These pages help to show what it
was like to be at school in the later years of Queen Victoria's reign.
They use entries from the official Log Books
or diaries of local schools, which can often tell us quite a lot about
life in the whole community and not just the school itself.
Most children did not go to school
at the start of Queen Victoria's reign. Wealthy landowners would have
their children taught at home, and some tradesmen
in the area would send their children to a private school.
The children of the poor had to go
to work as soon as they were old enough to earn money for the family.
By the
end of the Victorian period free schools
were provided and it became compulsory for all children to go to school.
