TEACHERS, staff and children at Marwood CE Infants' School at Great Ayton turned back the clock last Friday to commemorate 150 years since the present premises became a school - very different to today's schools and in different social circumstances.

To celebrate, they dressed in "Victorian" clothes, the teachers wearing white blouses, black shawls and long black skirts, the girls in long skirts and white smocks and the boys with short trousers, braces, thick shirts and flat caps.

Head teacher Mrs Vivienne Smith explained: "We decided that the most appropriate way to celebrate was for the pupils and teachers to re-enact as far as possible the way the school day would be in the 1850s. All the staff and pupils have risen to this occasion, and besides the fun that I am sure everyone would have, it was also a good educational lesson.

The day started with drill, the old fashioned arm swinging, touch toes and stretch exercises.

The children were then taken into the nearby small twelfth century All Saints' Church for a service. This was conducted, the children were told, by the Rev George Marwood, (alias the present vicar, the Rev Paul Peverell who is also chairman of the school governors), who was vicar at the time of the school opening.

As in 1853, the boys all sat together on one side of the church and the girls on the other. Mr Peverell, with priest's collar, wore a cap, gown and mortar board and took the old-style service.

During the morning, the three classes rotated between three activities: playground games, singing round the piano and classroom lessons.

Playground games included marbles, whip and top, hoop and stick, ball and cup, a peg board, dice, soft balls for various games together with hopscotch, a long skipping rope game to rhymes and French skipping. The pupils soon got into their stride, after Vivienne Smith and her helpers had shown them the rudiments. Despite the basic equipment not having the built in animation of modern day games, the pupils thoroughly enjoyed them.

At the music lesson, the pupils sang and danced to old-fashioned tunes such as Dashing Away With the Smoothing Iron, Oranges and Lemons, The Big Ship sailed through the Ally, Ally O and many others, accompanied by teacher Vivienne Winterschladen. Here again, onlookers could see that the children were thoroughly enjoying themselves.

The third activity was class room teaching. Here teacher Wendy Westland had dressed up rather severely, carried a long ruler depicting a cane, and talked very sternly to the pupils (a very different person to her normally cheerful self).

In one part of the lesson, pupils had to write out a poem with chalks on their slates, (no pens, pencil or paper being in sight) and were being constantly reminded what they must and must not do in their writing. These rules included making sure they signed their names at the end and to put down their chalks and sit up straight when finished. An onlooker may have been surprised at the silence in the classroom and looks of awe on the children's faces.

The afternoon was a treat for the children. They were taken to the vicarage garden where they played ring games and old-fashioned party games, followed by an old-style picnic with jam or ham sandwiches, fresh fruit and cakes, washed down with lemonade.

No one asked the children whether they would have liked to live in Victorian days, but they will certainly always remember with pleasure the day they did so at school.