May 21st, 2019
A chance find leads two girls into trouble.
By Richard Campbell
My name is Jenny Campbell and I wanted to share my memory of the cane, partly to show how Amanda Carey and I became such good friends, and partly to share a very memorable chapter in my life.
We met in the sixth form of St Jude’s. Both of us joined the school after doing well at our GCSE’s, both on a scholarship. The majority of the sixth year had been in the school from age 11, so, although we were made to feel welcome, it was going to take time to assimilate.
The first year went really well. We enjoyed the teaching style and made new friends. It was during the mocks for A levels that we got into serious trouble. Both of us had turned 18 in the winter term, so Christmas was fun and we probably spent too much time partying and not enough time revising for the mock exams in January.
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May 21st, 2019
A final interview with the headmistress reveals an awkward truth
By Richard Campbell
“Ah, Jane, do come in and have a seat.”
It was the last few days of the summer term and Jane knew that Ms Taylor, the headmistress, liked to meet all the upper sixth girls before they left the school, to discuss future plans for university etcetera. Even so, there was always a concern when meeting the Head for a chat.
The Head’s study was surprisingly modern for such a traditional school. The school itself had been open for over a hundred years and had an excellent reputation academically, but also for the behaviour of its pupils. The school buildings reminded many of a gothic novel, but the atmosphere inside was warm and welcoming for both the day girls and the borders. Having said that, the girls were expected to behave at all times, and integrity was valued as much as academic excellence.
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May 20th, 2019
Some pranks have a painful price
By Richard Campbell
I left St Joan’s on the 8th July. The last day at the school always meant playing pranks and having some fun. Someone wrapped a teacher’s car in brown paper. Wet sponges were thrown, and a bit of a water fight ensued. It was the usual harmless fun with the teachers turning a blind eye or occasionally getting involved. It was, however, an unwritten rule that no one was to get hurt and no damage to school property.
For my part, I decided the fountain in the school courtyard needed some attention. Pink bubble bath! After about an hour there was quite a lot of foam floating around and the water was bright pink. One of the teachers got it turned off but it caused quite a commotion.
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May 5th, 2019
A girl has a difficult request.
By Kenny Walters
Tori Jackson got to the end of the corridor and looked round the corner towards the school secretaries’ area. It was nearly deserted with just two of her fellow twelfth-grade students, employed part-time to help out, tidying up and filing stuff away ready for the weekend. Tori paused, waiting for some moments in the hope one of the regular secretaries would appear, but none did. She looked at the clock; it was twenty to five.
“Oh, Tori! Can I help?” The nearer fellow student, a pleasant enough girl called Amy Fellows, looked up from wiping a cloth over a computer screen.
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April 17th, 2019
A senior girl is punished at school and again at home.
By Gillian Howard
My Name is Wendy Harrison and I had just received my A level results which were not been as good as expected. I was therefore given permission to retake my final year again.
I attended a mixed grammar school in the west country. The year was 1967 and I had completed 7 years at the school, where corporal punishment was administered for any deviation of the rules. Along with my 3 best friends, I had gone through my entire school life without any physical punishment.
At the time, you were considered to be a child until you were 21, and I was informed that I could return to school but would still be eligible to be punished and I would also have to wear sixth form uniform. I had to see the Headmaster on my first morning and was told in no uncertain terms that any slacking on my behalf would not be tolerated.
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April 15th, 2019
A new deputy headmaster starts a new regime
By Brian Melville
Fifty year old James Steward was a man of five foot eight inches, with grey hair, brown eyes, and a rather big stomach. He entered his study at Sydmore College for Girls on the south coast of England where he transferred to about ten years ago when he was promoted to Deputy Headmaster by the Department of Education. At the time, the only available position was at the all girls school.
He was a formidable, strict but fair, man, and loved by all three hundred and twenty-seven girls at the school, as well as all thirty-six members of staff.
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April 12th, 2019
A girl wants to make a friend, but has a strange way of showing it.
By Jane Fairweather
“Poor Anne has had to go home. I am afraid her nerves are not as good as they might be, which is always a risk when a sensitive girl tries for the highest level of exams.” Miss Frazer observed rather wryly to Priscilla Smith-Jones, her deputy head girl and the only other present member of the Scholarship Sixth, which specifically targeted places at the Cambridge women’s colleges.
“I am jolly sorry to hear that, Miss.” Priscilla stated demurely.
In fact, she was well aware of Anne’s panic attacks of the last week, which in Priscilla’s opinion had been cowardice, pure and simple. The stupid cow had kept sitting in her room crying and saying she could not possibly pass the Cambridge scholarship exams. And now it had finally led to her leaving the school.
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April 4th, 2019
A girl gets herself and her best friend in trouble.
By Brian Melville
St Johns Secondary School was situated in the east of England and was known for its strict discipline policy as it was the only school in the area where corporal punishment was still administrated to both boys and girls.
As Venessa Barnes stood next to her best friend, Melissa Chase, with the tips of their noses firmly pressed against the cream coloured wall of the headmaster’s study, she couldn’t believe that she had been so stupid to convince her best friend to not only skip their mathematics class earlier, but they also skipped school the previous day, and wrote fake sick notes from their mothers.
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April 2nd, 2019
The next in the series. Helen returns to her mentor for more motivational discipline.
By PW
After the weekend, at the beginning of December, when Helen and her Mother, Penny, had invited James Simmons around to their house to administer motivational corporal punishment, Penny felt matters had gone well beyond what she was personally comfortable with and decided it was not going to happen to her again. Consequently, the Brown Family House was taken out of bounds, but Helen understood her Mother’s stand. She was a married woman, and it should never have happened there in the first place. However, the original stated arrangement between her daughter and her daughter’s ex-headmaster, where she was visiting him to receive discipline purely for the purpose of keeping her focused on her studies, was a basis to which Mrs Brown had already agreed and therefore saw no reason to try to stop Helen seeing him again. In reality, she knew she probably couldn’t anyway, as Helen was of legal age to determine what she could do for herself and, secondly, Helen had argued, vehemently and convincingly, that there was nothing sexual, no dark motives, no money, nothing at all else involved; Helen went and saw him, took a hard caning which she said she enjoyed, then left again, and that was all. Mrs Brown felt she didn’t have any sound reasons on which to try to dissuade her and, anyway, having partaken herself, it was hypocritical to even try.
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March 26th, 2019
A young man takes up a teaching post
by Hilary Wilmington
I found this memoir among a box-full of papers in my boss’s office after his untimely death. I say ‘untimely’, which it was in a way, but he lived to a good age. Since it was his own business, he kept on working to the end, to the occasional frustration of his employees.
His widow, who was devoted to him, as he was to her, asked me to destroy all the papers in his office. She wanted nothing kept. She was an impetuous person. I managed to persuade her to let me go through them for her, in case there was anything important of a financial or scientific nature that should be preserved. That was when I came across it. I’m sure she had no knowledge of its existence and I did not tell her about it.
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