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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N2Bparka · 61-69, M

Just came across this. I had the cane maybe half a dozen occasions in 1st 2nd 3rd form, then nothing, until right at end of 1st yr sixth. We'd gone to a gig it went on late so ended up very late hehe like just before lunch into school. To complicate the issue, one of us was - not me - seen drinking from a can of beer on his way in. All four of us got eight strokes ... hard ones .... in exactly the same way as junior boys, which was change into PE shorts, nothing else, bend right over a science lab stool kept in the deputy heads office for this purpose. It was only one day to the end of term and he laid it on, with a big cane only seen standing in the corner before. He then made us stand hands on head in the corridor for an hour, which through two period changes so all could see, again just like 12 year olds in first form. 2nd year sixth didn't get caned unless c.p. was offered as an option, but this was 1st yr 6th, no options.

lancashirelady50 · 70-79, F

@N2Bparka my brother tells of similar at his Catholic Boys Grammar school. Not the corridor stNding though- but the sadistic PE master who would slipper on just thin shorts!

N2Bparka · 61-69, M

@lancashirelady50 changing into PE kit for canings was the norm there, no one questioned it , presumably all part of the punishment; this was 1970-1976 and school pe shorts were minimal then to say the least. Every caning I had from 1st yr to 3rd, then this 6th form one were like that.

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@N2Bparka It seemed to have been very variable. I was at school around the same time, and CP was rare, perhaps a last resort; and from I heard the cane was used fully-dressed, with no sadistic theatricals.

N2Bparka · 61-69, M

@ArishMell yes, varied, school to school, area to area. No two alike I suspect. Next big town to me I know the equivalent boys school to mine was no corporal punishment.

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@N2Bparka The undue severity and the simple fact that it was at worst abuse by violence and at best a poor encouragement to good behaviour, may be among the reasons it was abolished. It had already been outlawed in many other countries.

N2Bparka · 61-69, M

@ArishMell your over analysis continues

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@N2Bparka Pardon?

MaryWat · 70-79, F

@N2Bparka When I opened this topic nearly 4 years ago, I never expected that there would be 260 comments and nearly 6000 views! All related in some way to a time, long ago and far away, when that most unambiguous punishment - a school caning - was common in most schools in the UK, even when we were sixth formers and approaching adulthood. As another commenter (HowardP) has noted, it's hard for the contemporary generation to believe the world can have changed so much in half a century.

Anyway Mr N2Bparka, thanks for adding to the 'roll of honour' we seem to have created here of those of us who received a caning in the sixth form, and came through it stronger and more fascinating citizens!

I beat you, incidentally. No pun intended, but managed to get caned twice in the sixth. And I was one of the good girls.

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@MaryWat I remember the CP topic occasionally appeared in the letters page of my local paper. It attracted at least as many responses as the most contentious local politics, until the Editor closed the correspondence!

The same paper also once carried a "For Sale" ad among the ordinary classified ads, for school canes, and it was repeated every few weeks for several months, openly suggested for parental use! Then they stopped as suddenly as they had started.

lancashirelady50 · 70-79, F

@ArishMell I came across a Bible Belt advert for the distribution of paddles... FREE.... to homes that required them!
Strange? Very!

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@lancashirelady50 Strange? Well, it does not surprise me.

Perverted? Yes - whilst I enjoy consensual adult CP play I oppose genuine physical punishment and have no time for cruelty to children.

I wonder what the NSPCC, Social Services and Police would have to say if those ever-so-Christian thugs tried it on in our country?

N2Bparka · 61-69, M

@MaryWat As I said I only came across this thread in the last few days. I used to have a different user name here, for whatever reason didn't look at this forum at all in ages, but a google search for something (very very different!) brought me back to this forum, and set up a new username. One of the things that does p*** me off though is in some discussions, not this one I add quickly, is those who respond with "6th formers were never caned" or "girls were caned on hands only" "therefore you talk fantasy". But we were there. They were not. Mine was boys only school + 6th form same place, practice was forms 1 to 6.1 could be caned, but 6.2 were not, although 6.2 could opt for a caning as an alternative to whatever else was "offered" (I have no idea if anyone did). I have have a suspicion, not fact, that because during 6.2 you crossed the age of 17 to 18, at 18 you were technically legally adult, there might have been potential legal issues if an 18+ took up an assault charge in his own name. We were in 6.1 when the events I described occurred, so were beaten, no option, in exactly the same way as a first former, in nothing but thin PE shorts, but a lot harder, and then hands on head for an hour. All but the entire school then knew the 4 of us had been caned.

SomeMichGuy · M

@lancashirelady50 Are you referring to the US's "Bible Belt"?

lancashirelady50 · 70-79, F

@SomeMichGuy yes: but I only have hearsay to go on.