In a word: appalling. Miss Trunchbull positively hates children. In fact, she hates them so much that she even denies she used to be one. She's a harsh, psychotic tyrant who strikes mortal fear into the hearts of children and adults alike. But her innate viciousness and cruelty come out most strongly in relation to her pupils, whom she terrorizes mercilessly, imposing extreme discipline for the most minor of infractions. Boys are forbidden to have long hair; girls are forbidden to wear pigtails. One unfortunate girl who did so, Amanda Thripp, was picked up by her pigtails and thrown over a fence by Miss Trunchbull. Indeed, Miss Trunchbull is so psychotically violent she once nearly killed a boy by throwing him out of a fifth-story window for eating Liquorice allsorts in class.

But Miss Trunchbull hates small children most of all. She's such a big bully that she really loathes anyone smaller than her. She just can't understand why small children don't just grow up more quickly. They stay small on purpose, she reckons:

I have never been able to understand why small children are so disgusting. They are the bane of my life. They are like insects. They should be got rid of as early as possible.