After researching the equipment that was used to care for our clothes in the Victorian Age, ASD1 had a go at doing the wash the Victorian way.

First of all we hung out a washing line in the playground. We then filled a basin with hot water (luckily we had a hot tap and didn’t have to heat up our water on the stove). We had a washboard and bar of soap which we all tried out, but found that those stubborn stains were still there! (No fancy washing powder either!) It was hard to wring out the wet clothes before we used old fashioned “dolly” pegs to hang them up.

Our next Victorian experience involved imagining what it would be like to have no shoes to wear – this was a fact of life for many Victorian children. Then we took off our shoes and tried walking on some different surfaces in school, including sensory stepping stones with very different surfaces on them. We agreed that it was fine on all the smooth surfaces inside the building, however it felt very different on the freezing, metal fire escape – that was so cold!

We all put our shoes back on to walk to the sensory garden where pupils were invited to try to walk on some of the surfaces in their bare feet, but only if they wanted. Everyone had a go, some even trying to walk on our stony path (ouch!) but the grass was so frosty it even felt too cold to walk bare foot for long.
The verdict? We think we prefer to have our shoes and socks on outside!