History Victorian Day - Year 5

On Wednesday, Year 5 spent the afternoon being taught by Mr Grey, in the style of a typical Victorian schoolmaster and to experience life as a Victorian child going to a village school on the day of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee - 22nd June 1897.

Mr Grey informed the children of the school rules and behaviour in order to prepare them for a typical school day in Victorian times. Children bowed to the class teacher when they entered the classroom and had to have hands and feet together unless they were writing.

The class was also set up to create an atmosphere in harmony with the times. Artefact’s such as slates, inkpots and dip pens were placed on each of the children’s desks as a spelling and maths lesson commenced. The teacher was in the role and spoke with appropriate harshness and aloofness exuded by a teacher of that period. Children were constantly reminded that their results would be passed on to future employers and affect their opportunities of finding a job and so not live in poverty, so they must make sure to achieve a high standard in literacy and maths.

After the break, pupils had different activities to choose from:

On one table, the children had to imagine they were railway porters. A mistake was made and someone’s luggage got left behind and the children’s job was to find out the owner. It was a great opportunity for the children to use their inference skills. One of the suitcases had a musical instrument, letters and some clothing. They had to work out, using the clues, how old the child was and what he enjoyed doing in his spare time. We all agreed that it was a boy who enjoyed playing the trumpet and was approximately 14 years old.

On the other table, there were over twenty Victorian artefacts including a hair straightener, a dibber and a toasting fork. It made us really appreciate all our mod-cons!

The final table was full of paper and dip pens and the children had an opportunity to make their own dip pens and write a postcard to the Queen.

All the children thought the afternoon was a huge success.