Matthew on Victorian Day

Victorian Day




On Thursday the 25th March 2010 year 6 experienced a harsh day in the life of a Victorian school child. We all dressed up for this occasion and so did Mr Watson and Miss Bates, who played the roles of Mr Johnston and Miss Lawrence as teachers in King George. The classrooms were made to look like a Victorian classroom with black card covering the windows meaning that only strips of sunlight could come bursting through the gaps. All the desks were made to look like Victorian desks and the work we did during the day was the same work that Victorians would have done.

The Day

When we arrived at the gate we all had to get into two lines one for boys and one for girls. If there was any talking or laughing it would be the back of the line. When Mr Johnston and Miss Lawrence arrived they did a hand inspection. After the inspection Mr Johnston lead the boys into King George and waited for us to all find a place. When this was done Mr Johnston told us some rules and went through the extremely tough day ahead, but to start with it was assembly. In assembly we were introduced to the rest of the school as strangers from the past and that they were not allowed to speak to us.



At the end of assembly we went back to class and had our first Victorian activity of the day, this was handwriting using a quill and ink. We were given a copybook which had exercises in them, whilst we were writing our manes on the front of the copybooks we got told to work in silence. By the time people had finished 3 or 4 exercises it was time for recess. At recess we were allowed to talk but no having fun, eat and walk around the field, for only 15minutes. When recess was over Mr Johnston rang the bell and everyone came back into class.



After recess it was time for a bit of Arithmetic, Science, Poetry, History and Geography. In this time we learnt about the potato, where it came from, who brought it to England and where in England the best potatoes come from. We learnt a few poems, a song, the national anthem and our 1x tables. This lesson took a bit of time because lots of people were being sent to the dunce’s corner or being caned.



After that activity it was time for another recess. Again recess was extremely boring and only lasted 15-20minutes. After recess we had a Victorian school lunch, and yes you guessed it, it was Gruel. After having the Gruel it was drill, in drill we had a short warm up then we moved onto marching in a straight line. Like the rest of the day we were not allowed to have fun or talk.

At the end of drill we went back to the classroom and had a chat about the day. We talked about our favourite pats of the day and our worst parts of the day.

My favourite part of the day was definitely learning about the potato as I learnt so much from it, but the worst part of my day certainly had to be eating Gruel.