On the 4th June, Primary 6 visited Scotland Street School for a lesson with a ‘Victorian’ teacher to help us in understanding our Victorians theme. We were all pretty scared of her, even those who said they weren’t! (The faces say it all!) Everyone was surprised at how strict she was. We had to sit in rows with our backs against the chair and arms folded. If we were asked to answer a question, we had to stand and say, “Ma’am”. If we forgot, she was very angry with us. She asked us some really difficult sums and we got a chance to copy Victorian handwriting from the board. We used slates and pencils, as well as fountain pens and ink. We weren’t allowed to make a mess with the ink and had to use blotting paper to mop up extra ink from our page.

She showed us the belt and hit it on the table in front of us! It made a huge noise and we were all nervous that she might need to use it! Thankfully, we behaved so well that she didn’t need to. We’re really glad that children are protected now from being hurt and our teachers don’t treat us like that!

At the end of the lesson, the teacher came out of character and showed us she was actually really nice. She asked for volunteers to wear the dunce hat and we all laughed when Abi had a shot.

We were all very glad to get back to 2015 and think our school and teachers are much better than what the Victorians had!