I'm 75 and wonder how many people of my age remember their school days at Ditchling Road School, Brighton.

During the Thirties, when we would have been between eight and 11, we had a headmistress named Miss Reno at Ditchling Road. Miss Reno dealt out the punishment in this school. All class teachers referred miscreant children to her for punishment.

Her instrument of torture was a large leather strap, split into four pieces at the end, which acted like a flail. Children were made to hold their hand out to the side, palm faced upwards.

If lucky the hand was not cut but swelled up extremely painfully, the child being unable to use it comfortably for a couple of hours. This punishment was meted out each day to children who arrived late.

I'm sure many other people who attended the school in the time will corroborate my story.

-H. R. Scriven, The Drive, Shoreham-by-Sea