Regarding the school itself, relatively little information is available. It appears to have begun as a state secondary modern school for girls before following the common pattern of conversion into a mixed comprehensive school around 1973. In 1984 it adopted the name Bootle High School, and the institution was eventually closed and demolished in 2010. According to former pupils, the headmistress during the period attended by Beryl and Angela was Mrs Griffiths. Unfortunately, I have been unable to uncover any further reliable detail.
One former pupil recalled: “I remember him striking me with a ruler.”
I also discovered references to teachers at Somerville administering punishment by striking pupils on the legs. However, I was unable to establish precise dates for these incidents. Given the small number of cases identified — only three in total, one of them shared — there is insufficient evidence to determine any consistent disciplinary pattern. What has become noticeable, however, is that there appears to be considerably less information available concerning corporal punishment in primary schools than in secondary schools.
You are correct that all four girls were punished together. One former pupil later recounted the incident as follows:
“I remember that teacher caning me frequently. Mrs Steward was our teacher for three consecutive years, and I disliked her greatly. I recall that Franny, Jackie, Ann and I were caned on our legs on our final day there, and Franny seized the cane from the teacher and struck her back with it. I do not think I have ever laughed so much.”
During the course of my research I have encountered many accounts of pupils, and occasionally parents, retaliating physically against teachers. Naturally, not every story can be accepted without question. In this particular instance, however, given that it was Franny’s final day at the school, the account may well contain an element of truth.
It is somewhat surprising that, when commenting upon a photograph which was presumably of the school stage, Beryl remarked only: “I remember Angela and I being caned on that stage.”
Had I myself experienced such a punishment publicly before the entire school, I suspect I should have regarded it as a highly memorable event. One can easily imagine a pupil recalling it with a mixture of embarrassment and defiance: “Look at me — I was considered so unruly that the authorities felt compelled to cane me publicly before the whole school.”
Of course, I was never that sort of pupil. The most notable disciplinary incident of my own school career fell far short of such an experience. Perhaps, however, Beryl belonged to a more rebellious type of pupil for whom such events were almost commonplace and therefore scarcely worthy of comment.
Your research is extremely thorough and makes for fascinating reading. I attended school in the North West and was a pupil at one of the schools you identified. I was particularly surprised to discover that girls at my school had been subjected to corporal punishment, including caning and slippering by male teachers.
Until now, I had always believed that girls at my school were exempt from such punishments. Evidently I was mistaken. The discovery also caused me to wonder whether my elder sister had ever been punished during her time there. She once mentioned seeing a single plimsoll shoe in the physical education mistress’s cupboard, although she always insisted that only boys received the cane or the slipper.
That is a very interesting observation. Were the girls who reported being caned or slippered at the school pupils there at the same time as you? You are perhaps in a fortunate position, as you could speak directly with former pupils and learn more about these events.
I too have been surprised by some of the recollections shared by former pupils from my own boys’ grammar school, including several individuals whom I knew personally. Although the broad picture accords with my own memories, many specific details were entirely unexpected.
You mention your surprise at learning, through the researcher’s careful documentation, that girls at your school were also subjected to corporal punishment, sometimes administered by male teachers.
This is an important point, and one which has been raised before. In general, girls were often more inclined than boys to conform to expected standards of behaviour. During the period when corporal punishment remained commonplace in schools, boys would frequently provoke teachers deliberately, afterwards recounting the incident with a degree of pride among their friends. Girls, by contrast, seldom behaved provocatively in such a manner. If they incurred corporal punishment, they were more likely to feel embarrassed or ashamed, and consequently tended to keep the matter private.
Furthermore, many schools maintained a culture in which girls were treated with greater discretion than boys. A teacher might openly announce that a boy was to receive punishment and administer it before the class. In the case of girls, however, particularly in secondary schools, punishment was often carried out privately. A quiet request to remain behind after lessons, or to report elsewhere later, could suffice, without any public declaration of what was to occur.
As a consequence, the corporal punishment of girls often remained largely invisible, even to fellow pupils within the same school. Only with the passage of time, and the emergence of social communication in later years, have many women begun to speak openly about punishments that they once regarded with considerable shame and secrecy. It is now becoming apparent that substantially more girls were subjected to school corporal punishment than had previously been assumed.
