These recollections are interesting because they sit somewhere between social history and everyday memory. They are not necessarily dramatic...
The humble gym shoe — universally known as “the slipper” — presents historians with a particular difficulty. Although remembered...
What those dusty old registers can tell us about school life in another age There was a time when...
A traditional punishment book was a decidedly official-looking affair. Depending upon the school and education authority, it might record...
There is, however, a considerable problem with using punishment books as historical evidence. They don’t necessarily tell the whole...
Another striking feature of these records is the difference between the treatment of boys and girls. There was no...
The Secrets of the School Punishment Book Part Five — The Girls Who Weren’t Always ‘Sugar and Spice’
Other records rather spoil the old-fashioned image of perfectly behaved schoolgirls. Broad Street School, later Broad Heath Secondary School...
Perhaps the most fascinating entries are those which reveal how society itself was changing. An offence regarded as serious...
One Birmingham punishment book covering 1932 to 1951 is particularly interesting because of how little punishment it contains. Across...
If the Birmingham figures appear modest, records from Catford Central School for Boys in London tell an altogether different...
The Catford records reveal another fascinating pattern. Younger pupils generally received fewer strokes. Among 11-year-olds, a single stroke was...