As you can see in the 1979-80 term, 140 pupils received the cane (or other such punishments). That is more than one every two days. So what sort of heinious crimes were the boys caned for. Here's a small selection :-
Bad behaviour at Finchley at the time was met with a completely random and arbitary approach. It all depended on which teacher caught you. The better ones such as John Shutler would sit you down and talk to you about your behaviour. He caught me writing obscenities about his wife on the toilet wall (she was also a quite attractive teacher). His remedy? He arranged for me to redecorate the toilets at half term, paying for the paint out of my own pocket. He knew that I would have been expelled and I am eternally grateful for the sensible lesson he taught.
I wonder how many of the boys caned for gambling, smoking or talking in class were cured by a sound thrashing. I don't recall anyone saying "thats it for me". A couple of the teachers took a far more pragmatic view to smoking and would just pinch your fags (I suspect certain teachers contracted lung cancer entirely at the expense of the pupils).
I have one observation. The peak years for canings appear to be the Neil Kelly era - 1975 - 1979. Several years ago, my company took a boy on work experience from FCHS. As we were making the arrangements, I told the school secretary that I was an old boy of the school. She enquired when. I replied 1974-1978. She glumly announced "Oh we call that the dark period". She went on to assure me that the school was much better now.
Does Corporal punishment work? When I transferred to Orange Hill and realised that things were dealt with in sensible balanced and rational way, I concluded no. Reading this document has not changed that belief. I got my children to read this document. Suffice to say that in the age of childline they were truly shocked
My brother attended this school in the really bad old days when it was a Grammar school, and they had some sort of fearsome punishement called the ?tolley? He has always refused to set foot in the place since the day he left. But all is very different now: my son goes there and has received an excellent, all round education, in stark contrast to the pressure loaded, bullying regime at certain selective boys schools in the borough, always held up by our Tory councillors as proof of Barnet's marvellous academic record.
ReplyDeleteHi I’m desperate to get in touch with the author of this blog,it is extremely important.
ReplyDeleteThere is an email link in the sidebar of the desktop, or follow me and DM on Twitter @barneteye
ReplyDeleteI was lucky enough to pass my 11plus and attended from 1956 till 1961 and corporal punishment was the only way for the school with so few TEACHERS and so many BOYS to maintain order .Class sizes exceeded 40 and minor issues dirty shoes, no Ties or Caps running in the wrong place arriving late or no homework would usually result in detention .
ReplyDeleteSerious items like fighting , lighting Fireworks .or creating a disturbance
could result in the whole school being detained on the playground in the pouring rain until the likely cause of a disturbance was identified ( usually the 4th Form.
On one occasion a Not very Popular Teacher of English was injured by a Magnesium -ignited mini-bomb in a small glass jar which had been placed at the bottom of the steps leading to the then Chapel and covered with leaves .
the Teacher having been alerted by 2 prefects suspecting they were preventing a fight had moved to the edge of the parapet and turned to see what 300 boys were looking and at that moment his cassockb lew over his head and he was covered in leaves and some glass fragments
absence of any confession resulted in the Whole school being put in detention .and if my memory serves me right everyone up to the 6th Form (who were mostly prefects who could issue you with punishment ticket to be taken to see your housemaster at the lunch-break) who would decide what punishment if any was appropriate..
In this instance the whole school was put on detention hour for each year
rising to hours for year 5.
In addition the whole school was to be flogged 4 strokes for year 4 and 5 2strokes for year 2 and 3 and one for the 1st year
Parents were written to let them know and 3 parents objected saying they did not believe in corporal punishment and were invited to find alternative schools for these boys
The punishments were justified received by these words
Many of you will have had nothing to do with this incident but there were just as many witnesses all of whom refused to identify the culprits so you are all jointly responsible and some form of punishment must be expected All of you innocent or guilty should accept these punishments for things that you should have done and had gotten away with , or school work that was submitted late or not up to standard or behaving badly whilst in school uniform thereby damaging the school reputation.
Cast you mind back and remember all of for the things you should have done or could have done better and by accepting these punishments will help make you a better man
The tool of discipline varied according the House you were in and the preference of the per.son carrying out the punishment
Canon Parsons used a heavy Walking stick told you to flip up your blazer
whilst you bent forward ( to reveal if there was anything hidden in your trousers ) and delivered two quick blows that resulted in 2 bruises on both cheeks
The Tolley was similar to an oversized stiff leather shoe sole fastened at the heel end to a wooden handle and was designed like a trebuchet so the maximum velocity was achieved. Usually one hand was supported by the other and held in a frontal position so that the centre of one hand and the tips of the supporting fingers and thumbs would also be impacted. depending on the severity of the "offence" halfway through you had to swap hands. Very occasionaly unsupported hands in a crucifix posture
was required but it was less effective and made absorbing the impact easier
was inflicted at the point of impact