Year 3 visit to the British Schools Museum in Hitchin
On Thursday 30th April, Year 3 travelled back in time to discover what school life was like for children during the reign of Queen Victoria. We visited the British Schools Museum in Hitchin and learned how the school system worked in those days.
On arrival, the children were dressed in Victorian-style clothing: girls wore white pinafores and shawls, while boys wore waistcoats, collars, and caps. It felt as though we had truly stepped into the past, especially when the strict-looking Victorian teacher appeared!
The children thoroughly enjoyed experiencing a Victorian classroom. They practised arithmetic using pounds, shillings, and pence, and wrote with ink pens by dipping them into ink wells and using blotting paper to dry their work. Instead of modern whiteboards and pens, they used slate boards and slate pencils. We also took part in a reading lesson using a single shared book and a spelling lesson where learning was done by repetition and memorisation.
During the morning, a couple of “transgressions” were acted out, resulting in one child receiving the cane and another wearing the dunce hat (all in role-play, of course). Before leaving, the children experienced Victorian PE, known as drill, which involved repeating movements together in time under the instruction of a drill officer. This proved to be another enjoyable activity.
After spending the day learning about Victorian school life and how people lived in the past, we returned to our own school and modern classrooms—very grateful for the comforts of today!
30.4.26 Year 3 visit to the British Schools Museum in Hitchin
