SCHOOLS

VICTORIAN SCHOOLS INTRODUCTION

At the beginning of Victoria’s reign (1837), many children were too busy working, contributing to their family’s income to attend school. They grew up without being able to read and write. However, the Victorians developed the idea that all children should go to school and questioned whether it was right that children went out to work.

Just before Queen Victorian came to the throne, a law was passed (1833) that gave money to people to set up schools. Many of these were called ‘Dame’ schools, because they were run by women. However, many schools were run by people to make a living and often the teachers couldn’t even read!

Victorian Education

The first important date for education in Victorian times is 1844. A law was passed saying that children working in factories had to go to school for six half days a week. Ragged schools were set up to provide free education for orphans and very poor children.

In 1843, Dalmonach school had 74 children attending. This school was founded to provide some education to children working in the printing and dyeing industry. Children are charged a shilling a month for reading and two pence each for writing and arithmetic. Day school had hours from 10 ‘til 1 and then 3 ‘til 5. Most children would attend the night school, after finishing work, from 7 ‘til 9. On Saturdays, school started at 8 for those that could write with the rest arriving at 9. Most children started attending school at five and finished when they were eight to start work full-time.

Many families couldn’t afford to send their children to school; it wasn’t just the shilling that they had to pay every month, it was also the wage that they lost if their child went to school.

What were schools like?

Schools were very different from today. There could be as many as seventy or eighty pupils in one class and one teacher. Older children, of around 13 or 14 years old, would be “monitors” and they would teach a group of children in the class after listening to what the teacher was saying. Everyone was taught the three Rs which were Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic and the fourth one was religion.

There was lots of copying and writing things down and chanting things until they were perfect and children could remember them – even if they didn’t understand them! Children usually wrote on a slate with another piece of slate as a pencil so that mistakes could be easily rubbed out. This is where the saying “wiping the slate clean” comes from. Paper was expensive, but it was used for things like handwriting practice. Ink was given out in little pots. The pens had metal nibs which weren’t very good and caused the ink to blot all over the paper. If this happened you were punished, it was called “blotting your copy book.”.

The first “school” in Clydebank was in a small building in Clydebank Shipyard, known as The Bothy School.