Smacking at school 80s

[Ilostit]

Leading on from another thread about the 90s. I was prob about 6-7 so 1985-1987 ish and I was smacked by my headteacher. It only happened once. I don’t remember why (I was a very well behaved child but came from a troubled house and I may have played up if things were bad at home).

I was called into the office called a naughty girl and smacked.

I hate that it’s one of my memories from childhood. My parents never physically abused me. That Headteacher is the only person to have ever hit me.

Was anyone else hit at school in the 80s?

I remember standing on the playing field in my vest and navy knickers 🙄for PE .1960’s. Said shhh to the boy next to me as we’d been told not to talk . So of course I got caught and smacked on my thigh , I still remember the injustice of it . Also been literally put over my fathers knee and proper spanked . No idea what I’d done to deserve that , I was a very quiet little girl .
Thank goodness some things have changed !

I don’t remember it, but I think I started just after it was banned. I remember my father telling me that none of his family got any corporal punishment all through primary in the 50’s/60’s as my grandad went down and scared the shit out of a male teacher who beat my 5yo auntie. That probably happened more than we think, a lot of parents would not have stood for it even then.

I used to get strapped at school for the most ridiculous things.
I swear this isnt bravado but I didnt give shit. I'd rather that than detention.
As long as you warmed your hands up it didnt hurt. We got three strokes on each hand.
The trick was to stare at the deputy straight in the eye and not let your face crack!🤣🤣

My parents didnt smack me.
I only lightly tapped one of my sons on his hand with an emphasis on the word no when he tried to something dangerous.
I wssnt humilated, shamed or anything at school and I have never given it another thought, only when it comes up in conversation like this. It wasn't character changing or anything.
There was never anything like a smack across the face or anything like that.That is outrageous to me.

Yes, 1985 or 86, a teacher smacked me with a ruler across the hands in front of the class. Still have memories of running out the class in tears afterwards.

I remember being dragged into the toilets by a teaching assistant. They were having building work done in there and I had a real phobia of something they had in there. I was in reception class, had only been in school a few weeks and I was hyperventilating and struggling out of fear. As I was being hauled by the wrists because it was "time to use the toilet, you stupid little girl", one of the other teaching assistants elbowed me in the head, quite deliberately and said "don't you wish it was a few years back and you could bloody give them something to cry for??" Then when they actually had dragged me into the toilets, they stood there and laughed and imitated me as I had a full on panic attack.

This was 1988, I was already being very harshly treated by my dad at home and I remember feeling absolutely terrified.

Mrs Avenall and Mrs Hill. I can't imagine how awful you were to 4 year olds in the years you were allowed to abuse them. It's been 34 years and I remember everything about that interaction. I can only suppose there are lots of people aged 40 and older who hate you

I started school in 1973. Around a year later I was sitting on the floor in assembly when the little girl next to me talked to me. The witchy y2 teacher came over and slapped my legs for talking. I told my mum but I don't know whether or not she believed me. I was a very obedient child (made up for it since then!)

I moved primary school and in 1979 the girls had to do bloody shitty needlework but the boys did craft and problem-solving. My dad, although he only has daughters, was always keen on us being able to do practical tasks like wiring a plug or changing a fuse so I really wanted to do the boys' activities but wasn't allowed. I hated needlework and the horrible miserable cow that "taught" it. One day my mum had been quite poorly and she hadn't given me some material for whatever shite we were meant to be doing. The needlework cow slapped my hand for telling the truth. When I came out of school, I told my mum. Normally my parents would take the teacher's side but she had an odd look in her eyes. She made me wait in the car whilst she went into school to "deal with her". My mum wasn't violent but very forceful. The needlework bag left me well alone after that.

At secondary school, our elderly Latin teacher used to throw chalk. She was a bloody good shot with it in that she could aim for the side of the desk closest to her so it whizzed over the head of the inattentive girl. Luckily she liked me; she was more bark than bite, but she had a soft spot for anyone who tried hard, even if they weren't very good. The girl in front of me hated her and hated Latin so used to cut up her exercise book and make paper doilies. One lesson the teacher motioned to me to move to the side and duck, then lobbed the wooden board duster onto the front corner of this girl's desk. I was terrified.

I'm a teacher now. I send people out of my room, but mostly it's so we can both calm down. I've been in my current school now for 20 years and have only once asked for a child to be removed. He was a damaged kid but racist sexist lies don't work for me. The Head was brilliant - once he had gone, the other kids were amazing.

Yes one my first memories of reception was teacher having a boy over her knee on hitting him so 1980. The cane was abolished before secondary school but the was there in primary. Plus random pinching ears and dragging kids, throwing things like board dusters at kids heads. To be fair most kids were smacked at home so it was as normal. In fact more likely get extra smack at home if you complained for being punished in school.

I would have started school in 1986 and my reception teacher was renowned for a liking of smacking the back of kids legs. Never came across another teacher in the rest of my school life with even a hint of the same reputation.

Blows my mind when I’m picking dd up from school now. I look at those tiny reception kids and couldn’t imagine a fully grown woman inflicting that on them. My DD’s teachers have, so far, been universally lovely thankfully. The mind boggles on why some people went into teaching.

