SCHOOL RULES:
• Lessons take place in a traditional classroom furnished with desks, a blackboard and many other authentic school items – a dunce’s cap, for example. A selection of canes and other implements of correction are on display at all times.

• Pupils are encouraged to wear their own uniforms, though some assistance in this respect may be available.

• Pupils must stand up whenever a teacher enters the classroom. Failure to do so
will result in immediate punishment, and the same is true of talking in class, which is completely forbidden.

• Pupils who wish to say something must put their hands up and wait until the teacher gives them permission to speak.

• Offences which are particularly frowned on are fidgeting, inattentiveness, smirking, untidiness and slovenly handwriting.

• Both boys and girls must be neatly dressed at all times, and girls in particular are expected to conduct themselves in a demure fashion.

• Major misdemeanours, such as answering back or bringing the school into disrepute, will be dealt with in an uncompromising manner.

• Miss Harding is renowned for her ability to make the punishment fit the crime. For minor offences, this may involve such relatively mild forms of discipline as writing lines or being made to stand in the corner. But in cases where there has been serious misconduct, corporal punishment is virtually inescapable. In particular, the cane – where appropriate – is applied accurately, unsparingly and altogether unforgettably.