You can see from reading comments in Victorian school Log Books or diaries that a lot has changed since those days for children at school.
The early school rooms were often cold and wet, with no lighting so that children were sent home when it started to get too dark. There were very few books, maps, or pictures on the walls.
The playground was often just a muddy or stony yard, and the toilets were out in the cold - and usually very primitive !
But there are some entries which could have been written today, about the sort of small things which schools have always done...

This is an example of an old favourite with children, from the 1886 diary of Llandewi'r Cwm School, which reads -
22nd November - "Children brought many little things to school, towards forming a museum".

The "little things" brought in by the children would probably have included items that they have picked up on their way to school. In country districts many children had to walk for up to five miles, often across fields or along rough tracks, to get to and from school. Likely things would be acorns, fir cones, bird's eggs, unusual stones, leaves, and possibly even old coins brought up by farmer's ploughs.

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