Junior school in the mid 80's

So talking to a pal as you do and we got onto the subject of junior school. My old headmaster used to quite regularly call me into his office for a ‘spanking’. This involved laying across his lap and him smacking my bum. Not just me per se, but a lot of the boys, and generally for not much reason at all.

Now my pal couldn’t believe what he was hearing and said that was bordering on abuse. I just thought this was just normal school life. I can remember playing out one weekend and he called me into his office on the Monday saying that he saw me doing something I shouldn’t be doing, and laid me across his lap and began to smack me.

Yes, I did live in fear of that headmaster, and consequently left that school at aged 9, along with a lot of other boys.

I just wanted to ask and see if this was considered the norm in the mid 80’s or was there something more going on with this horrible old man.

Not normal.

“normal”….if he was your dad?

Not normal at all.

But you don’t realise at that age do you?

In secondary school we had a games teacher who would make several kids share one shower cubicle ‘to save water’.
He used to then watch as the kids showered.

Complaints were made, eventually, but this had been going for years.

I’m in two minds as to whether or not to contact the authorities. There could be other kids he’s done things to far worse than I experienced.

prahran – ask yourself this:
if this was happening to your kids, what would you want to see happen?

If that was happening to my son, then at the very least I’d be speaking to the authorities. At the worst, well…..I’d like to see how somwone like that likes beeing ‘smacked’ by a 6-1 18st bloke…..

I’m applying for a PGCE place at the moment….this turns my stomach.

We still had the cane/slipper at Junior school in 1980, not sure if this was normal or not?

Corporal punishment was prohibited in E&W state schools in 1986. I think it had been against teachers’ union policy for 15-20 years before that but I might be making that up.

It would have been absolutely unimaginable at my (English, state) junior school at that time (although it was a fairly trendy one).

I think you are right to strongly consider reporting it.

Had the ‘cane’ a few times as a kid when I was young but only when I did something really bad. It wasn’t a cane as such IIRC it was a wooden ruler.

Prep school for me.

Plenty of corporal punishment (slipper – no caning by then). Oh, and a distinctly paedo headmaster who openly admitted he fancied one of the (13 y/o) girls.

I remember him patrolling one of the girls dorms well after lights out one night….

…mainly as I was hiding under one of the beds..! 😯

We had corporal punishment at junior school (up to ’82), and to some extent at secondary school (board rubbers at the head, medicine balls thrown at you etc). I think some teachers did enjoy it to be honest, but I wouldn’t consider it abuse.

You only need to look at kids today to see that a smack wouldn’t go amiss from time to time*

*Probably not true 🙂

I understand it was acceptable at the time to smack kids. My concern is that he was a bit of a pervert. Who knows what else he’s been up to. He may even be dead now I don’t know but I just think that I at least need to mention my experience with him. Hopefully, there’s no kids he’s abused the other way

I recieved the cane and the ruler several times, never did me any harmharmharmHARMHARMHARMARMARMHARMN

I don’t recall it ever happening to anyone

however we all knew someone who knew someone who had had the cane, and we all knew that we could get the cane, which in my opinion probably had the desired effect on us 8)

I also remember to this day the calming effect on a secondary school music class of a foot long pipe being brought down on the desk of a boy who was not paying attention 😆

Went to primary school from 83-89 (well lower then middle school in our area). I know that corporal punishment was technically allowed and banned during this time (I remember the discussions on the radio).

The older kids used to talk about getting the “cane” but I think this was more a urban myth and it was long gone from our local schools by then.

Nothing like that used to happen at our school in those times.

I understand it was acceptable at the time to smack kids. My concern is that he was a bit of a pervert.

Yes. This aspect seems to have been overlooked so far in the thread. Even if corporal punishment was in theory legal at the time, beating children for sexual pleasure would still have been sexual assault.

Have you googled the teacher’s name?

Not normal when I was at school – junior school mid to late 80’s.

Although people really did have their mouths washed out with soapy water if they swore or were overly rude to a teacher!

I had board rubbers thrown at me, and was occasionally dragged out of a classroom/to the headteachers office, but physical contact stopped there. Spanking over a knee sounds over the line tbh

with that said, it might just have been some old school teacher who started teaching in the 40s, when it was completely acceptable, and never changed his ways

In primary school I received the strap several times. (Leather belt on hand)

I was caned regularly at boarding school (wouldn’t attend the church services).

I never got the impression that the teacher enjoyed it. It was just the system at the time (’50s & 60s) and from my parents comments less severe than what they had.

I don’t recall it ever happening to anyone

however we all knew someone who knew someone who had had the cane, and we all knew that we could get the cane, which in my opinion probably had the desired effect on us

‘s pretty much what I was going to say.

We had teachers who would fling chalk around, drop hammers, crack rulers etc, but it was never *at* kids directly. A stick of chalk exploding on your desk tended to grab your attention quite quickly.

In secondary school we had a games teacher who would make several kids share one shower cubicle ‘to save water’.
He used to then watch as the kids showered.

Didn’t every secondary school? Not saying that yours didn’t, I’ve no way of knowing of course; but that sort of rumour propagated round every high school I know.

I’ve googled the name but can’t find anything. Think I might drop the council a message, see what comes back.

Does seem very strange.

Not the same but I do distinctly remember one instance in high school, around 1991 when the Physics teacher got a little annoyed with my best mate in one particular lesson.

The teacher cracked and launched the board rubber / chalk duster at him from across the classrooom, in true Kurt Russell “Big Trouble in Little China” style my mate caught the duster and lobbed it straight back at him, connecting squarely on the side of the head.

Awesome shot, but probably not worth the one weeks suspension 😆

I had board rubbers thrown at me,

It was the look of horror on a teacher’s face when he hit, that was the most amusing….oh, sh**, what have I done?!?

Plenty of corporal punishment threatened and used in my youth, but spanking over the knee takes this to a different dimension. Not defensible.

Primary school 79-83. Got the cane (actually a drumstick) for a transgression of the rules once, in first year. I was a good lad after that.

Our headmaster used to keep his cane in a glass cabinet is his office. That was enough of a deterrent.
(This was the 70s, when DISCIPLINE was allowed and you respected your elders!!)

Another teacher used to stand us next to him in class and smack us across the (shorts wearing) legs. We deserved it though. Little bastards we were. Beasts of the field.

At junior school (’78-’82)there was this thing called the ‘Charlie Bat’ that was apparently used for punishment but think it was a myth that acted as a pretty good deterrent, since we all thought it was a rounders bat. Cane was prevalent at secondary school until corporal punishment was banned, and it hurt BTW.

As others have said, I think the ‘over the knee’ part is taking it too far, worth following it up.

To the OP, your headteacher sounds like a bit of a nonce to me…

I can clearly remember the following happening at my village primary school (late 70s/early 80’s)

1. the teacher taking hold of a girls hair and banging her head against the desk

2. a lad being made to wear a gag and being tied to a chair for spitting

3. repeated smacks with a slipper

Theres a few of us have talked about it in hind sight and it was abuse

I once got the ‘tickling stick’ from a teacher for a minor matter, saw him in a pub when I was about 17 and was very tempted to punch him in the face.

I was at secondary school 1980-85 and was caned and strapped and slippered.

At junior school the headmaster used to administer a sinlge cane stroke across the palm.

At no point were my buttocks touched not was I told to lie across his lap. Your experience sounds weird.