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Back In Time For School (BBC2)

M

Maria Magenta

master brummie
Did anyone see this, a series that started this week? They're using a school in Coventry, and the pupils and teachers are from the midlands. A bit of it was filmed at the Black Country Museum.
It began in the 1890s with a class of fifteen! Surely fifty would have been more accurate, but harder in every way. Anyway, so far it's quite entertaining. One interesting thing was that apparently girls were taught science and maths (I think this was around 1890), but a bit later that stopped and they were switched to needlework and domestic science - which included hanging wallpaper.

Maria
 
thanks maria i shall watch the first episode on catch up...i knew it was on its way but forgot all about it..could be wrong but i always thought that classes were smaller in those days and got larger as time went on...quite surprised at girls learning science and maths in the 1890s though...would think they used the old school house at the black country living museum

thanks again for the heads up

lyn
 
Yes - very interesting.

The first three episodes were filmed at Bablake School in Coventry.
  • Episode one - the late Victorian and Edwardian era 1895-1914
  • Episode two - the interwar years - 1918-1939
  • Episode three - the post war year 1945-1959
The next four episodes were shot at Arden Academy, Solihull
  • Episode four - 1960s
  • Episode five - 1970s
  • Episode six - 1980s
  • Episode seven - 1990s
  • Episode eight - to the present day filmed at various schools around the Midlands
More info on https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/showbiz-tv/bbcs-back-time-school-what-15624658
 
A watchable programme which I thought it may be, but hardly realistic. The female teacher taking the science lesson wearing safety goggles despite igniting the flash powder with a long stick thing ?
The rifle shooting was a farce with none of the boys being shown how to hold or fire the rifle in the correct position.
I hope that any younger generation who may have been watching don't go away with the idea of this being a true depiction of bygone education.
I know that the programme was for "Illustration" purposes and I viewed in that context but I shan't be watching any further episodes
 
take you points jmadone but as you say these sort of programmes in many cases are for illustration purposes they have to be taken with a pinch of salt...no elf and safely back then..bit like when people complain that the birmingham back to backs do not depict how life really was but as i say would we really visit them if they had raw sewage in the yard and rats and mice swarming around our feet...i think on the whole these places do a fine job within the legal requirements and as you say hopefully the youngsters are taught at school that living back then was certainly not a bed of roses..i have certainly instilled this into my children

all the best

lyn
 
Totally agree with you Lyn. Perhaps my comments were a bit harsh and I did take the programme with a pinch of salt.
The Back to Backs are wonderful and a joy and delight to visit but yes they are a museum and can never portray the filth and squalor that our parents and grandparents endured.
The nearest I have ever got to the atmosphere of an era was visiting the Jorvik centre in York where the background "hubbub" and the smell was very realistic.
Unless we have actually experienced times and situations then we will never really know how it was for the people whoe lived through it.
Jim
 
totally agree with you jim ..to be honest i love the black country museum i only have to smell the coal fires burning and straight away i am transported back to my childhood days...happy days i may add but tough for our parents..never heard of the the jorvik centre..must look it up:)

lyn
 
Lyn, I should have mentioned the Black Country Museum but I haven't been there for about 30 years. Where I now live, the Northeast, is a similar museum named Beamish, another place used as a location for TV and film especially Catherine Cook adaptations. We were there this summer and my young grandson was fascinated by the trams operating there
 
jim i think my brother has been there...if ever you get the chance visit the bcm..it has changed a lot over 30 years and is now planning another stage to save and rebuild bulidings from the 50s and 60s...cant wait for that project to be finished..mores the pity birmingham did not have the same insight when they had the chance:(
 
Astoness said:
totally agree with you jim ..to be honest i love the black country museum i only have to smell the coal fires burning and straight away i am transported back to my childhood days...happy days i may add but tough for our parents..never heard of the the jorvik centre..must look it up:)

lyn
Click to expand...

Lyn, it's the Viking Museum. It's a long time since I've been there, but I seem to remember being transported in a sort of fairground ride through the exhibits!!
 
I did not get to visit the Yorvik Museum but did manage the Black Country one back in 1993.
Still have coal fires here and will do as long as we are able to. CH only low to heat upstairs room when very cold.
 
One of the girls had never threaded a needle or had to sew anything! I taught my son and grandaughters to sew.
rosie.
 
In programme 2 it states that a crowd of over 60,000 were at Goodison for a ladies football match. It may be a slight exaggeration!

December 1920...

161665CF-D9D5-4F41-86AF-746E072EFD61.jpeg
 
Presumably they were using the politicians argument and to account for "large numbers" who were unable to obtain admission, added 20%
 
The Good Old Days
In December 1921 the Football Association decides to resort to the pre-war rules and ban Ladies football. Would you believe with the advice of many prominent women doctors!

