What was school like in the 1920s?

[Pheno]

My Mum was born early 1920's and went to school when she was 3 - as did all her siblings.  At that age school consisted mainly of being told to lie down on a camp bed and go to sleep for a couple of hours both morning and afternoon.

Much like now probably she was always tarred with the same brush as her naughty elder sister and expected to misbehave even though she did not.

Classes had about 42-45 children in them, with one teacher, and there were never enough books and other commodities to go around.  As her surname began with W rarely did she ever have her 'own' version of anything and nearly always had to share.

Mum did pretty well at school and won a scholarship for the next stage but wasn't able to go.  Although the scholarship meant that all commodities were provided the uniform was not - and that couldn't be afforded by her family.

Pheno

[andrewalston]

I found the log book for a school in Pembrokeshire on FindMyPast, because it mentioned a girl in my One Name Study who was a teacher there for about a year.

It was fascinating reading, with details of attendances, and how they dropped when fish needed to be dealt with, or potatoes picked (Just seen my first "Pembrokes" of the year in Lancashire). Occasionally classes were outside the building because there was no space inside!

School in the 1920s would be little different from the 1890s, with the exception of not leaving until aged 14, though in my part of the world from the age of 12 "half timers" would work 6 a.m. until 1 p.m. in the mill and then head off to school.

Of course, education in Wales was then entirely in English, and until quite recently pupils would be punished for speaking Welsh.

[kiwihalfpint]

There would be what did they have for lunch?   Did they go home if they were close enough to school, soup/stew for winter etc.?


Cheers
KHP

[Rena]

... what did they have for lunch?   Did they go home if they were close enough to school, soup/stew for winter etc.?

Cheers
KHP

I don't know about other places in the U.K. but being from north east England we had breakfast, then dinner, then tea.

My father (born 1912) had several older siblings and their meals were cooked on an open fire on one of those old fashioned cast iron stoves which had gadgets to swing the kettle and a large pan over the fire.   Bread, meat and fruit pies; cakes and milk puddings would be baked in the oven that was heated by the fire. From my fathers description of his mother always "adding to the pot every day" I assume he meant there was often left over stew in the pot which she added extra vegetables to. You didn't need expensive meats for a meal, the local butcher sold various animal marrow bones and the nearby abattoir sold blood with which to make black puddings.  There was no school during the hot summer months , so all midday meals were usually hot meals.

 His father served an engineering apprenticeship (paid for by his own father) and became a steam boiler inspector for an insurance company who had eight children to feed. His five sons went to tech college (grammar schools) then left school aged 15 to serve apprenticeships, one daughter became a nurse, one became a teacher and unfortunately one daughter died aged seven.  On the other hand my mother's father was a labourer who had four children to feed, he had an allotment and supplemented his wage by selling produce that he didn't need for his own family. Of his four children, two went to grammar school, which meant two of his children left school aged 14 and two at 15 - however, my mother decided that she didn't want to stay at school until she was 15 and left grammar school as soon as she could.   Both men had stay at home wives who made their own preserves for winter, e.g. pickled onions, beetroot, cabbage and fruit preserves/jams. 

Both my parents went to different schools but they only had less than a mile to walk each way.

One of my mother's cousins (born 1918) told me that she wanted to train to be a nurse but her father insisted she look for a job when she left school aged 14.  His reasoning was that she had to pay her way at home and besides that, she'd get married and it would be a waste of money to pay for the training.