This week, Year 2 travelled back in time on their visit to the Ragged School.

Dressed as Victorian school children, they pretended they were in a Victorian classroom being taught by the very strict Miss Perkins where they practised their times tables, best handwriting and voice gymnastics. Miss Perkins put them through their paces as they had their cleanliness inspections and were taught that, “children must be seen and not heard”, as well as, “manners maketh man”. They ended the lesson by learning about the different types of punishment in a Victorian school, including the cane, back straightener (to make sure you did not slouch), finger stocks (to stop fiddling) and the Dunce hat!

In the afternoon they met Colin who showed them a Victorian kitchen, living room and bedroom (all of which were shared by 8 people in one room!). They learnt about how the Victorians lived and were shown different ways of doing the washing without a washing machine! They were appalled to learn that their houses didn’t even have toilets in them and that they had to share the outside toilet with spiders and lots of other people!

Mrs Scarsbrook, Year 2 Class Teacher