Dear Ben,
This is my unofficial letter to you. Whatever you do you must not show it to Mum or Dad. I have written another letter to you which is also in the envelope and it will be all right for you to show that to the parental influence because it doesn't say anything that it would be bad for them to know. That one is mega boring but this one should interest you because now I have been here for 6 weeks I can tell you what the school is really like including the naughty things we do and the punishments we get for them.
I am in a house called Brickham House. It is for boys of 11 and 12. After two years we move on to one of the senior houses. Some boys come to the school when they are 13 and so they go straight to senior houses. It is a bit funny having two lots of new boys, all the 11 year olds like me and then a lot of 13 year olds as well. Of course we don't mix with the 13 year olds even though we are all new. There are about 100 boys in Brickham altogether and about 50 of us are new and in the first form. The others have all been here a year and are therefore in the second form. Every first form boy has a second form boy who has to tell us all about the school and the rules and things like that. Those boys are called our mentors.
My mentor is called James. That is his surname not his first name. We are not allowed to use first names at all. James is a really good mentor to have because he tells you everything you really need to know and also he gets into trouble quite a lot and so is good fun. I will tell you more about him later.
We have quite small dorms of 10 boys each. So there are ten dorms altogether, five for first formers and five for second formers. I am in Rubens Dorm which is named after some kind of painter. Most of the other boys in Rubens are fun. In fact there is only one goody-goody, called Scott. He is really boring and never takes part in our adventures after lights out, but everyone else does. My best friend is called Hurst and he is in the bed next to me. We do everything together, including getting into trouble.
As well as the first and second formers there are four prefects in the house. They are 17 and 18 year olds and their job is to keep us in order and punish us when we get into trouble. They are called May, Roberts, Smith Major and Williams. They are all quite nice but also pretty strict when they want to be. They can give different punishments depending on how naughty we have been. The lowest punishment is up to 20 press ups for first formers or up to 30 for second formers. Next is up to 50 lines. Next is one or two whacks with a slipper on our bums for first formers or two or three whacks for second formers. If they think we need more whacks with a slipper or if we need the cane they can send us to Mr Glass who is the housemaster.
When I first arrived James was very helpful telling me all about the punishments. He said that usually the prefects either give you press ups or the slipper. They don't think much of lines apparently. Also, boys are not sent to Mr Glass much because James thinks that the prefects prefer to do the whacking themselves, which is understandable I suppose. He also said that Mr Glass's whackings with the slipper are not all that hard and that two from a prefect hurts more than four from him. That may be partly because the prefects only ever slipper you at bed time when you are in your pyjamas whereas Mr Glass tends to do it when you are in your trousers and pants. Apparently the cane from Mr Glass does hurt more than the slipper and he sometimes makes you take your trousers down for it, but boys who have gone on to senior houses say that it is twice as hard there even though they don't have to take their trousers down. It is also nice to know that Mr Glass hardly ever gives more than two with the cane to first formers and only once last year did he give one boy four. James once got three with his trousers down and he said his bum was quite sore and had three stripes for about a week, but he said it wasn't really all that bad.
What you really want to know is how the slipper compares with one of Dad's over the knee spankings. Well I am pleased to be able to tell you that I can give you that information!
One night in the third week of term Rubens Dorm (except Scott of course) decided to have a pillow fight with Shakespeare Dorm (I think you can guess who that is named after). We all tiptoed out of the dorm with our pillows and got to the door of Shakespeare. We gathered round and then very quietly pushed the door open, crept in and shut the door again. Then we each headed for a bed and started whacking our pillows down. It was really great because we took them by surprise. Of course, they quickly realised what was going on and started getting out of their beds and whacking us with their pillows. We were all trying to be as quiet as possible so as not to attract the attention of the prefects, but it is not very easy to be silent when you are having a major pillow fight. Just as we were about to retreat the door burst open and Roberts and Williams came in. We had obviously woken them up. They didn't have their dressing gowns on, but they were wearing their slippers - which were soon put to good use!
We all stopped fighting as soon as the door opened and the prefects told us to line up in two lines at the sides of the dorm, Rubens in one line and Shakespeare in the other. Then Williams came to one end of our line and Roberts to the other end of Shakespeare's. One by one we each had to step out of the line and bend over with our bums facing towards our dorm's boys. Williams whacked Rubens and Roberts whacked Shakespeare.
The first Rubens boy to get it was Treasure. He's brilliant at football and quite tall, so he's a strong boy, but even he looked small when he was bending over next to Williams. They make you bend over as far as you can (you have to touch your toes) so Treasure's pyjama trousers were very tight round his bum. Williams took off one of his slippers (which are very big with very hard soles) and patted Treasure's bum with it a couple of times, then he lifted it above his shoulder and swung it really hard right onto the middle of Treasure's bum. It made a really loud thwacking noise when it landed and it almost knocked Treasure over. Then he waited a bit and gave him another really hard whack and told him to go back into line, which he did rubbing his bum and making faces, but he didn't cry.
Hurst was next and he got the same, although he didn't jump forward as much for the first whack as Treasure had done. I think that was because he had been able to see how hard it was going to be and so he was bracing himself for it. He didn't cry either.
The next boy, Richardson, was quite funny because as he bent down his pyjama trousers fell down (I think the string must have come undone in the pillow fight). Anyway, he started to pull them up again but Williams said "no time for that Richardson, you can pull them up later". So poor old Richardson got it on the bare bum. I don't suppose it hurt any more (pyjamas don't really give you any protection) but it did mean we could all see the effect it had on his bum. It was white to start with and then, after the first whack the outline of the slipper appeared and during the pause between whacks it got redder and redder. Williams made him stay bending over for a bit after the second whack and we could all see his little round bum gradually turning scarlet. It was very interesting, but I think I would rather have seen it after I had had my whacks and not before!
I was next and I admit I felt a bit shaky as I walked forwards, but I did OK. I bent over and felt the light taps to begin with and then there was this enormous crash on my bum and mega pain. I managed not to fall forwards and I waited for number two. During the pause my bum felt as though it was getting hotter and hotter. Then, just as I thought the pain was getting under control, he struck again. It was agony. But I managed to get through without crying.
When the next boy was being whacked I was concentrating more on rubbing my bum. But the ones after that were more fun. Watching other boys getting the slipper is much better when you have already had your dose.
My bum still hurt for about half an hour. After that it just became nice and warm. By the next morning the marks were still there on all our bums and they hadn't gone completely when we went to bed that night.
Is it more painful than Dad's worst spanking? you ask. It most certainly is. I'm sure you remember last hols when I got six of Dad's hardest and I showed you my bum afterwards and you said I must have been in agony. Well I was in more pain after the first slipper whack from Williams than I was after all six of Dad's smacks. Are you looking forward to coming here next year?!!!
We all talked about how our whackings compared with what we got at home and no one said his dad was harder than Williams. I dread to think what six of the best with the cane in a senior house must be like, but I'm sure I'll find out one day!
I've got to go now. Hurst and I have been sent to Mr Glass and the time to see him has come. I'll tell you all about what we did and what happens with Mr Glass in my next letter. For the moment I will just say that James thinks we are likely to get the cane!!!!
Love
Robbie