Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Marty's lavatorial reminiscences on the thread down below (it gets worse) triggered a surreal thought process in my mind that led to punishment drills at CH.

Who else remembers the Nell Todd Art School drill? You had to go off, armed with a wheelbarrow and spade, scour the fields surrounding the School and bring back a designated number of cow pats. Quite what Nell did with the cow pats I don't know! Perhaps she used them as manure for her garden.

There also used to be School Drills on the asphalt between Lamb and the Manual School. Miscreants would gather at noon and run lap after lap under the supervision of "Sarge".

When did School Drills stop? Watching Rock School they have it easy these days soft beds (I actually liked the old CH beds with boards only problem was length if you were 6 foot plus) blah, blah, blah......

Aaahh, drills.

Assemble outside the old gym, and run 3 circuits of the gym/station/bocker's club route....

I seem to be obsessed by punishments today. Where's Miss Whiplash when you need her?

In my first year in Maine A we used to be given loops, miles and double miles as running punishments and a monitor (Lloyd or Fordham generally) would accompany us on a bicycle.

How do they punish naughty kids these days at CH?

When I was in Maine A (1992-5), Mr Kemp used to supervise house drills which normally happened on a Thursday (I think) and involved running around the Sicker on Infrimary Drive...

School drills used to be down by the old sports centre and involved running around the 'field' between the sports centre, the station and the Bocker's social club... I think this was phased out on my UF...

School drills today involve moving furnitture around Big School normally...

Mid A 15 wrote: How do they punish naughty kids these days at CH?

A cosy chat with a counsellor about "inclusive behaviour"?

Nail 'em up, I say. Nail some sense into them.....

Talking to the girls in Coleridge B last year.

They were horrified to discover we could be beaten, and just as amazed that a monitor could ORDER you to run a mile or a quarter.

I got the impression that a 'quiet chat' seems to be the order of the day nowadays.

On this theme, I see Tony Bliars lot is going to re-introduce powers for teachers to use 'Reasonable Force' in State schools to control unruly children. ABOUT TIME TOO !!

We get rather tame punishment nowadays. Disciplinary (spend 45 minutes in complete boredom, for medium offences such as fighting),
Academic (Not doing prep after 2nd request, doing the prep on a Saturday night), Drill DT (getting up on a Sunday morning, marching into breakfast and picking up litter). And the new initiative, stay in your room for 2 hours on a Saturday night for dossing your active!

And they wonder why the classes are out of control.

Nyort wrote:We get rather tame punishment nowadays. Disciplinary (spend 45 minutes in complete boredom, for medium offences such as fighting),
Academic (Not doing prep after 2nd request, doing the prep on a Saturday night), Drill DT (getting up on a Sunday morning, marching into breakfast and picking up litter). And the new initiative, stay in your room for 2 hours on a Saturday night for dossing your active!

And they wonder why the classes are out of control.

Fighting a MEDIUM offence ?

I got six of the cane for retalliating against a house bully. Mind you - I did break his nose.

Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention the numerous pointless 'cards'.

Yellow card - sign in with a teacher at every lesson, and at all meals. For fighting and actually harming a person properly, or insulting somebody very tastelessly with knowledge it is tasteless (e.g. insulting somebody's dead mother)
Attend a disciplinary

Red card - Alcohol, stealing, smoking, serious fighting (breaking bones), serious bullying (driving someone to the brink of suicide). Sign in with a teacher every lesson, and every 45 minutes thereafter. Attend a double disciplinary.

Blue card - I know only 1 person who has had this.
Drugs, serious stealing, smoking after receiving red card.

Permanent gating to house except for meals, lessons and chapel. Sign in every 30 minutes. 2 double disciplinaries. Last warning before being kicked out of school (although these days, people seem to get 5 'last chances' before expulsion).

Basically, not very restricting or punishing really.

palgsm93 wrote:

Great Plum wrote:When I was in Maine A (1992-5)

Well, it was Maine B I think you'll find

Poor Plum is going senile already!

Oh do be quiet!

Sounds like a bit of a laugh down at CH now then?

I am horrified that serious bullying (to brink of suicide) is classed as a red card offence. A piece of paper is hardly a solution but its consistent with the sadly familiar 'lip service' attitude.

I don't see the problem with drills per se as they were so irritating.

A contemporary Victorian report upon the school (Christ's Hospital) states that flogging with the birch was reserved for more serious offences. The sentence was enacted by the beadle (not a master, but a sort of policing authority within the school) who applied the strokes to the bare bottom of the culprit. Twelve was an absolute maximum, four a minimum, and the normal number eight. The birch itself was described as 'slight, not a very formidable weapon.'

Some idea of the frequency of 'brushings' in Victorian times is provided by this same report: in the years between 1873 and 1876, forty floggings were ordered. When the headmaster of the school was asked whether it might be possible to do without the birch he replied that 'for some kinds of offences, such as indecency, bullying and the like, the birch is a very effectual way of aweing the boys.'

And you think you had it bad! But really this was pretty lenient, the birch weighed in at 3.5 ounces at CH whereas it weighed a massive 12 at Eaton and most of the punishments were given by senior boys. Can you imagine the sadistic cruelty that must have gone on?

Seems pretty lenient compared with flogging in prisons, which was abolished only within my life-time.

There were two types.

Birching, usually reserved for young offenders, and the 'cat' generally applied by the biggest prison officer for adult prisoners for offences, usually assault against prison staff.

shoz wrote: And you think you had it bad! But really this was pretty lenient, the birch weighed in at 3.5 ounces at CH whereas it weighed a massive 12 at Eaton and most of the punishments were given by senior boys. Can you imagine the sadistic cruelty that must have gone on?

Do you mean 'Eton'?

Anyway, as everyone knows, it's not how big it is, it's what you do with it that matters.

Sit downs in Barnes A. Cannings in Col B. Fines for smoking. Can't remember much else.