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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MartinII · 70-79, M

I very much agree with Arish Mell’s comment. I was at Bristol Grammar School throughout the 1960s. The cane was certainly used, from age 8 to 18, and it always seems to have meant six of the best from the headmaster. But it wasn’t all that frequent, and I only knew of one case where a caning seemed unfair or excessive. We were afraid of it, especially in the junior school, but we didn’t think of the regime as particularly severe and the upper school in particular was a happy school on the whole. And most boys, myself included, were never caned.

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@MartinII The main punishments in Weymouth Grammar School were impositions (lines or similar) and detentions.

One point I have realised is that more boys than I heard of had the cane, because the playground samizdat seems to work only within your own Year. I had heard of the occasional girl having been sent to the female Deputy Head, but never what happened to them there.

I think CP was so common at school in the home in our school-days that we probably accepted it would happen, and didn't start to question it until later. At least schools in the main tended to be more controlled, fairer and less brutal than many parents appear to have been.

MartinII · 70-79, M

@ArishMell BGS had a quaint system whereby canings were publicised on the headmaster’s notice board: “A Smith has been beaten for smoking” or whatever. Checking for such notices gave me a pretty good idea of how often canings happened - once or twice a week, which isn’t many in a school of 800. That accords with my general impression of cp in my area and social class, in both schools and homes - that it was always a possibility, but didn’t happen much in practice. Of course, there were exceptions.

Rebecca54 · 70-79, F

@MartinII The cane was not extensively used at my all girls school - it was reserved for serious misbehaviour. I was caned 3 times in 7 years there but I would estimate about 70% of girls were never caned.

The slipper was used quite often for routine misbehaviour. Most teachers gave a choice of the slipper as an alternative to detention, so girls could avoid CP if they wished.

CP was the norm when I was at school and nobody ever regarded it as brutal.

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@MartinII I suppose they realised everyone who knew Smith, knew he had had the cane so thought it better to announce it formally, to stop rumours and warn others.

Once or twice a week in 800... That's still far more, as far as I know, from WGS with its roll of 1100. So different from school to school. I don't know if class had much to do with it, with us anyway, because pupils were from all sorts of backgrounds though the area was rich in skilled trades and professions at the time.

MartinII · 70-79, M

@Rebecca54 So far as the cane was concerned, my school was very similar to yours. However we didn’t get the slipper, except in PE lessons in junior school. There were impositions and detentions, but most teachers seemed to avoid giving formal punishments if they could.

The only other school about which I can speak with any confidence is the Catholic girls grammar school where my mother taught. According to my mother, there was no cp of any kind at that school.

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@MartinII Our grammar-school PE teacher used the slipper, or plimsoll, but very rarely and then normally only stroke. I did see him once give two, to a boy who deliberately nicked another's ear with a pen-knife or something.