These children and their teachers were from the Church School, or National School, in Hay. The picture was taken around 1895 outside the Hay Parish Hall in Lion Street, when the classes for the youngest children were held there.
The children have obviously been asked to wear their best clothes for the occasion, including nice clean pinafores for the girls.

In almost all Victorian photographs of groups of children you will find at least one or two blurred faces ! Cameras and films were much more primitive than they are now, and people being photographed had to sit very still for quite a long time. This was often too hard for some children to manage !
Some early portrait photographers used wooden clamps to prevent the person from moving their head while the picture was being taken ! It looks as if the lad in the middle row was trying to clamp his own head !

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