Corporal punishment was outlawed in UK state schools in 1986, but prior to that was only administered by senior teachers and had to be logged.
I doubt that any of the “discipline” that went on day in, day out in my small village school, doled out by the three female teachers, was logged. We were slapped, hauled about by our ears, hit on the hand with rulers, had board rubbers thrown at us. I wasn’t one of the prime targets, but was still punished like this for “not paying attention”, whispering in class, not eating all my school dinner, for goodness sake!
I had good parents who never smacked, nor did most of my friends’ parents, and it amazes me now that when we went home with tales of the little boy who was so scared he wet himself, etc, the attitude was “well, he must have done something wrong”. 
Well yes, he couldn’t recite his four times table, and never would be able to as long as those horrors were in charge.
When I went to a grammar school where the worst punishment was 100 lines or detention, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.
I had chalk thrown at me when I was gaping through the classroom window. I had an urge to throw it back 
Boys were over the desk and belted with a galosher !
Some kids are born to be clever, some are not. I wasn't a bright spark and did lessons at my own pace as I was more of a day-dreamer who'd rather watch what went on in the farmers field through the school window than join in with the subject in hand.
What I was listening to always seemed to penetrate though even though my concentration span was hit and miss as my exam paper results were always in the first bunch. I knew I could do better which was always in my school reports but by some quirk of nature, never had the desire to.
Children now are put under far too much pressure at school which is creating an inner fear in children---to do well. All children are different when it comes to learning, some being slower than others, but this doesn't always mean that there's anything amiss with the children.
It's down to the teachers to seek out the ones who fall behind in their work and not leave them to struggle trying to keep up. Nurturing classes are now in many mainstream schools for these children, thankfully, rather than them being " branded " as duffers as once was.
Frustration in a child can give out signals when a child isn't coping at school and this can be mistaken for ADHD which I think is happening, or if a child doesn't want to go to school and displays a meltdown. Best thing is to sit down with the child and ask what it is that's troubling them. Nine times out of ten it's because they can't either understand what the lesson's about and is scared to ask or they can't keep up.
Children's brains and their way of thinking or trying to work things out are very complex, made all the worse either if parents are too busy to bother or the background is sketchy. Either way it'll affect the child's learning ability.
Life itself today is high-speed and not leisurely as it was in the 40's/ 50's so it's not surprising that little notice can be given individually to a child. How has it got to this stage ? Why ?
Our own Ruby-Lou has been in a private Therapeutic Residential Home for over a year now after having wreaked havoc in the home and among her siblings before we eventually got help after years of psychiatric appointments etc., then my GD was blamed for being a " bad mother " and had all her children removed. She was going through looking after a very sick partner at the time up until his death, trying to reason with a child who was out of control, then because she had a breakdown, that was that and still is.
Nobody has time to listen any more 
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