This photograph shows some of the children in the Preparatory Department [the primary school] at Manchester High School in 1899. Although Manchester High School was mainly a girls' school, there were boys as well as girls in the Preparatory Department at that time.
With the children are five of their teachers. On the far left of the middle row is Miss Harrison.
Miss Harrison
Miss Harrison was typical of the best primary school teachers in the Victorian period. She had herself been a pupil at Manchester High School.
When she left school in 1878 at the age of 18 she went to college for a year's teacher training. She then returned to Manchester High School as a student teacher. Student teachers were still undergoing training while they worked in a school.
Miss Harrison taught at Manchester High School for twenty six years. She was such an effective teacher that she became the headmistress of the Preparatory Department.
When she left Manchester High School in the mid - 1920s, Miss Harrison's dedication to teaching was such that she went to Africa to teach in schools there.
A good primary school teacher
This description from the Manchester High School Magazine for 1904 describes the qualities which were needed to be a good primary school teacher at the beginning of the twentieth century.
The writer describes how important teaching is and how difficult it can be. She emphasises the strength of character and the physical resilience which teachers need.
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Teaching is the natural profession for a woman and there is no more important work to be done for the nation than to help to train its children.
The work requires considerable physical vigour. A large class demands discipline and a weak timid girl would find herself quite unfitted for the duties. The hours are long and the children are sometimes difficult.
In the past it has often been that the buildings have been bad and the accommodation for teachers non - existent. In time, we trust, it will be understood how important adequate sanitation is and a teachers' room and proper cupboards.
The work is so important and in some respects so arduous that everything should be done to save a teacher's strength so that she may give the best for her children.
One of the most serious difficulties in education is that the very best kind of teaching is that of which the best results cannot be tested, even by the ablest inspectors. The essential element is the development of the mind and character of the pupil. This cannot be measured.
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