Victorian Schools

1. In Victorian times many children didn’t go to school and more than half grew up unable to read or write.

2. Rich Victorian children had governesses at home.

3. When they were old enough, boys with wealthy parents were sent to public boarding schools.

4. The boys were taught classical subjects such as Latin and Greek and sport.

5. Daughters of wealthy families were kept at home and taught singing, piano and sewing.

6. Poor children attended dame schools, ragged schools or day schools.

7. Victorian schoolrooms were usually very grim places, with bare walls, and warmed by a fire or small stove.

8. Windows were usually placed quite high so the children did not look out.

9. Classes were taught side by side, with children of all ages mixed in together, so they could be quite noisy.

10. Teachers were very strict.

11. Sometimes they had to control very large classes with just the help of monitors, who were older children.

12. Teachers often caned the pupils and some hit so hard they broke their canes.

13. Some pupils were made to stand in a corner stand with a Dunce’s Hat on.

14. This was a tall, cone-shaped hat with a D on that pupils had to wear if they were not learning fast enough..

15. After 1870 all children between the ages of five and twelve had to go to school.

16. Many families parents did not send them, sending them out to earn money instead.

17. Schools concentrated on teaching the 3Rs; reading, writing and arithmetic.

18. They also did some history, geography, science, scripture and drill.

19. Most of the lessons involved copying things off the blackboard or reciting things.

20. Pupils learned things by chanting, repetition or learning them by heart.

21. All children did the same thing at the same time and learning was dull and repetitive.

22. Pupils learned to write on slates because paper was too expensive.

23. Older children wrote with pen and ink.

24. By the end of the Victorian age, all children under twelve had to go to school.