Imagine yourselves a century ago as a small child living in Bletchley. You will be sent to the Board School in Bletchley Road as an infant, sometimes as early as 2-3 years of age, and stay until you are 7 - when you will be sent up to either the girls or the boys Junior School.

The classroom will be heated by a coal stove - there will be no central heating until 1927 - and furnished with double desks, some of them too small for the children to sit comfortably. Some classrooms may be closed for a while in the winter because of lack of coal.

In 1909, the subjects taught (in lessons lasting 20 minutes) would be: Reading by the phonic method; numbers; composition and writing; recitation (to understand the meaning of a piece, with 'intelligence to be cultivated as well as memory, and elocution'); singing with voice training exercises every day, music taught by tonic solfa; sewing, knitting, hemming, woodwork etc; free form drawing with chalk for lower division and sand for the babies; physical exercise, including dancing - Maypole dance, Sir Roger de Coverly, the Lancers, and Swedish dancing.

Your health will be checked regularly by a local doctor, and the visitation of a nurse to check for head lice or ringworm - if found, your parents will be informed, and you may be excluded from school until the infestation has been cleared. (You will be called 'doubtful') The whole school will be closed regularly, sometimes for a month at a time if there is an epidemic of measles, chickenpox, whooping cough or mumps, by order of the doctor. Other diseases are regular visitors: flu, scarlet fever and diphtheria (of which one boy is recorded to have died in 1928). And colds are endemic in the winter.

The school is regularly visited by 'Visitors', such as Lady Verney and Lady Leon, and by members of the public deputed to check on attendance and the state of the classrooms, as well as by His Majesty's Inspectors. Attendance is noted every day in the log book: never 100%, occasionally as low as 15% when the weather is very bad. The weather is crucial: snow or heavy rain interferes between morning and afternoon attendance as every child will go home at dinner-time.

You may attend in a year when there are one or two epidemics and bad winter weather, so your education will be severely interrupted. This also means that your head teacher who is responsible for the testing of each classes progress, will be forced to delay the testing for a whole term, sometimes even over the summer holidays. Or if the temperature is over 90 degrees F, she may again postpone it. This will of course be noted by HM Inspectors.

Holidays are always present though they may vary a lot in the date, especially in the summer. Half-days will be allowed for church picnics, and during World War I, you will go out blackberry-picking for the afternoons throughout September and October. Every pound that you will pick is taken to town, weighed, and then the school is paid. Some collections gain the school over 10 shillings.

Other days will also be celebrated: Empire Day on May 24 when you will sing the national anthem, salute the flag and sing a hymn. The log book does not mention that you would have a regular religious service or harvest festival until 1927 though a minister is a member of the Care Committee. A service and a prayer time are noted for Nov 9 in 1928 (presumably for Remembrance Day). And a day off is given for the Coronation of George V in 1911.

World War I will not have a lot of impact on the school. Soldiers will attract your notice in 1913 when they march past the school en route to maneuvres, but the most noticeable activity will be your generosity. Throughout the year you will be giving your farthings, halfpennies and pennies to several Soldiers' and Sailors' organisations for those wounded in battle. And your parents will be giving eggs and/or money and also vegetables to the Navy.

For more information on Log Books click here