The girls dressed in pinafores and some of the boys wore waistcoats to help everyone get in the right frame of mind. There were "old-fashioned" desks with benches to sit on. The classroom was rather dull but there were maps on the walls and a lot of stuffed animals in cases.
When the teacher entered we had to say, "Good afternoon, Sir." He had a cane and he banged it on the desk. If anyone didn't sit up properly they would have to have a backboard to keep their back straight. When lessons began we had to write our name, address and age on slates using slate pencils, and then we had to say our times tables. Inside the desks there was a lot of information about Victorian times. After we had done all our work we were allowed to play jacks. We also had a look at some other Victorian toys.
Year 6 also went on a school trip to Brewhouse Yard and Nottingham Castle Museums to support their history topic on life in Britain Since 1930.
At the Brewhouse Yard we had the experience of looking at living in a house in during World War II with activities including food rationing and wartime cooking and learning about “make do and mend”. We also went down into the caves where some people would have gone when there was a raid over the city.
At the Castle Museum a different speaker let us explore many different artefacts from the war time that had been left behind when a family had been bombed out of their home. We found out about lots of objects which helped us understand how people lived in those days.