In British primary schools in the early 1960s, it wasn’t uncommon for teachers to spank children publicly in class in the same way they might expect to be chastised by mum or dad at home – over the knee and some firm hand smacks to the seat.
Generally, as at home, it was boys who were on the receiving end, and the spanking was applied to the seat of their grey flannel shorts. I only remember seeing a couple of girls getting a smacked bottom during the whole of my primary school years but these were a little more interesting in that they were delivered to the seat of their knickers, with the pupil’s skirt being turned up once over the teacher’s knee. I presume this was done because skirts are a bit less effective to spank through than a pair of shorts tightly stretched across a boy’s buttocks!