Okay, so I changed things a bit here to keep up the flow. In the original strip Susan makes her escape and is only caught and punished (most severely) later.
You might also be wondering why the girls are not wearing those little plaid skirts we have grown to love on catholic schoolgirls. It seems that in the last year of school, what the Brits call - for reasons I cannot fathom - the Upper Sixth, girls were allowed to change from their cute plaid uniforms into a more sensible outfit befitting their age. This is the outfit the girls are wearing in these strips.
So called senior girls were also not expected to raise their skirts for punishment, in contrast to the other girls who took theirs across their knickers. And the cane was used instead of the paddle.
Love the cartoons!
ReplyDelete"Upper Sixth" - do you want the explanation? Here goes... State secondary education in the UK starts at age 11; pupils start in the "first form". They spend five years getting to the main public exams at 16 (formerly "O Levels" [Ordinary], now GCSEs), which are therefore taken when they're in the fifth form.
If they then stay on to do their "A Levels" [Advanced] at 18, they're in the "sixth form", which lasts two years - the "lower sixth" and the "upper sixth". Why it's not sixth and seventh, I have no idea!
It then gets complicated, as independent (or public, meaning non-state!) schools start secondary education at 13. They use a host of different names - included oddities such as "lower remove" and "upper remove". But somehow the "sixth form" seems to be consistent nomenclature pretty much across the board.
Thank you Abel.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the Remove class, it meant something quite different at my school. Pupils who had failed to get sufficiently good results at "O" level could stay on a year to repeat them. Despite being 6th form age they were not 6th formers. There were three regular 5th form classes, 5-1, 5-2 and 5.3. Remove was designated 5-R. It was considered somewhat shameful to be in Remove. You had none of the privileges granted to 6th formers and were still subject to the cane, which was rarely if ever used on 6th formers.
ReplyDelete