A Free State farm school teacher who hit seven children with a vehicle's fan belt has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years' in jail, police revealed.

Spokeswoman Puleng Motsoeneng said Ruth Moshe, 49, had her sentence suspended for four years in the Welkom Regional Court.

Moshe was sentenced after she pleaded guilty on seven counts of assault.

The beatings happened in August last year at the Rakonyane Primary School near Dealesville, which is attended by about 25 children and divided into two classes.

Moshe was the only teacher at the school.

The children who were assaulted were aged between seven- and 10-years-old and were all from one farm where their parents worked, in the Dealesville district.

The incident happened after the teacher warned the children in one of the classes to be quiet.

When they did not listen, she asked older children in the class to hold the seven culprits by their arms and legs, while she hit them across their backs with a fan belt.

The provincial education department relocated Moshe to another school in the northern Free State, which has a headmaster and other teachers.

The Free State education department was not immediately available for comment after the sentencing.