The survey suggests that corporal punishment could be encountered at both primary and secondary level, but its character was not necessarily the same.
For the younger child, punishment was often immediate and closely connected with ordinary classroom discipline. At secondary school, a more formal hierarchy of teachers, heads of department, housemasters and senior staff could become involved.
The Primary Classroom
One contributor who attended a Catholic primary school in Lancashire during the 1960s recalled corporal punishment as an ordinary feature of classroom life.
Talking was sufficient to result in punishment, and several pupils might be dealt with during a single lesson.
The contributor even remembered an occasion on which an entire class was punished.
This is an unusually extensive example and should not be assumed to represent every primary school.
Nevertheless, it demonstrates how routine the practice could become within a particular establishment.
Serious Misconduct Among Younger Pupils
More serious behaviour could bring the younger child before a senior teacher.
A respondent who was seven years old in 1967 recalled being involved in a playground fight at a Scottish primary school.
Both boys were taken by their class teacher to the deputy headmaster.
They received a lecture and were punished in the office, with the class teacher present.
The respondent later questioned whether the punishment had been particularly useful, especially as he believed the other boy had provoked the fight.
This example illustrates an important feature of primary-school discipline: even quite young children could be referred to senior staff when an offence was considered serious.
Moving to Secondary School
Secondary school introduced a larger institution and often a more elaborate disciplinary structure.
A pupil might now encounter subject teachers, heads of department, housemasters, deputy heads and the headmaster.
The same child who had been disciplined directly by one classroom teacher at primary school could find himself passing through several levels of authority at secondary school.
A Scottish Comparison
The same respondent who had been punished at seven described another incident at the age of twelve in 1972.
Now attending secondary school, he was caught running in a corridor.
The matter was dealt with privately by his housemaster.
He regarded this second punishment as effective and stated that he was not punished again for the same offence.
The contrast is useful.
At primary school, the offence had involved fighting and another boy had been present.
At secondary school, the matter involved a straightforward breach of a corridor rule and was handled individually.
Growing Older
Punishments could also increase as pupils became older.
One respondent remembered that the number of strokes he received rose with age, beginning at a lower level and eventually reaching six in his middle teens.
This does not establish a universal rule.
It does suggest that some schools adjusted severity according to age.
Two Stages of Discipline
Primary and secondary school should therefore not be treated as identical environments.
Both could employ corporal punishment.
But the circumstances, authority structure and expectations of pupils could differ considerably.
The seven-year-old facing a deputy headmaster and the fifteen-year-old appearing before a housemaster were both subject to school discipline.
Their understanding of what was happening, however, was unlikely to have been the same.
