I went to a small all-girls private school in Somerset during the 1970s. It was situated in a small village about ten miles from the nearest town and had accommodation for up to thirty boarders, with just over a hundred day girls. Being such a small school meant everyone knew everyone else. Our headmistress, a grey-haired woman in her late fifties taught mathematics and economics, but otherwise she looked after the administration side of things. Her deputy was Miss S, a Somerset lady with a broad accent. Miss S was our games teacher who also taught geography. In her mid-thirties, she was tall with a beautiful face and long flowing blond hair.
Discipline was not especially strict. Warnings were the usual result of any misbehaviour. Anything more serious meant serving a one-hour detention on Monday after school. Very rarely, a girl could earn two detentions in the same week but we were never kept in for two hours. The second hour of detention would be served the following week. All detentions were supervised by Miss S and no one else. I never heard mention of a cane being used, but there were rumours that Miss S kept a plimsoll in her desk drawer.
In my final year I was privileged to be appointed one of four prefects. Prefects were all in their final year at the school and we helped out with some supervisory duties whenever a staff member had to be away for any period of time, we refereed some games and sometimes helped out with administration work alongside the headmistress.
One day I was patrolling the school grounds during lunch break and came across a girl sitting on the grass on her own. She looked to be very sad, almost on the point of tears, so I sat down beside her and asked what the problem was. I guess she was around twelve or thirteen years old. A teacher had caught her cheating during a test and awarded her a one-hour detention. Then another teacher had reprimanded her several times for talking during a lesson and awarded her another one-hour detention, thus meaning she would be in detention for the next two Mondays. On the second Monday, though, she had a prior engagement with her parents and felt she really couldn’t miss it. She just did not know what to do.
I suggested she had a word with Miss S and ask if she could serve the next Monday detention, then miss a week and serve the following week. She seemed a bit doubtful about doing that, so I said I would go with her to see Miss S after school, which did cheer her up a bit. Miss S was sympathetic to her problem and told her to report for detention next Monday and they would sort something out.
I thought no more about it until the following week, I think it was Wednesday, and saw the girl coming towards me in one of the corridors. I naturally asked her if Miss S had been able to accommodate her with changing what should have been her second detention. It seems Miss S had taken her into another room, told her to bend over a desk and given her six whacks with a plimsoll. She was then excused both detentions.
While the girl was a bit shy telling me about it, and had been doubtful about accepting Miss S’s offer, she was very happy at having both detentions cancelled. I’ve always since wondered whether Miss S cancelled other girls’ detentions in the same way, and what I would have done in similar circumstances.
Susan S