Blogs and News - St George's School, Edinburgh

Today we visited the Victorian Schoolroom in Edinburgh. We met our teachers who were Miss Ingram and Miss McMillofe. They were wearing long black skirts with a white shirt. They looked quite scary! They told us that Queen Victoria would have worn a holly necklace to stop her from looking down. We dressed up as girls in a white pinafore or as boys with a shirt and a waistcoat. We lined up to go into the schoolroom and the girls went in first because it was considered to be more polite. The girls sat on one side and the boys sat on the other. We always had to address the teacher as ‘Miss’ after answering a question. You could only answer a question by putting up your right hand. You had to sit with your arms folded to show you were ready to work and sit up straight at all times.  

Here are some of our thoughts: 

Eliza – I liked being in the school 

Alice – Liked the teachers when they fake hit us with the belt. 

Freya – It was interesting that they wrote on slates with a special pen.  

Rebecca – I like how they showed us what punishments they might have given children like the cutty stool, the tause and the wiggle board.  

Ivy – I liked writing with the pen and the ink but I didn’t like when the teachers were so strict.  

Zoe – I liked doing the reading and the arithmetic.  

Maryam - I liked it when we dressed up in different clothes but didn’t like the strict rules. 

Darcy – I like that boys sat on the other side of the classroom.  

Ava – I didn’t like when the teachers were being too strict and a bit scary.  

Lucy – I didn’t like that you couldn’t see out of the windows. 

Eliza – It was funny how Freya got moved away from me when she was giggling.  

Ilma – I didn’t like that it was cold.  

Rose – I liked writing on the slates.  

Pearl – I didn’t like sitting on the cutty because it made me feel embarrassed. 

After experiencing life as a Victorian school child, we went next door to a room full of Victorian artifacts. We learned many interesting facts about what life must have been like in Victorian times. Some of us tried out these items such as the washing ‘dolly’, the mangle, the curling tongs, lifting a cast-iron kettle, and ironing with the heavy iron.  

Emily – I liked when at home the girls got to do some cooking. 

Imogen – I liked how she asked us if we would like to help with the ironing.  

Isla – I liked when she pretended to curl my hair.  

Hannah – I liked when they rang the bell.  

Saanvi – I liked holding the kettle and ironing.  

Gigi – I didn’t like having to dip the pen in the ink when we were writing.  

Zara – I liked drying the clothes.