I hope you under­stand what you are ask­ing Thomas but I will explain to be on the safe side. You would have us believe that you have done some­thing very naughty dur­ing the term which has not been found out yet. As a result you have request­ed six with the cane which will, as the rules state, be deliv­ered on your bare bot­tom. Now tell me, have I beat­en you before?’ Mrs Seaton gave me a real telling off, saying how important it was to behave in class and not to disrupt the lessons for everyone else. I tried to pay attention, so that she would see how sorry I was, but all I could think of was the effect that awful cane had had on poor Lindsey and that I was about to get the same. I’ve had Dr Rudd on the phone, who has been telling me all about your the­atri­cal prowess,’ con­tin­ued Miss Sven­son. No reply from thegirl. Oh yes, of course," she said, studying his face carefully, her clear, hard, blue eyes boring into him.

There was another long pause before she answered quietly, "Then I shall make sure it is, Thomas. Come here at once. I want you here in ten minutes and I will add an extra stroke for each minute you are late." Joe is a rather live­ly boy, good at his sci­ence sub­jects but rather weak in most of the oth­ers at which he should work hard­er. He is pop­u­lar with the oth­er boys and plays in the foot­ballteam.’ Delight­ful child,’ remarked the Head­mistress as the door closed. ‘Let us hope that the rest of your class live up to her example.’ There's no such thing as ghosts," replied Thomas, trying to sound confident and knowledgeable. "How many apples do you want?" No matter who the recipient of such heinous measures– each pupil endured much more than what was then commonly referred to as “Tingle-of-the-Tawse”.

About Me

Internal Home Office memorandum by Dr. A.W. Norris, 30 May 1923 OUTBREAKOFINSUBORDINATIONat the KENILWORTH TRAININGSCHOOL.

were about to end. I have discussed the matter fully with Miss Wall who will keep an eye on the school. I submit a recommendation regarding the application of the Managers of Kenilworth Training School in regard to the Model Rule No. 21(3) [...] with the addition of (a) "In case of grave necessity, corporal punishment on the posterior may be inflicted on a girl under the age of 16 if the previous authority of the Chief Inspector has been obtained. Such corporal punishment shall be administered strictly under the conditionsLater that day my form master told me that he had reported me and that I would have to see the headmaster after assembly on Monday. Well, Marling, a caning is a serious punishment. You are here because you have persistently misbehaved over the last week. I shall now try to show you just how seriously we take your misbehaviour. The cane is supposed to hurt and I can assure you that it will hurt - a lot. She could probably have guessed this from the expression on my face, but I suppose that it was on the school records. I shook my head. She said that [...] the bigger girls [...] felt that though they had behaved well themselves they were not trusted and would get the tawse on the seat for the slightest thing. [...] I chose not to tell my parents. I knew that they would be upset for me and also angry with the teacher. My mam...always so protective of her children...would have charged up to the school and demanded a full enquiry plus his resignation.

She got eight strokes, Marling. I don't think that young lady will be sitting down comfortably for a long time. But she was only due to get six strokes. If this policy is accepted I think it would be unwise to ref Good. I'll expect you at 8am sharp." She raised her eyebrows slightly, indicating that she expected a reply in the affirmative. Clare said again, “Come on Tom! Don’t worry, I won’t tell mummy, but I might if you don’t let me have a look!” James Thomas eased his under­pants and shorts up over his throb­bing rear end and shuf­fled uncom­fort­ably out of theroom.

On one occasion in the dining room I was hit once by a Brother for a forgotten offence. As I was leaving his presence I uttered an injudicious remark that must have caught his ear because I was thrashed around the body and legs, and the thrashing continued while I was on the floor. It was a reaction not to me challenging his authority, although he would have thought that merited half of what he’d dished out. No, this was a reaction to me slighting his being as a religious. Thomas couldn't believe what was happening to him. He felt the cane tapping gently across the centre of his bared bottom cheeks, He had no idea what to expect, but he was dismayed that even these gentle taps stung unpleasantly. He screwed his face up in dread in anticipation of something considerably more painful I expect you to stay in position throughout your punishment, until I tell you that you can stand up. Spank? Miran­da was hor­ri­fied: she had nev­er been spanked before; nev­er had to lie across the lap of the head mis­tress – this was toomuch.

While she was still on her way Mrs Seaton went on to say that, in the absence of the headmaster, she would be punishing the boys, too. She read out my name and form and that I was to be punished for being sent out three times, and then told me, too, to wait outside her room. One of the things of which Miss Sven­son, head­mistress of Cams­ford House, was most proud was not the school’s rep­u­ta­tion for aca­d­e­m­ic excel­lence or high dis­ci­pli­nary stan­dards – both cher­ished as they were – but for some­thing more intan­gi­ble; what she liked to call esprit de corps: a spir­it of team work and fair play amongst the girls, a spir­it which, for Miss Sven­son, was exem­pli­fied by the annu­al com­pe­ti­tion for the HouseCup. The John O’Groat Journal of 1884 highlighted one Thurso teacher who kept and applied three different named versions – The Constable, which was a soft pliable tawse; the Baillie, which was a stiff hard belt that left a significant mark; and finally the Sheriff, which was only brought out on criminal occasions.By your own admis­sion, you have engaged in a cer­tain amount of minor mis­chief dur­ing the term which has gone unno­ticed or unpun­ished. As a result you have vol­un­teered to receive two strokes of the cane after which the school will con­sid­er the mat­ter over and done with. That is, of course, unless we sub­se­quent­ly dis­cov­er some­thing more seri­ous in which case you know the pun­ish­ment could be rather severe. Do youagree?’ The best behaved were able to avoid any pun­ish­ment pro­vid­ed both teach­ers agreed. Every entrant to the school had received two of the cane at their ini­ti­a­tion to the I.P.R. sys­tem. These were very much token strokes though and deliv­ered with­out any real force. They served to give the child a gen­tle taste of what they might expect if they lat­er mis­be­haved and remind­ed them that cor­po­ral pun­ish­ment was not only avail­able, but would be used in the event of sig­nif­i­cant misdeeds. The next few weeks were hell on earth. I tried a host of topics related to my geography degree; environment, weather, town planning, country capitals, quizzes, puzzles….even ‘draw your granny!’ The cries of ‘useless’ and ‘boring’ rang in my ears each night as I trudged home to mark jotters with nothing in them, or worse, comments I’d rather not decipher.