School in the olden days

Thursday was "Switch it Off" day in school, which meant that we had to switch off anything in the classroom that used electricity. With no lights on and no whiteboard, it was a bit like being at school in the olden days, and that was exactly how our day at school turned out.

When we arrived, Mr Kennedy told us that children used to walk to school, so we began our day by walking 1km to school (in the yard). It was tough going, especially with our bags on our backs, but we all made it in on time. We had to run the last 50 metres though because the Headmaster was at the gate ringing the bell! Phew!!

Because we had no lights, we had to use candles so that we could see properly. We kept them in jars to make them safer. Here we are doing our work in the candlelight.



Old schools had blackboards instead of whiteboards, so Mr Kennedy used a blackboard for our Maths lesson. The children used to have black slate (a type of thin stone) and chalk, so we used our own version of black slates and chalk to do our sums.

 
 

Old schools didn't have radiators like we have nowadays, but instead they had an open fire in the classroom to keep warm. This meant that they needed fossil fuels like turf and coal to keep the fire going. We had a fire in our classroom today and we had to sent different people out to get a bag of coal and keep the fire going.

Often there was no toilet or running water in the classroom, so children in the olden days would have to use the toilet in an outside building or shed. They wouldn't have had a sink, so would have had to go to the well to get water in a bucket. Today we all did the same, by using the toilet in Miss Walshe's room, and washing our hands in a bucket of water (it was freezing!)

When they were writing, children in the olden days used quills, which are ink pens made from feathers. They dipped the quill in an ink well and wrote on a scroll. We made our very own quills using straws and colourful feathers, and they turned out great. We found it hard to write using the quills, maybe we need more practice! We all went home with a quill though so we can practice more at home if we like. Here we are using our quills.

 

 

 

In the olden days, the teacher had a pencil sharpener for the whole classroom, which worked by turning a handle. We had one in our classroom today too, but we found it hard to use it properly!

 



A couple of children misbehaved today, and had to write lines like in the olden days.

 

Here are a few examples of our finished scrolls.

 

When school was finished for the day, we had to walk home again (1km around the yard). We were feeling pretty tired at the end of a long school day in the olden days!!!!

On Friday we made old style lanterns which would have been used in the olden days for light.