A Very Victorian School

This Wednesday, Year 5 were transported back in time to the Victorian Era to experience what it would have been like to be a Victorian village child attending the local village school. They found out that schools were very different, the teachers very strict and the lessons quite monotonous! Despite this, the children had a fabulous day and all took part with great enthusiasm. Thanks must go to their parents for finding and making them all such wonderful outfits.

We first lined up outside and Miss Fallan checked our hands to see if they were clean. We walked in silently in single file. One at a time, we put our coats and bags away. Tara

I enjoyed doing maths because I love times tables and that’s what we were doing. I got picked to recite a times table and, thankfully, I got it correct! If you didn’t you had to wear the dunce hat and stand in the corner of the room!  Izzy

 

My favourite part was numeracy because it was exciting learning about the old money.   Joshua

Next, we had break time when the children did hopscotch and skipping. They really enjoyed these old -fashioned games.

 

My favourite part of Victorian day was break time, The reason for that is that my friends and I played hopscotch on the playground. It was great because it really felt like I was in a Victorian school.  Poppy R

One of my favourite parts of the day was playing hopscotch and skipping at playtime outside. There was also a big skipping that some people skipped into.  Nathan.

I really enjoyed everything about Victorian Day. I did not like the way the girls couldn’t run around at breaktime as Victorian girls had to behave like ladies!  Amelie

After break, the children had their literacy lesson, which was made up of handwriting, copying down dictation, and reciting ‘ The owl and the Pussycat!.

My favourite part of Victorian Day was when we did literacy as we learnt the poem ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’. It was a ten out of ten day. The whole day was filled with fun and excitement!   Elliott

Next, we did handwriting. We had to write three phrases over and over again. It was pretty boring!    Isla

 

 

Just before lunch, the girls and boys were split up for their exercise.

Miss Fallan took the boys outside for their Drill

 

The boys had to go outside and do drill. First we marched on the spot, then we did star jumps and finally we stretched doing ‘head shoulders, knees and toes’  William

The boys did drill, which was great exercise. We did marching, star jumps and stretching. It was my favourite thing about Victorian day.  Archie

 

While the boys were doing exercise, the girls did deportment. We had to walk around the class with a book on our heads to keep our backs straight. We walked around slowly and calmly. The purpose of this was to attract husbands!  Lyla

I loved deportment. We got to balance books on our heads to practise good posture while the boys were outside in the rain!   Poppy C

After lunch, we learnt about Isambard Kingdom Brunel, one of the greatest British civil engineers of all time. The children were set a challenge to design their own bridges.

My favourite part was when we made bridges in the style of Brunel. We could choose the type of bridge and we tried to make a suspension bridge. Charlie

In the afternoon, we built bridges like Brunel. We had to use wooden sticks, split pins and string. This was my favourite part of the day because our bridge actually stood up instead of collapsing!  Tom F

My favourite part of Victorian day was building bridges because we made a massive bridge with a road on it. Also, our one was the most stable. We used split pins and lolly sticks. We put the split pins through the sticks to make triangle shapes.   Oliver.

 

Our Victorian day was fantastic. Sadly, I got the dunce hat and stood in the corner twice. Everyone looked lovely, and we even had Penelope and Sophie Rothschild hiding in our class!      Paisley

 

Yesterday we lived a terrible Victorian school day! We had to sit on benches or on the floor and, can you believe it, we even had to use chalkboards! It was horrible!   Ava