NRS-16538 | Punishment Books [Upper Bowman Public School]

Regulations under the Public Schools Act of 1866, adopted by the Council [of Education] 27 February 1867 regulated the punishment of children in schools by stipulating: “In the government of the pupils, all degrading and injurious punishments are to be avoided. The Teacher’s discipline must be mild but firm, his manner kindly, his demeanour cheerful and calculated to gain the confidence of his pupils, and his language marked by strict propriety. While he should overlook no offence, his aim should be to prevent the necessity for punishment by the improvement of the offender.”In relation to corporal punishment the regulations continue: “Corporal punishment should be inflicted in extreme cases only, and then as a last resource; and the teacher must keep a record of the time and place at which pupils were corporally chastised, the amount of such punishment and the nature of the offence.” Uniform stationery soon evolved to enable compliance with these regulations. These punishment books are registers of all cases of corporal punishment given to pupils. The information they detail includes: the pupil’s name; age; nature of offence; amount of punishment (e.g. number of strokes); by whom sent; the date of the punishment; and by whom the punishment was inflicted.The current series records no punishments as having been inflicted between the end of 1937 and 27th October 1960, and again from that date until March 1969, although the nearly annual initialling of the books by the Inspector indicates that the record continued current; indeed, in several instances it is explicitly stated that there had been no cases of corporal punishment in a given year. The first volume in the series ceased to be used after 1966, despite still being largely blank, and the second and final volume records the school’s last case of corporal punishment in March, 1969.