Hello Hops:
Yes, it was pretty grim, but rather than abandoned, I felt pretty mad a lot of the time.
One of the many awful aspects was the lack of respect for privacy. Our lockers, beside the bed, were "inspected" arbitrarily, our intimate things gone through. Once a week, we had to write home, (everyone had a writing case, by royal decree!), but we could not put the letter in the envelope and seal it until first read by the nuns. So, the letters were stilted four liners, at best.
Physical punishment, as in the strap, was not used, or at least I never experienced it. I do remember though when a couple of girls, in the chemistry glass, splattered some water or something on the newly painted wall. A minor problem you would think. They were punished with the strap, which was bad enough in itself, but they were shamed by being marched in in front of our class (we were in a senior class then), and the strap applied to their hands in front of us all. Horrible. All of this was accompanied by the usual drone of god's punishment bla bla bla. It makes my stomach turn even now.
Hermes