And 1923 Staffs ban on married women teachers. Two salaries going into one house!
A993D489-15DF-44B2-A079-B94A1A2E013D.jpegFFF9DD38-AA52-4AD3-8CDD-99492A332BF7.jpeg
 
As everyone said - part 1 was an interesting programme BUT not your typical council school! More in common with the many private schools of the era. Missed opportunity as far as I am concerned.
 
In the 4th programme it is the 1960s, and below are most of the background songs...but who were they by?

1. My Generation
2. You Really Got Me
3. FBI
4. I Fought the Law
5. Who put the Bomp
6. Hit the Road Jack
7. In the Country
8. Perfidi
9. Poetry in Motion
10. Hey Good hooking
11. Riding along in my Automobile
12. My Generation
13. When I grow up to be a Man
14. World Cup Willie
15. Keep on Running
16. Leader of the Pack
17. Wild Thing
18. These Days
19. Age of Aquarius
20. Dancing in the street
21. You Really Got Me
22. Yesterday's Child
 
Having just posted the above it struck me that there was only one group from Birmingham. Another missed opportunity.
 
jmadone said:
A watchable programme which I thought it may be, but hardly realistic. The female teacher taking the science lesson wearing safety goggles despite igniting the flash powder with a long stick thing ?
The rifle shooting was a farce with none of the boys being shown how to hold or fire the rifle in the correct position.
I hope that any younger generation who may have been watching don't go away with the idea of this being a true depiction of bygone education.
I know that the programme was for "Illustration" purposes and I viewed in that context but I shan't be watching any further episodes
Click to expand...

I agree, the only programme of the series that I watched, had the male teacher, and most of the lads, wearing hats during lessons!
 
No, I think it was more of an American thing. However, my school retained its air-raid shelters and we did practice getting in and out of them, and where to sit etc.
 
My husband and I commented on that as we were both at school in the 60s and did not have a drill. We would have been at primary not secondary. Wonder if that made a difference.
 
In the last programme I believe a new modern day teacher was brought in from London. In the Assembly they started with the Hymn Jerusalem, but she didn’t know the words and she’d never heard of it.
 
Astoness said:
take you points jmadone but as you say these sort of programmes in many cases are for illustration purposes they have to be taken with a pinch of salt...no elf and safely back then..bit like when people complain that the birmingham back to backs do not depict how life really was but as i say would we really visit them if they had raw sewage in the yard and rats and mice swarming around our feet...i think on the whole these places do a fine job within the legal requirements and as you say hopefully the youngsters are taught at school that living back then was certainly not a bed of roses..i have certainly instilled this into my children

all the best

lyn
Click to expand...
lyn. i was talking to a woman at the nation trust, she said why dont i go to see the back to back houses in brum. you might find it interesting. they are great VISIT them i said i lived in them .And I said what you said. life was not like tv progs. it was bad. i can tell you a few things. she could not get away from me quick enough.
 
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JohnO said:
No, I think it was more of an American thing. However, my school retained its air-raid shelters and we did practice getting in and out of them, and where to sit etc.
Click to expand...
Agreed. Our air raid shelter was above ground and stuffed with old desks! The public information films on nuclear war weren't shown to the general public as implied, (they were only going to be released if the threat was high). I recall a boy saying to me in the playground that, "another few minutes and we will know if the world will come to an end", and I had no idea what he was talking about. That was the Cuba Crisis!
My general impression of the series is that the children were more adaptable than the programmed adults! Poor old Enoch Powell was, as usual, misquoted. Didn't they see the irony of the Asian-heritage teacher 'having the whip hand'? A problem with all these 'history' programmes is that they like to spice them up with the exceptions - if they could find one woman that had dressed up as a man in WW1, say, her story would lead over the million-plus men! We had a bit of that here with the girls being taught self-defence by the suffragette, how typical was that?
 
Spargone said:
Agreed. Our air raid shelter was above ground and stuffed with old desks! The public information films on nuclear war weren't shown to the general public as implied, (they were only going to be released if the threat was high). I recall a boy saying to me in the playground that, "another few minutes and we will know if the world will come to an end", and I had no idea what he was talking about. That was the Cuba Crisis!
My general impression of the series is that the children were more adaptable than the programmed adults! Poor old Enoch Powell was, as usual, misquoted. Didn't they see the irony of the Asian-heritage teacher 'having the whip hand'? A problem with all these 'history' programmes is that they like to spice them up with the exceptions - if they could find one woman that had dressed up as a man in WW1, say, her story would lead over the million-plus men! We had a bit of that here with the girls being taught self-defence by the suffragette, how typical was that?
Click to expand...

Yes, that was strange concerning the Suffragettes and self defence!
 
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