History Day

We have had a super History Day. The children all looked fantastic. We started the day with an assembly all about the history of our school. We saw historic photos and listened to a recount of Miss Catherine Granville who was a teacher at the school... can you believe she called the children 'wild beasts!'? The children in Trendle then used a real fountain pen to practise writing their name...some found this tricky. They then watched a snippet of The Borrowers which was originally written in 1952. Abbey class boys learnt about the school building and girls (as they would have done in 1940s) learnt how to sew. Just before playtime, we found out about the types of games children played in the 1940s and 1950s and at playtime, we took part in these games.
After play we learnt about what school was like. Children didn't wear school uniform because after the war, due to rationing, people used their rations to buy other clothes. We found out that all children walked to school...by themselves. Children started school after their 5th birthday and only moved up to the next class when they had learnt enough to move up. Judy showed us some old desks kindly brought in by Alfie Isles and showed us the ink well she would have used. She talked to us about discipline (which luckily is different to now). After this session, Giants and Trendle took part in a lesson children would have taken part in...a nature walk. Abbey class had a traditional arthmatic lesson.
For lunch, we enjoyed a 1940s/1950s style lunch of meatloaf or cheese, potato and onion pie and for pudding....jam roly poly!
In the afternoon, we had a talk by George Mortimer who showed us what Long Street looked like in the past. We then used boxes to recreate Long Street. These will be displayed at the event at the village hall on Tuesday evening next week.
Thank you to all the members of the community who came in today to share their knowledge. You really made our day special!