[West Ender]

If you're going to talk about corporal punishment in schools.........!

I was a good child at primary school, in fact I was a Goody-goody but I was caned 3 times before I reached the age of 11. Once for talking in the cloakroom, once for still singing after the whistle was blown at playtime (I hadn't heard it - because I was singing) and once, at the age of 8, for forgetting to take a pencil to the Art class. Each time it was a stinging blow on the hand with a length of bamboo. It hurt - a lot. I am now firmly convinced that one of the qualifications for teaching in the 1940s and early 50s was a hatred of children, coupled with a predilection for sadism.

At Paddock House I can only remember one incident of mass punishment. My whole class was kept in detention for an hour, after school, by the French teacher. I can't remember why. Half of the girls travelled by bus from Burnley, Nelson and Colne and had to watch the special buses depart without them. God alone knows how they made their way home or what their parents felt like when their daughters didn't arrive home when they should have.

It was a totally different world, back then. I wouldn't go back to it but, and I have to say this, it was a safer and more respecting world than we have today. Discipline was harsh, far too harsh, but it was effective.