · 70-79, M

@MaryWat that seems a rather innocuous offence to get 6 for. Was it for being in a disused part of the school, or for neglecting your studies by not going to the library? Our misdeeds were more of the nature of smoking or slipping out to the pub. If caught, we could expect the strap rather than the slipper.

NortiusMaximus · M

@jackcros @MaryWat We got the cane in 6th form for smoking or going out to the pub. We used to go off to town or go home when we had free periods. We could get the cane for that but, in most cases, we got away with just a slippering if caught.

MaryWat · 70-79, F

@jackcros You misconstrue the nature of the offence and the ethos of the school. Nor was it a disused part of the school - simply that the half dozen classrooons there were very old-fashioned, dark, with only small frosted windows to the outside. It's a long time ago now, but I suspect in timetabling, they were the last rooms to be allocated. But they were used. Our adolescent stupidity was to simply lose control of our delight at having invented a new game of shuttlecock without a net and with six players! Girls of that age are totally insensitive t how much noise they are creating.

But essentially we were punished for not being at private study, which is what free periods were intended for. The compounded offence was such that we were lucky to escape a caning.

jackcros · 70-79, M

@MaryWat thank you for the clarification, I can understand that a good school would not take kindly to study periods being wasted, and rightly so.

As a mere male, I do find that a group of females can be very noisy, at any age, lol. (Joke)

Rebecca54 · 70-79, F

@MaryWat That sort of behaviour during a study period would not have gone down too well at my all girls school either. We were expected to behave like adults in the sixth form and were granted certain privileges such as being able to wear trousers instead of the usual pleated skirts. Corporal punishment was less frequent in the sixth form - several of us were slippered but I had the dubious honour of the first girl to be caned over trousers!

Sharon · F

@Rebecca54 It was similar at my school in 6th form. That sort of behaviour would definitely have got us a slippering and quite possibly a caning. If we had a free period at the end of the day we often left to go into town. That was against the rules. Some teachers would turn a blind eye but other would give us the slipper or, in extreme cases, send us to the year head for the cane.

My husband's school had a similar rule in 6th form. He and his peers (boys and girls) got the slipper and cane for it too.