To be seen and not heard ... pupils’ taste of Victorian-style school rules
Strict discipline was enforced at Upper Beeding Primary School to give pupils a taste of Victorian-style schooling.
Pupils quickly learned ‘children should be seen and not heard’ and under no circumstance were they allowed to ask questions.
They had to obey school rules such as standing when an adult entered the room and using only their right hand for writing.
Brian Jones, head of upper key stage two, said: “Children from Upper Beeding Primary School travelled back in time to experience what it would have been like in a Victorian classroom.
“It is rather fitting that pupils from years five and six are learning about this period in time as their classrooms are accommodated in the original Victorian ‘old building’ of the school.”
The children were met in the playground by their strict Victorian teachers, who they had to address as Sir or Ma’am, on a chilly January morning and entered the building singlefile through separate entrances for boys and girls.
Mr Jones added: “Schooling was about discipline and talking, fidgeting or poor work were all punishable with six good strikes of the cane.
“The children learned the three Rs, reading, writing and arithmetic. They recited The Lord’s Prayer, undertook dictation and repeated times tables – and if they were slow or produced poor work they were given the ultimate shame of wearing the dunce’s hat and standing in the corner.”
The children dressed in period costumes, including aprons with mop caps for the girls and waistcoats with flat caps for the boys.
Some of them wore signs like ‘I forgot to call the teacher sir!’.
Instead of using pen and paper, the children had to write with chalk on slate. They also had to practise neat handwriting on lined paper.