No wonder Charles was so unhappy at school

The old saying “ The British Empire was won on the playing fields of Eton” is only part of the story. It was the whole supremacist ideology of the upper classes. It persisted well into the 1960s and beyond, public schools were tough places, obedience to the system was thrashed into you. The regime in state schools was not that much different individuality was not encouraged it was all about the “team”.

Many state schools could be harsh places as well, although unlike a boarding school, pupils could go home at the end of the day and prefects, if the schools used them, had very limited powers. There were prefects in my first secondary school whose main duties were to watch the dinner queues and report any misbehaviour to the heads of house. Unlike many public schools, they had no power to discipline pupils and it was reallt like a reward for hard work and toeing the line to get a prefect's badge in the fifth form.
Speaking of discipline, this school ( I transferred to another in the third form) still had some teachers who would cane or slipper for the least thing, and one hateful character had what was called a bat, a round wooden bat that he had made for hitting pupils who misbehaved. I can remember getting the slipper, which was like a big gym shoe, for saying a music teacher was playing like Les Dawson.

Wasn't this info all out there in June?

I think I read something about it when the inquiry details were released.

www.childabuseinquiry.scot/news/scottish-child-abuse-inquiry-publishes-twelfth-case-study-findings