What were school punishments like in the 70s/80s

We had daily assembly in the school hall and girls sat on their benches on a polished wooden floor. Down either side of the hall were seats. On one side - the left - sat the teachers. On the other side were the prefects. Teachers and prefects stared along the rows of girls, watching to see if they could catch anyone talking. If you were caught talking or giggling, the punishment was to stand up and remain standing with your head up and hands by your sides for the rest of the assembly, while everyone else remained seated.

I was made to stand up once with my friend for giggling during prayers. Stayed with me since.

Always felt like a power trip to me. We were at a Grammar school and with a crazy head mistress. Quite often came in late and got detention which was preferable to me.

The does make me feel old.
I was teaching in secondary schools from 1970 so we are talking about my daughters’ education here!
My own education was in the 50’s and 60’s- practically prehistoric with offences like painting on the cave walls or teasing the school tyrannosaurus.

Me too RosieandherMaw I started work in ‘63 so school for me was same as you 50 s and early 60 s
We didn’t have any corporal punishment we would get sent to the headmisstresses office for a dressing down and that was the worst it got but we quaked in our shoes at the thought of it
I remember being told the head misses would want to talk to me tomorrow ( I had been seen out not wearing my school hat and crime of the century a boy had his arm around me )
I feigned a bad stomach and didn’t go to school the next day which of course achieved nothing as I got the dressing down the day after 🤣

I was at school in the seventies, but I don’t remember any attempts at humiliating pupils deliberately. If we were late for assembly our names were taken by the teacher allocated to be there, and we were expected to wait in reception until it was finished. If we were late three times or more in a term a letter was sent to our parents, which I thought was fair.

Our form teachers patrolled uniform, it was quite strict. We went to our forms for 10 minutes after assembly. If you transgressed you were spoken to at the end of the form period before you went to your first lesson, but not in front of everybody else - I was one of those who tried it on frequently, nail varnish, coloured socks, skirt rolled up, make up etc., but I never felt picked on because you knew it was coming. We did win a victory on ‘pork pie’ shoes though, which were not regulation uniform - a few of us all wore them at the start of the new term because we hated the regulation shoes - and I still remember the joy when they were deemed acceptable.

I went to senior school 1964-69. Misunderstood a task in history in Yr 7 shouted at in front of the class and made to stand in the corner of the room with my back to everyone for the rest of the lesson, still remember how humiliated I felt he was a bully and a terrible teacher , I love history and learnt nothing.

Board rubbers thrown at you, hit on the hand with rulers . I went to a secondary modern as failed the 11+ I remember most of the teachers telling us we were thick, never be anything because we’d gone there. With the exception of my English teacher who was amazing none of them could teach , it wasn’t until I was an adult I realised they taught there because they were too bad to teach at a decent school. I had to beg to sit some OLevels in stead of all CSE. Our PE teacher was a pervert she watched us walk through the open showers every time we had games.

They did me a favour in the end I was determined to prove I wasn’t stupid and with a degree , masters , and several post grad diplomas I am more qualified than any of them and I did all the study whilst working full time .

My granddaughters have just completed their GCSE exams and don’t realise how lucky they were with their own school . So glad they had a better experience than me. My daughter says I’m a bit bitter about it, I probably am but it was proved years later girls were deliberately failed in the 11+ because it was thought more important for boys to get through .

Sorry I have gone far past the original question

I started work at 15 in 1963 so these years woukd relate to my children, but we too rolled up our school skirts, so some things never change.

Writing lines - such a pointless exercise. There was still corporal punishment when I was at school - the belt - although I never received it. Some teachers seemed to actively take pleasure in belting pupils - and at my high school, some were definitely feared more than others. One teacher even had names for his belts.

I'm so glad I didn't go that school, or even that I didn't teach in any school like that. Public humiliation never works, except as a deterrant, sometimes.

In my very first teaching job, I had to witness one of my pupils being caned by the Headmaster. I can’t recall what he had done, but he was always disobedient.

As a pupil in a girls’ grammar school, there were occasional detentions, but being made to stand up in class was more common. The most public humiliations probably occurred in PE lessons and especially on Sports Day when every girl had to run in at least one race.
Later, as a teacher in such a school, there were far too many petty rules about uniform. Miscreants were mainly dealt with by Heads of Year. The Sports Day humiliations were abolished by a new Head.

I would say the communal showers with the PE teacher watching each girl showering ‘properly’ was pretty high up on the public humiliation scale.

I was born in 63 and was educated at a Catholic school, the staff were brutal.
We would be hit with rulers and regularly humiliated.

My husband boarded from age 7 to 18, he was caned.
No child deserves that but he was very badly behaved!

