As a student, talent show sensation Susan Boyle has revealed was often beaten by teachers becausse she was learning disabled.

The Scottish singer — who claimed international fame when she appeared on the UK reality competition Britain’s Got Talent earlier this year — says she was hit with a belt every day by teachers and taunted by classmates.

Speaking to London’s Daily Mirror in her first interview since finishing her debut album, I Dreamed A Dream, Susan, 48, said: “You’re looking at someone who would get the belt every day… ‘Will you shut up, Susan!’ – whack!”

She continued: “I was often left behind at school because of one thing or another. I was a slow learner. I’m just a wee bit slower at picking things up than other people. So you get left behind in a system that just wants to rush on, you know? That was what I felt was happening to me.”

Susan added referring to her experiences of being bullied at school: “There was discipline for the sake of discipline back then. But it’s all very different now. I think teachers are taught to understand children with learning disabilities a lot better,” she said. “There’s nothing worse than another person having power over you by bullying you and you not knowing how to get rid of that thing.”