I attended a private boarding school for girls, which had what might be described as a three-tier punishment system: lines, essays and the cane. Prefects would give lines, teachers would give either essays or three strokes of the cane and, if you were sent to the headmistress, it was six strokes of the cane; although it could be more for very serious offences.
If you were caned by a teacher, there were a number of possibilities, depending on that particular teacher’s preference: some teachers preferred a girl to lean across a desk; others would ask you to bend over the back of a chair with your hands on the seat, and others would ask you simply to bend over and touch your toes.