04 Jun Year 1 at The Ragged School Museum
Year 1 set off very excited at approximately 9:10 to start their journey to Mile End! Both classes learnt what it was like to live in a Victorian style house with each room inhabiting a family of up to 14 people. They thought about terraced houses and pictured the ones on Mattison Road and soon realised that one family would occupy one of the rooms with everything from the bed, to a table, to a fireplace and even a chamber pot that they would use to go to the toilet in! The children observed the historical source ( a photograph) and discussed what it would be like to live there: collecting water with pots and pans from a water pump; youngest children or grandparents in the bed with everyone else drooped over a rope; boiling water in a copper kettle so that they killed off any germs and what each family member did in terms of their roles as each of these differed but surprisingly, to the year 1 children, they realised they would have to do lots of the chores including washing the clothes using a dolly and carbolic soap. After this, they had a Victorian lesson in a classroom. In this lesson, they wrote out the Victorian alphabet on a slate using chalk and had a rag as an eraser to clean it off without being recognised for their hard work. The children then compared the classroom and realised that: the boys and girls were sitting separately; they had no electricity and even had gas lamps hung above their desks; posture was an important factor and this would be used as reward to hand out equipment or discipline strategies such as being told to stand with a back straightener or with their fingers in stocks! The children were engaged, inquisitive and asked lots of relevant questions throughout. They commented on whether girls were invited and how unfair this was compared to today’s society and made links to their learning on transport about horse carriages. The children were all well behaved and were a credit to our school!