National School, Heytesbury
Click on a photograph to view it.
An elementary school was provided by the state in 1838 and improved in 1848 with a further grant of £156. In 1846 Heytesbury had a Sunday and a day school with 90 boys and 92 girls taught by a master and a mistress. In 1858 there were 50-60 pupils taught by a master, in a room 45 feet by 20 by 12, with a flagged floor and parallel desks. There were also 40-50 infants taught by a mistress in a similar room. The school moved to its present site in 1900 and the old school became the village reading room.
Unfortunately no logbooks from the Victorian period survive in the public domain but we know in general terms what school life would have entailed. By 1880 children were educated up to the age of ten, although they could stay longer. The learning age was raised to eleven in 1893, when children normally started as infants, aged four or five. School fees, one penny or twopence a week, were removed in 1891. The school day was likely to have been from 9.00 to 12.00 noon and from 2.00pm to 4.00pm. Children either brought their lunch and ate it in the schoolroom or went home to eat. The teacher was assisted by paid monitors in their early teens or by a pupil teacher, who was training to become a certified teacher.
Unfortunately no logbooks from the Victorian period survive in the public domain but we know in general terms what school life would have entailed. By 1880 children were educated up to the age of ten, although they could stay longer. The learning age was raised to eleven in 1893, when children normally started as infants, aged four or five. School fees, one penny or twopence a week, were removed in 1891. The school day was likely to have been from 9.00 to 12.00 noon and from 2.00pm to 4.00pm. Children either brought their lunch and ate it in the schoolroom or went home to eat. The teacher was assisted by paid monitors in their early teens or by a pupil teacher, who was training to become a certified teacher.
Lessons were the elementary ones of reading, writing and arithmetic with scripture; some lessons in the latter subject were often taken by the vicar. The girls learned sewing and all had singing and recitation. Some geography and history would have been taught. School holidays were about a week or 10 days at Christmas and Easter, a week at Whitsun and five weeks Harvest Holiday in the summer. Full day and half day holidays were given for various reasons such as church or chapel teas or Sunday school outings, royal and national occasions and the afternoon after the H.M.I. examinations. Unauthorised absences included seasonal work on the farm and in the garden for the older children and visits to local fairs, military events and other local happenings.
The school was taken over by Wiltshire County Council in the early 20th century and further infomation will be found under County Elementary School, Heytesbury.
The school was taken over by Wiltshire County Council in the early 20th century and further infomation will be found under County Elementary School, Heytesbury.