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On Tuesday 21st February, Year 6 went on a school trip to the British Schools Museum in Hitchin to experience life in a Victorian school first-hand.
On Tuesday 21st February, we went on a school trip to the British Schools Museum in Hitchin. When we arrived, we had to put on white pinafores, which poor Victorian girls used to wear to cover up their dirty clothes.
We started off by going into a gallery classroom and having Victorian lessons. We were each given a penny, which we paid into a basket when we went into the classroom. The classroom had desks which were higher up as you went back, a bit like sets in a theatre. First, we had a hand inspection, where the teacher walked around our desks, and looked at how clean or dirty our hands were. Then we had lessons on the three Rs -reading, writing and reckoning (maths). First, we had reading, where the teacher read a sentence from a book, and then we would copy it. Next, we had reckoning where we learnt that 4 farthings made a penny, 12 pennies made a shilling, 20 shillings made a pound, and 21 shillings make a guinea. We then had to add up different prices, because we were expected to become a shop girl when we left school next year. Then the teacher said that Alaina was very good at maths, and that she could do a hard sum
in her head, and when she couldn’t, she had to sit on a chair with a dunce’s cap on. A dunce’s cap is a tall cone which, unlike what people think, is not made of white card with a d on it. It is made from newspaper, so that if an inspector is coming, the teacher can take it off, and throw it in the bin. If a student was wearing a dunce’s cap, it meant the teacher hadn’t taught them properly.
After a snack we had a tour of the headmaster’s house. We went into the parlour first, which would also be used as a dining room, and a living room. The wallpaper was green with arsenic, so we were told
not to touch it. In each bedroom there was a chamber pot under the bed, and a washstand which had some soap and a jug on it. In the kitchen, we saw lots of tools spread out on the table. We were also provided with some rubber eggs, and a plastic piece of butter. There was a whisk, which worked a bit like an electric whisk, but you had to turn the handle. Here there was a ‘washing machine’ which was a basket that could be filled with water, then the clothes would go in and be pounded. Outside there was a toilet, which was a bench with a hole in it, and a mangle, for squeezing the water out of the washing. We also saw the bathtub which was hanging up. The bathtub would be filled with hot water from over the fire, but it would take hours to fill up. The family would all have their baths at the same time, starting with the father, then the mother, the boys and finally the girls in order from oldest to youngest. The youngest girl would have the grimiest water, which must be freezing by her turn.
After lunch, we had drill. This was a Victorian version of P.E. where children would do lifting and dropping their arms above and below their heads, then looking left, right and forwards, then lifting and dropping each leg. This was designed so that boys would learn
to take orders in the army, and girls could take orders from their husbands. Afterwards we were asked the differences between P.E. and drill. Then we were allowed to play with some Victorian toys. I was playing in a group who had a hoopla set, and we were doing a tournament.
After this we went back to 2023 and High March School.
By Sophie de S
36
CREATIVE WRITING YEAR 6