Guest wrote:Headmistress i have a few questions-1)Were you ever aware that although it is quite humiliating to receive a caning it is doubly humiliating for, say, a 16 year old boy to be told to bend over and have his bottom thrashed with a cane by a woman teacher(and I am speaking from painful personal experience!) 2)were the canings at your school carried out in private or did they take place in class or school assembly where they could be witnessed by other pupils? 3)Did all teachers at your school have access to and use of the cane(s)? 4)Would you be in favour of reintroducing caning into schools today?
I do appologise sincerely for the late response but I have been away attending family buisiness concerns - very complicated, very depressing !
Yes I can fully understand how humiliated a 16 year old boy might might well be when directed to bend over ( a chair in my case) for a caning and it was very rarely that I caned a 16 yre old boy, or girl - at that age I would have considered a caning as ineffective and would therefore seek to deal with the issue in a more assuming adult manner - whilst a sound caning would normaly have left the desired impression on 12 to 14 year olds in particular, and in doing so changed their behaviour patterns considerably, I felt that it was in both their interest and mine to make a caning really count, it needed to hurt,and really hurt, if it was to serve any meaningfull purpose at all.
To the second part of your question, yes, I only ever caned in private but did on occasion have either a parent or school matron present ( this would be because there may have been uncertainty as to whether a particular pupil could whithstand a hard caning and where he/she would need to be monitored at the end of each stroke ) - I considered a caning, and especially six strokes, as more than enough punishment for any pupil without having to put them under more duress by caning them in front of the entire school, although there was nothing in the school's CP policy stating that I couldn't.
Only myself was authorised to cane but form teachers were permitted to use the slipper for mid level infractions - anything beyond that and they were sent to me.
There's a vast difference now between childrens attitudes and advancements today than when I was at school and therefore not only would they rebel at even the prospect of being caned, they would regard it as rather archaic and well out of tune with modern day child upbringing and schooling - in short, the cane today just would not work.
With regards.
Ex Headmistress.
The "punishment" for remembering sports kit was having to spend the lesson running cross-country or standing around on a hockey pitch freezing our tits off. As you may guess, some days there was quite a queue for the slipper. 
