Our History unit in Haffydown this term focuses on our local history. Our learning has centred around Joseph Lancaster, a significant historical figure in education, who set up the Monitorial school system. The last remaining Lancastrian School in the world today is located in Hitchin, which luckily for us, is only a few minutes down the road. In our History lessons, we have explored the lives of local people in the late Georgian and early Victorian times, to understand how important going to school was for local children. One of the most common trades that children were involved in from a very young age, even as young as 2, was straw plaiting. Hitchin became well known for producing straw hats and other products, with materials grown in the local fields and products sold in the market. To get a small taste of what it was like for a young child to work up to 12 hours a day, we tried our hands at straw plaiting in the classroom… as you can tell from our faces, we were not particularly happy about it!
We sat under the tables to better understand the cramped, dark conditions that children worked in. We were paid a penny per table and some of us had our wages docked for not working fast enough! Although we learnt a new plaiting skill, by the end of our experience, we decided that attending school for six hours a day was much better!
