Children
in Victorian times Test
I Victorian times
1. Victoria
was the Queen of …
a) France
b) England c) Russia
2. Queen
Victoria ruled for …
a) 64
b) 65 c) 67
3. Her first
language was …
a) French
b) English c) German
4. She went
to a Public School
a) Yes
b) No
5. Her
favourite hobby was …
a) riding a
horse b) painting c) playing the
piano
6. She came
to the throne when she was …
a) 18
b) 16 c) 20
7. Why did
Queen Victoria wear black?
a) She loved
this colour b) She mourned her
husband’s death
8. Who was
the first monarch to live in Buckingham Palace?
a) Queen
Victoria b) Queen Elizabeth
9. What was
the life like at the beginning of Queen Victoria’s reign?
a) British
Empire was powerful b) there was no electricity, cars
10.
Why was Queen Victoria so famous?
a) She ruled
for a long time b) Britain became a huge Empire
II Schools in Victorian times
1.
Which
of these statements is true about girls in Victorian times?
1.Girls
had fewer opportunities for learning than boys.
2.
Girls had more opportunities for
learning than boys.
3.
Girls and boys had about the same
opportunities for learning.
2. Which of the following had the best opportunity for
learning at the start of the Victorian Age?
1.
Girls
2.
Boys
3.
Adults
3.On
what day of the week did some schools teach Christianity?
1.
Monday
2.
Wednesday
3.
Sunday
4.
What
did a teacher show a class during an “object lesson”?
1.
Videos
2.
Picture cards
3.
Things picked up
in the woods
5.After 1880, what did every child aged 5 to 10 have to do?
1.
Go to primary
school
2.
Work in a factory
3.
Spend the summer
on a farm
6.Who went to boarding schools in the 19th century?
1.
Criminals
2.
Rich boys
3.
Rich girls
7.
Why was slate used to be written on in Victorian schools?
1.
It could be used
once and then thrown away
2.
It could be used
many times and wiped clean
3.
It helped
children write more legibly
8.
Which of these subjects would a girl not have studied at school?
1.
Reading
2.
Cooking
3.
Woodwork
9.
What did Victorian children use to help them with Maths?
1.
Number lines
2.
An abacus
3.
A computer
10.What
could a teacher sometimes use to beat children with?
1.
A whip
2.
A club
3.
A cane
11.Which
of these might a Dame school child have learned?
1.
French
2.
Geography
3.
The Alphabet
Who went to school?
At the start of the 19th century very few
children went to school. Most poor children worked. If they went to school,
their families lost the money they earned.
There were some good schools for boys, for example, grammar schools and public
schools. Only richer families could afford to pay the school fees,
though some schools gave free places to poor boys. Poor girls did not go to
school when the Victorian age began meaning they had little education. Girls
from wealthy families would usually be taught at home by a governess.
Sometimes, wealthy girls may have attended boarding schools too.
Dame schools
'Dame' schools were usually run by one
woman. The 'dame' often did her best, but she was a child-minder not a trained
teacher. Often quite poor herself, she took as many children as she could cram
into her house. Poor parents working hard to earn a living paid her a few
pennies a week to look after their children, and perhaps teach them the
alphabet or how to sew. Most of the time, the children amused themselves and
did not learn very much.
Ragged schools and Sunday schools.
Sunday schools were run by churches, to
teach children about the Christian faith. Journalist Robert Raikes started the
first Sunday School for poor children in Gloucester in 1780.
Ragged Schools were schools for poor
children. One of the first was started in Portsmouth by a shoe-mender named
John Pounds. Older children helped to teach younger ones. Ragged Schools were
often in one room of a house, or in an old barn. From 1833 factory owners were
supposed to provide at least 2 hours education every day for child-workers, but
not many children actually got lessons.
Schools for all
Reformers campaigned for new laws to improve
working conditions for children and give children the opportunity for
schooling. In 1870 Parliament said there had to be a school in every town and
village. 'School Boards' of local people built
and ran the new schools. Families paid a few pennies a week to send their
children, though not all children went to school. In the 1860s a farmer might
pay 6 pence (6d) a week for each child. A labourer (who earned less) only paid
2d per child.
By 1880, the law said that all children aged 5 to 10 must go to primary
school, so every child would receive at least a basic education.
What subjects did children learn?
Girls and boys learned together in primary
schools, but were separated in secondary schools. Both boys and girls learned
reading, writing, arithmetic, spelling and drill (PE).
Boys learned technology: woodwork, maths
and technical drawing, to help with work in factories, workshops or the army
when they grew up.
Girls had lessons in cooking and sewing,
to prepare them for housework and motherhood.
Children were often taught by copying and
repeating what the teacher told them. Lessons included teaching in right and
wrong, and the Christian religion.
How were children punished?
Discipline in schools was often strict.
Children were beaten for even minor wrongdoings, with a cane, on the hand or
bottom. A teacher could also punish a child by making them stand in the corner
wearing a 'dunce's cap'. Another, very boring, punishment was writing 'lines'.
This meant writing out the same sentence (such as 'Schooldays are the happiest
days of my life' 100 times or more.
Rich boys and schools for girls
Boys from rich families were sent away to
boarding school. Some 'public schools',
like Eton and Harrow, set high standards.
Other schools were awful places, run to make profits for the owners. Boys in
these bad schools were half-starved, ill-treated, and taught very little.
Girls sent away to be trained as governesses
were not much better off, as you can learn from reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte
Bronte.
Girls and young boys were taught at home by a male tutor or a female
governess. The first good girls' schools were started in Victorian times, such
as the North London Collegiate School (1850).
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