Ravenstone in 1903 was, as it still is today, a village just south of the border with Northamptonshire. However in 1903 it was part of the county of Buckinghamshire; now it sits within the Borough of Milton Keynes.
Another difference is that in 1903 it had its own school, with two teachers educating the village children of infant and primary school age, from as young as three years old, until aged about eleven. In spring 1903 there were thirty-four children on the school’s books. The teachers were Miss. Mitchell (Infants) and Miss. Brandon (Upper School).
Every year the school was visited by a Government Inspector. In 1904 this Inspector found that “The School is doing very well. The children are bright and intelligent and have responded to Miss Brandon’s careful teaching”. Not so positive was the Inspector’s comments on the school’s ‘offices’ or toilets, which were described as unsanitary and in need of constant cleaning. Also of concern was the school’s lack of ventilation, which possibly reflects the lack of funding available for free schools at this time.
We know all this because Miss. Brandon wrote these reports up in the School’s log book, which is now in our collection here at the Centre (E/LB/174/1), indeed we have log books for the school covering 1878 – 1931. The log book is where the teachers recorded important daily information: visitors, attendances, examinations, events etc. But what I really love about this log book in particular is that Miss. Brandon recorded the school’s curriculum for 1903-4, shown below.
We know this is not complete, because religious education made up a large chunk of daily instruction, but here we see listed the secular subjects that the teachers intended to cover in the school year. Lessons for the Upper School would cover the ‘Vegetable Kingdom’ as well as ‘Natural Phenomena’ such as Climate. Younger children had ‘Object Lessons’ in Wool, Umbrellas, and telling the time.
Our ref E/LB/174/1
Milton Keynes in Fifty Historic Records 