I attended a boys grammar school in the early 60s and although the cane was used by far the most common punishment was the slipper.By the slipper I mean a size 11 gym shoe with a rubber sole which was invariably given across thin PE shorts by a young fit PE master The slipper hurt more than the cane and even a couple of whacks would leave your bottom dark red and would leave a bruise which would take up to 10 days to disappear.
I have seen boys cry as they changed into their shorts for the sole purpose of having their backsides slippered but no humanity was ever shown and once the sentence had been passed then there was no reprieve.
It hurt at the time but was stll preferable to spending unending hours in detention or writing lines or essays.
If you wish I could give you a detailed account of punishments I witnessed and received.
Brian

Thanks.

Yes a lot of the PE teachers were fladge mad. Have a look at Copland School on the Fiends Reunited site for stories of a slipper obsessed rugby player.
Sandra

While you are on the Fiends(sic) Reunited site visit the page for William Penn Comprehensive London SE24.
The place was overrun with them!

Our boys school pe teacher was "slipper mad" - whacking regularly for all sorts of offences? Were gym misstresses as slipper happy in girls pe lessons then?

I would also like to ask a question. My staff always insisted that boys did not wear pants for pe and games. A very convincing case was always made on the grounds that they should be removed on grounds of hygene. Now, thinking back over the years, certainly in respect to some teachers, I wonder if the real reason was that with just thin shorts the slipper hurt a lot more.

Anybody got any comments?


George

Brian -- My school also was known for using the slipper quite freely. Size 11 certainly seems about right. I would enjoy hearing of more experiences that you witnessed or received yourself.

--Sean.

One of the instances that sticks in my mind was the first time I was slippered. We had a new PE teacher who informed us without warning that we were to have a kit inspection.We were duly lined up and made to step forward one at a time when we were subjected to a detailed inspection of all of our games kit including the bottoms of our rugby boots!I think about 7 of us didn't come up to scratch and were told to stand to one side.Nobody was unduly concerned-we just thought we make get a telling off or at worst an imposition.Our attitude soon changed when the PE teacher disappeared into the office only to emerge a few moments later carrying a large plimsoll!The atmosphere changed immediately.We were instructed to line up and were lectured on the importance of standards after which we were informed that we were to receive 2 each. Even at this stage we didn't know how bad it was going to be.The boy was asked if he was wearing anything under his shorts and was then told to step forward and bend over.This was the mid 60s so shorts were tight and covered little more than just the bottom.
I can vividly recall the PE teacher gripping the plimsoll and with all his might delivering a full blooded whack across the boys backside causing him to take a couple of steps forward. He resumed his original position when number two was administered. When he got up he was grimacing and his hands were gripping his backside.One or two of the boys started sniffing because we all knew now what to expect. I was about fourth in the queue and stepped forward when the time came to get my behind whacked. Needless to say it really hurt and my bottom throbbed terribly.
After we had all been punished we were sent out on to the games field and I can clearly remember I was a prop and it was no joke having a second row forward pressing hard against bruised flesh. Naturally we compared our marks and all the backsides without exception were purple/red and clearly each boy was in some discomfort.
The following week all the boys were perfectly turned out - draw your own conclusions as to the efficacy of corporal punishment.

Our welsh pe teacher was a real sadist.
He used the slipper constantly.
Slippered the whole class once, we all lined up and got it one after the other.
Red bottoms under thin shorts!
regards,
jay

When we mover up to the 4th form (age 11) in primary school, Our class teacher was also the gym teacher for the 4yh year boys. On the first gym lesson we were told that if any boy forgot his kit, the school had lots of spare and it could be hired at a cost of four firm smacks with his gym plimsol.

If any boy had pants under his gym or football shorts then we would receive three firm smacks with his plimsol and any misbehaviour in the gym or changing rooms would be one to two smacks with the slipper and then we were told that the last boy in the gym would be slippered and the last boy to leave the changing room after gym would be slippered.

He made sure that we all got a turn to be last in and out. When it was my turn to be last in I was nervous as I touched my toes, the first smack was a light tap but the second made a loud blam sound in a silent gym and my bottom went numb for a few seconds then it throbbed as I jumped up and danced which made the whole class including the teacher laugh, all that type of slippering ended like that. The last one to get changed, received one firm smack through your school trousers which as you can guess stung.

Any boy who received three or four smacks ended up in tears or nearly in tears.

At times the whole class got slippered as well

Copland: Dennis Rice

William Penn: The Galloping Hairpin - Brian Sibley.

Mad, staring-eyed - Bill Davey.

Small man, small slipper - Little Frank
McDonald.

Additions to the roll of mad fladgers at William Penn School:

Cigarette smoking, cigarette smoker John Hope (“Hope came to all the boys”).

Arthur ‘Bicycle Face’ Taylor – a ‘Fun Slipperer’ from East Grinstead.

Further additions to William Penn:

Bummer Batten - a Fun Slipperer, but he had a lovely wife.

Minnie Martin - a Fun Rulerer.

The aforementioned Brian Sibley, John Hope and Little Frank McDonald appear in a photograph entitled 'Ruskin House' at the Friends Reunited site.

I am waiting for a photograph of Faraday House to appear. Stand by, Melvin!

I can confirm that Gym mistresses slippered. Our Male PE teacher was an expert hockey player and often took the gorls for hockey, which meant that the Female PE teacher took us boys for PE when that happened, and she could definately use her spliier, and the girls said she used it on them as well.

I think possibly sadism was a job requirment for p.e. teachers and all those I encountered were enthusiastic slipperers.Not only were the last boys to finish changing slippered but we had the joys of wintertime cross country runs with the last four boys to finish also got slippered 4 strokes each.Any foul committed during football games were punished with on the spot slippering and then the rest of the match running round and round the pitch

How I hated P.E. at my prep school back in the 50's and hated the teacher who seemed to get pleasure from giving you a really good tanning with his slipper, a black plimsole, I was useless at games and could never get over the horse even with a spring board but my kindly teacher would always encourage you with a whack or two across you bum which we wore thin pe shorts and nothing else underneath, in fact pants were not worn under our grey flannel short trousers either, a habit that I still retain today, His favorite game (he called it a game not me) was to get the boys to form a circle facing inwards with hands behind your back then at random he would give his slipper to the boy next to you who then chased you round the circle untill you got back to your place, whacking your bum as hard and as often as he could.Since I was a slow runner I got whacked more than most and when it was my turn the lucky boy never got more than one from me because he was away much faster.
Did any other schools have this weired game ?
He also used the slipper for any misbehaviour in the showers or when at swimming which we did naked, so we got it bare then, not that the shorts helped and the bruises lasted for days.
Whenever we had the cane or strap from the head or form teacher it didn't bother them that your behind was already striped or bruised from an earlier hiding, you still got what they thought you deserved.
Whilst I didn't like it I still think that the more you got caned the tougher your bum became so perhaps it took more for you to feel it.

George, you fraud,

You never had staff, you were never a teacher, you were never a headmaster, you never caned anybody and you never spanked anything except (as the Americans would say) the monkey!

Kindly obtain a life!

Paul is so clearly excited by the thought he finds single-handed typing difficult.

when I was at school in the 1970's we also got a taste of the slipper for wearing pants underour games shorts. Is this still the case nowadays & now the slipper is banned how do the games masters enforce this now ?