Lessons

Manchester High School For Girls

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young historians' scheme

Lessons
A history exam

Lessons in Victorian times

Most lessons in Victorian times and during the beginning of the twentieth century involved the teacher speaking and the children listening and writing down what the teacher said. Children had to learn a lot of things by heart. They would often answer a teacher's questions by chanting together what they had learnt.

A scholarship exam - history

Girls who wanted a scholarship place, that is a free place at Manchester High School for Girls had to pass an entrance exam. This is the history part of the entrance exam. You can see from the exam paper that girls were expected to know a lot of detailed information. Although it dates from 1915, it is similar to the kind of exam taken by children in Victorian times. The girls would have been about 11 years old when they took this exam. Questions 3, 4, 5 and 9 ask for information about the First World War which broke out after the Victorian period and which was happening at that time.

Manchester High School for Girls

Junior Scholarship Examination 1915

HISTORY

Credit will be given for maps and other drawings in the answers

1) Name the English sovereigns with their dates between 1689 and the present day.

2) Describe one of the following: the Norman Conquest, the discovery of the New World, the Armada

3) Choose five of the following places, describe where they are and the famous events which took place there: Bannockburn; Agincourt; Lochleven Castle; Marston Moor; Blenheim; Quebec; Trafalgar; Lucknow; Mons; Bight of Heligoland.

4) Write a life of either Florence Nightingale or Lord Roberts.

5) Describe how your forefathers would travel from Manchester to London a hundred years ago. Mention some of their probable adventures on the way.

6) Explain the following: V.C; Kitchener?s army; a submarine; a Zeppelin; a Dreadnaught.

7) Mention all the countries which are at war at the present time showing who are Britain?s friends and who are her enemies.

8) Choose one British colony and write all you can about its history.

9) What has Manchester done to help in the war at the present time?

Tasks

The children who had to answer the questions in the exam paper needed to know a lot of information about history. In which question or questions did they have to know the following:

the date of an historical event

what happened at a battle

the life of a historical person

the history of a country outside Britain

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