That's how I started, except I was doing O level computer studies and the punch room was in the local Poly computing centre. They may have been able to read tape by eye but we very quickly learned how important it was to distinguish O and 0, etc., as there was weeks turn around submitting the coding sheet in onbe weeks leson ang getting the results the following week. Thankfully we soon graduated from CESIL on paper tape to BASIC and punched cards that we could punch ourselves.
MBQ