History comes alive
Brunswick School holds History Day by stepping back in time
History Day was held at Brunswick School on March 21, a one-off special day for staff and students to celebrate the history of the school. “It’ll be a day that the students will remember for the rest of their lives,” said principal Jane Corcoran. “Last year Brunswick School celebrated its 150th jubilee. The Jubilee Committee did a fantastic job of collating all the historical records and photographs and putting them onto display boards.
“We had a look at them during the jubilee and thought what a fantastic resource they were, for the current students. Our school-wide theme this year has been learning about the history of the Brunswick community and the Brunswick School.
“Each morning I’ve been going about each class and reading excerpts out of the Principal’s Handbook from the late 1800s and early 1900s. There was a lot of ‘unpacking’ of vocabulary, sentence structure and grammar.
“It’s been a real learning curve for the students and it’s been an interesting experience for them. They were thrilled to hear all the punishments that happened back in the 1800s and discussed the reasons why there were so few children present.
“It was because of inclement weather - and why is this? The answer is that back then there were no cars, kids came to school by foot or by pony. Having these discussions has been really helpful for the kids to visualise what it was like back in the 1800s.
“In one excerpt, a little girl turned up to school late, the only one there, she was sent home because she was soaking wet.
Going back in time
“Part of learning as staff was how fun it would be to go back in time and recreate the old days at school. Everyone dressed up and the teachers planned starting the day with a parade around the court.
“Then we had a formal assembly, singing God Save The Queen (these days the students sing God Defend New Zealand.
“We sang a hymn, we went through the rules, and the punishments. With prior parental consent, we had a couple of students receive their punishment for riding the pony past the school at speed and endangering other students.
“Another couple of students had ‘stolen’ someone’s lunch and eaten it - make-believe, of course. Any students who talked in class would have to line up outside the principal’s office at break time to receive their punishment of lines of chalk on the court.
“It was done in good humour. The leaders set up their classrooms with olden day booklets, chalk, blackboards and ink wells. They played old-fashioned games: knuckle bones, cards and marbles.
“The teachers were in disbelief at how good the students’ handwriting was. We had such perfect handwriting from them. Even the 5-yearolds were doing cursive handwriting - it was really interesting.
“I asked the children ‘hands up if you want to keep learning cursive handwriting?’ Over half the school put their hands up.
“Back in the day, we found out that Brunswick School playground was separated by a wooden fence down the middle. We put a fence up for the day - the girls were on one side and the boys on the other. They weren’t allowed to mix.
“Also from the handbooks, boys had one door to enter and exit the classroom, and girls had another. We re-enacted all that. We had an old hand bell to call the students in and to release them from class.
“The kids would all line up in rows of boys and girls. They would have fingernail inspections and collar inspections before they went into class.
“The acting from the staff and the kids was fabulous, it was really good,” said Corcoran.