Tawse Tawse The tawse, sometimes formerly spelled taws (the plural of Scots taw, a thong of a whip) is an implement used for corporal punishment. It was used for educational discipline, primarily in Scotland, but also in schools in the English cities of Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, Manchester and Walsall. A tawse consists of a strip of leather, with one end split into a number of tails. The thickness of the leather and the number of tails is variable. Many Scottish saddlers made tawses for local schoolmasters. The official name "tawse" was hardly ever used in conversation by either teachers or
History of schools in Scotland Tom Johnston, proposed an end to selection and, although rejected by Labour and Conservative governments, became a benchmark for reform. Selection was ended by the Labour government in 1965, which recommended that councils produced one kind of comprehensive secondary school that took all the children in a given neighbourhood. By the late 1970s 75 per cent of children were in non-selective schools and by the early 1980s only the five per cent of children in private schools were subject to selection. New schools were mainly associated with the creation of new towns and housing schemes. There was no distinctive Scottish