It was very common for Victorian school teachers to flog children who caused trouble, using the cane or the birch. Parents very rarely complained about this, and it was part of the regular way of keeping order in school.
This did not mean that children always behaved perfectly, though ! There are many examples of bad behaviour in the old school diaries, and this one caused the school attendance officer to be knocked out in 1885 ! ...

This entry from Llangurig Board School says:
"...On Tuesday I punished D.C.Bound and Walsham Rowbotham for throwing stones during playtime in the afternoon. It is only a very short time ago that John Rowlands hit the attendance officer on the head with a stone. He was so much stunned by the blow that for some time he was unconscious. This did not occur during school hours".
It was the job of the attendance officer to make sure that all the children turned up at school, so he was a likely target for stone throwers !
There is another example of bad behaviour - and tough punishment - on the next page...

A flogging for young William Blythe...