My son, born at the end of 1979, was never once smacked at school. I would certainly have had something to say if he had. It is just so wrong. Children need their parents to fight their corner if necessary. We are not in the 1950s/60s any more when corporal punishment was considered (by some), to be the norm, though I have to say I was at school then and, apart from the odd smack on the knuckles with a ruler, none of my fellow pupils were punished in that way.

At secondary school 1984-1988. Naughty kids got the 'strap' off the headteacher. Other DC were slapped across the face by the biology teacher, had board rubbers hurled at their head by the history teacher or kicked off a stool by the art teacher. Quite a common occurrence really. No one really batted an eyelid.

Bit of a rough school though. It made the NOTW headline in the same decade when the French teacher was caught taking porno photos after school with the music teacher in the classroom.

I was at school in the 70’s and 80’s and we were smacked and slippered.

I remember in primary the head smacking a boy in public in the gym, in secondary it was in private

So awful. I’m sorry to bring up so many awful memories but the 90s thread triggered me and I remember it all so clearly.

My god, this is horrific. I was born in 82 so would have started school in around 86 I guess - no one laid a hand in any of us. Although I can imagine the headmaster of our junior school doing so. He favoured public humiliation in front of the school. My brother had additional needs that weren’t diagnosed for years - I remember him being one of the kids hauled up to be stood in front of assembly and told he was rubbish, disgusting, all of that. I don’t remember why. Appalling. He was in year 3.

My DS is now in year 1 - he has ASD and I don’t doubt that a generation or two ago, he’d have been on the receiving end of a good few physical attacks from his teachers. I can’t imagine any one of his teachers ever doing any such thing though. Thank god times have changed.

DH was born in 78 and remembers his mum having a cane in the cupboard for him and his brother! And either he or his big brother was slapped at primary school for some minor misdemeanour. I was so shocked when he told me about his mum, especially.

Catholic primary school in the early 80s. Smacking was normal. I was smacked for being a bit out of line while queueing to go in after break. And punched on the arm because the heavy classroom door got a bit out of control and banged shut as I came in. If you were considering very bad you could be sent for the slipper and juniors could be sent for the cane, though apparently your parent had to come in for that. The nun in charge brought the cane in to class when we were top infants, swished it about a bit and warned us that from September we could get it. The whole place was controlled by fear really not respect or manners or any of the other things that people like to claim about the good old days.

We had a mad maths teacher who would randomly throw a wooden board rubber at someone's head if they annoyed him (he was an amazingly good shot, too) 1981

It was common for boys to get the cane for misdemeanours but girls didn't. Detentions were the usual punishment.

Or deducting of House points from your House (this was an Inner London comprehensive school and no one gave a toss about the Houses competition) think the head teacher believed we were the bloody Chalet School or Malory Towers

When in year 5 at primary so 9/10 years old in 1986/87, my teacher would repeatedly smack a boy on the bottom for not doing his work, not paying etc. I hated seeing it happen. She would use such force that, I can still see in my mind's eye, he would lurch forward with each impact.

Now as an adult, parent and trainee teacher, I can see he had global development delay and ADHD.

I do not know what happened to the boy once we left year 6.

A couple of things have come back over the day. In junior school we had a teacher who couldn't cope with some of the boys and she'd take them to the back of the classroom and staple them to the wall by their shirts. One boy tore his shirt, questions were asked at home, and she stopped doing it after that.

My grandad was a primary school headmaster and very old school, but fair and kind. He could be stern and loud but hated the cane or hitting children. If two boys were found fighting, then rather than use physical punishment, he'd summon the school to gather in the playground, put full size adult boxing gloves on the boys and tell them to fight it out, with the school watching. Of course, they couldn't and everyone ended up laughing, including the boys. He never told us about that, it came up when the old school was demolished and they did a book of old pupil's memories. It was just the sort of thing he would have done.

I was smacked at Primary School by the Headmistress, can't remember why! This was about 1972. In Secondary school only the boys were caned and it stopped in about 1980. It seems so odd now.

We still had caning in our school and in some circles it was seen as a badge of honour. My late brother-in-law was a frequent flier. We also had a maths teacher who had a deadly aim with a board rubber.

We banned 1986 but not till 2008 in private schools.

Is still legal in 15 USA states how progressive.

I was at primary school in the 70's and I will never forget being thumped in the back by an utter bitch of a teacher because I couldn't thread the sewing machine needle whilst in her sewing class.

At secondary in the 80's we had a couple of psycho maths masters who enjoyed throwing blackboard rubbers at pupils heads if they dared to look bored.

I had one teacher for two separate years. She put a group of us on the ‘dunce’ side of the class, a line of desks alongside the wall. She regularly called us up and hit us with the ruler on the knuckles and slapped us in the face. One girl in particular was hit with the back of the teachers hand so that her engagement ring would leave marks across her cheek. Another guy had a dunce had put on his head!

My mother was down at that school constantly complaining, the teachers husband to be was vice principal and then eventually principal so she got away with it.
She is now a principal in a special school.

This happened in the 80’s

My father was beaten to a pulp when he was a child, he actually has hearing loss in because the headmaster beat him until his ears bled

70s. Getting smacked on back of legs with a ruler or across knuckles was not unusual for me. Others got worse. If you were really bad you got the cane.
But we read and watched eg Oliver Twist so no one gave it much thought. Books like Enid Blyton were total escapism.
It's the dyslexic kids labelled thick that are the real victims