About 20 years ago one of our sons was in trouble at school as he and his friends made so much noise in their dormitory at 3.00 am, they had woken a housemaster and his family, the master reprimanded them and left the dorm.
The boys thought they had got away very lightly.
Exactly a week later at 2.00 am the master entered the dorm, ushered all the boys into a library and made them write “expectations” for an hour, the amount of time they had disturbed him.
A great punishment calmly delivered that had a huge effect!

RosieandherMaw

The does make me feel old.
I was teaching in secondary schools from 1970 so we are talking about my daughters’ education here!
My own education was in the 50’s and 60’s- practically prehistoric with offences like painting on the cave walls or teasing the school tyrannosaurus.

I am from the same era. We were made to stay behind in the cave for an hour after school if the animal skin we had to wear was too short and showed our knees. We were sometimes allowed to take the class pterodactyl home for half term.

I was at school in the 5Os and 6Os.

I had one punishment for trying to stay in at lunchtime rather than going out in the fresh air, which was to learn a poem.

I only remember one boy being caned - on the hand. That was for being rude to a dinner lady. Rudeness to those who serve was not permitted.

Mostly we behaved well and valued our education. We knew we had been given a chance that our parents and grandparents never had.

It was a grammar school in a working class area.

When I was at Primary School in the late 50s I was hit with a slipper on my bottom by a male teacher in front of the whole class.

I was accused of talking in class when it was the boy sitting next to me. I was far too shy to talk at all!

In first year at secondary school, I had left my 'Dickens Reader' at home and was made to write out a long passage from the said book. It took years to persuade me to read Dickens for pleasure! As a very junior teacher, I was obliged to take a first year class for 'scripture' and as punishment I made a few recalcitrant pupils write out a chapter of Leviticus. I realise that I probably put them off religious studies for good.

PS. That was in the early 60s. Dark ages.

My school years were the 60s by the 70s corporal punishment had mostly ended.

Every Friday afternoon there would be queue of boys waiting for the cane from the deputy head. Interestingly despite dispensing punishment he was a popular teacher, I never did get the wrong side of him, I learned early not to get caught.

It wasn’t the physical punishment that bothered most, it was their parents finding out because they would get it again at home.

I too am a product of the 50s/ 60s. At grammar school in the 50s punishment was usually lines. 100 lines usually beginning ‘I must not…. These were from staff but also the school prefects.
I remember 100 lines ‘ I must not put salt on my rhubarb.’ Since it hadn’t been me who put salt on my crumble, but another student, I thought it most unfair and objected. 100 lines ‘I must not argue with a prefect.’

I left in 79 I remember there was still the threat of the cane from the headmaster. I had respect for people in authority so I only had one detention and I remember sitting in the hall doing maths which I am still rubbish at. I was talking in Biology.
It’s a shame there isn’t that respect anymore among some young people.

Definitely humiliation, whackings with canes & fishing rods, rounders & cricket bats, blackboard rulers and plimsolls, rulers across the palm. Lines, detentions, demoting, dragging by the ear. There were some delinquents at our school. We even had one teacher who had a dunces cap for the slow illiterate kids.

I was in school in the 50s/60s. I remember a teacher hitting me hard on my hand with a ruler for looking out the window. I was only just 5 years old.
In senior school we had a teacher hated by all. It was an all girls grammar school and we think she hated young women. Every lesson she would pick out one person to bully. I think most of us were chosen ones.

DollyRocker

Definitely humiliation, whackings with canes & fishing rods, rounders & cricket bats, blackboard rulers and plimsolls, rulers across the palm. Lines, detentions, demoting, dragging by the ear. There were some delinquents at our school. We even had one teacher who had a dunces cap for the slow illiterate kids.

I am not one who agrees with the lenient attitudes to misbehaving that are seen these days. I would like there to be much more (appropriate) punishment for bad behaviour. But a Dunce’s cap! That is cruel and totally wrong.
I’m not usually easily shocked, but that made me gasp!

RosieandherMaw

The does make me feel old.
I was teaching in secondary schools from 1970 so we are talking about my daughters’ education here!
My own education was in the 50’s and 60’s- practically prehistoric with offences like painting on the cave walls or teasing the school tyrannosaurus.

I got detentions for both those offences and many others.
Detention meant you had to stay behind for an hour
after school and write lines; all the same statement. In dead silence.

200 X "I must not think inappropriate thoughts in the Cathedral" etc.

That's not a joke. BF and I both got detention for thinking in the cathedral.

The Head Mistress had noticed our eyes were open (obviously, so were hers? ) and detected our silent thoughts by telepathy.

She also claimed she could control people by telepathy.

I went to a girls school in the 60s. We used to have skirt inspection. You had to kneel down and the length of your skirt from the floor was measured. Of course, all the skirts were rolled up as soon as possible afterwards.

We only did school from Monday to Friday lunch time. The afternoons were reserved for school choir, games matches and other after school activities. Detentions were an hour on Friday afternoon and you were always given extra work to do.