She can't have been as bad as our primary school playground assistant and dinner lady Mrs Moore, whose brutal approach to hygiene and behavioural standards was a local by-word .
In appearance and personality she resembled a combination of Catherine de Medici and Nora Batty and her refusal to stand any nonsense was legenary.
Of stout build, with a rolling bow-legged gait and the upper body strength of a Russian weight lifter, many a negligent child, myself included, who had failed her clean hands inspection in the school dinner queue, was grasped by the ear and dragged to the cloakroom to do the job again properly under supervision with the ruthless application of a hard scrubbing brush and carbolic soap.
However, no one caught polio so it must have worked.