Lets tell a story that may be fact of it may be fantasy and let folks decide which it is.

At my all boys school in the 50’s we had a female teacher who used a pencil case as a punishment instrument on boys’ bottoms.

So is it true or is it false?

You cannot be serious!

At my junior school in 1962/63 there was a male teacher who had what he called ‘The Smacked Bottom Club’. It was in the days when boys wore short trousers. He would put his chair in front of the class and place his left leg on the chair seat. The unfortunate recipient would have to climb up over his knee and receive up to half-a-dozen whacks on his upper thigh after his trouser leg was rolled up. Apart from one occasion, he only ever did this to the boys. The exception was when a so-called naughty girl was called out to the front. He whacked her with his hand twice across her bottom and sent her back to her place. On the way back she smiled with bravado. She was summoned back and received the same punishment as the boys. Three whacks I seem to recall. My sister taught at the school some years later and told me that the teacher was ‘obsessed with matters anal’.

I cannot say whether or not the pencil case incidents happened at the individual school attended by Batfinch but I have absolutely no doubt that such things were regular occurrences at many primary schools in England.

One of the teachers at my primary school used to use smacks on the upper thigh for both boys and girls. In our case though we were always punished standing up next to her desk. Shorts or skirts would be pulled up and the teacher would slap us on the top of the exposed naked thigh. Usually both legs would get a couple of slaps. I still remember that it stung like hell - taking age into account a more painful punishment than getting slippered over trousers at secondary school when older.

Probably a good job few primary schools had woodwork teachers, I feel.

I managed to get hit, head or backside, by slipper(size 14!), wooden rule, metal rule, 3 separate bits of wood and the flat wooden handle of a bleeding great spokeshave during my first 2 years at Grammar school.

The woodwork teacher was an ex-desert rat, the ex-part definitely referred to the desert, judging from his beady rodential vision and quivering nostrils scenting wrongdoing before battering another malefactor.

I always wondered with those holiday espadrilles, swimming bath flippers or bunsen burner chemistry lab tubing would ever see use, but none ever did.

On another note entirely, as she's Welsh,wouldn't certain strands of seaweed have been useful for thrashing Carol Vorderperson?

It was in fact a wooden pencil box so judge for your self if its fact or fiction.

Another incident same school same time period.
A boy fell asleep during the afternoon lessons. the teacher decided to have some fun and instead of waking him and sending him to the head for the cane let him sleep on way after the end of school.

He also took a photo which found its way on to the noticeboard

Fact of fiction?

Pencil case?

Head case!

In which case, I hope you didn't go to school near Maidstone in Kent, because that wooden pencil-case might JUST have been manufactured by my woodwork teacher!

Sounds like the sort of peverted draftsmanship he would enjoy. I do belive that as fact-if it was the right size, with a flat bottom, it would be quite effective, as per the traditonal wooden hairbrush.