Scalford's Top 5 Crops

We are going to introduce you to Scalford’s Top 5 Crops. They are wheat, barley, oilseed rape, field beans and oats. We learnt all about these when we visited Towns Agriculture at the old Scalford Station yesterday.

Crops are planted by a big machine pulled behind a tractor. This is called drilling. The seeds shoot down little tubes and into the soil. This is done either in Autumn or Spring.

When the seeds have been planted, fertiliser is put on the crops to help them grow. When they have started growing, two sprays are used on them to get rid of insects and weeds. When they have grown bigger, another spray is used to kill fungi.

The crops are all harvested by a combine and then emptied into a tractor and trailer. Then they are either taken to a factory and made into food or taken to a grain merchant like Towns Agriculture in Scalford where they buy and sell grain, dry grain that is damp and store grain for farmers.



WHEAT

Wheat is the most common crop grown in the UK. It is very common around Scalford.

Wheat is part of the grass family and the bit we use is the seeds.

Wheat is used for a lot of foods. It is often milled into flour and made into things like bread, biscuits and cake. But it is also used in pasta, cereals, and couscous.

Good quality wheat is used for people and bad quality is used for animal food. On average we produce 15 million tonnes a year in the UK.



BARLEY

Barley is a crop grown all over the country. It is part of the grass family and the part which you use is the seed.

Barley is an important part of animal feed for cows, pigs, chickens and even fish. It is also used for drinks like beer and whiskey and sweets like malteesers.

Did you know that barley is rolled so it becomes flat and then cows can digest it. If it is not rolled, the grains come straight out the other end. 7 million tonnes of barley are produced in the UK every year. That is a lot!



OILSEED RAPE

Oilseed rape is a plant that has bright yellow flowers which you see a lot in spring.

It is in the brassica family. Other members of this family include: turnips, cabbage, kale, broccoli, cauliflower and Brussel sprouts.

The seeds are crushed and oil comes out. The small black seeds are 42% oil and this oil is used for cooking. All of the left over bits of seed are fed to farm animals such as cows.



FIELD BEANS

Field beans are in the legume family like peas.

This is a really common crop but a lot of people do not realise it.

The beans grown near Scalford are either sent to Egypt where people love to eat them or they are used in this country for animals to eat.

The plant has white flowers with black centres.



OATS

Oats are made into a lot of things. Here are some of them, Porridge, flapjacks, granola bars, muesli and Oatabix. The are also used for animal feed.

An oat is a type of grass plant that grows all year to be fully ripe and ready to be harvested in the late summer.

Here are some facts about oats. Around 700,000 tonnes of oats are produced every year by farms in the UK. Surprisingly oats are also put into lotions to sooth inflamed skin, from conditions such as chickenpox, eczema and sunburn.

Queen Rita at 90

Rita Robinson used to teach at Scalford School and she still lives in the village. Just like the Queen, she is 90 this year and so we invited her to school to be Queen for the day and we had a tea party. We were even filmed by the BBC for East Midlands Today.

The History of Scalford School

by Evie Cox

In some of the following blog posts you will find out about the school’s history. Here are some of the most important facts:

· The school has been in Scalford since 1844 and was originally the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel.

· The current building dates from 1902.

· The average number of pupils at that time was 130-140.

· More details can be found in Robert Ingles’s book: ‘A History of Scalford, Leicestershire’.

We also interviewed old teachers, staff and pupils. We looked at the old school log books, the old punishment book, some old newspaper cuttings and some old photographs.


We hope you enjoy learning about our school.

The history of our logo

Have you ever wondered about the history of our school logo? Scalford School hasn’t always had a bell tower and below we uncovered the full story.

When we were clearing out a cupboard we found this display board, made in 1992. It shows how the school bell tower was renovated.

School photograph, 1925

Newspaper cutting 1

Scalford School 70 Years Ago

My mum’s days at Scalford School

By Poppy Shaw, Base 3

My mum went to Scalford School and this is what she told me about it:

We never used to wear uniform at school. There were only packed lunches, no hot dinners and Mrs Clemons made me eat my crusts. On the last day before the summer holidays we used to bring in a toy and play with it all day. And at school there used to be a tuck shop. We used to have 5p a day that bought us 5 sweets. There was only 2 teachers in school, one called Mrs Clemons and the other Mrs Godfrey . At school there was nothing to play on - the only thing you could do is run about and play tig. We used to go on trips to the seaside. Base 2 and 3 were together and there were no pencils on the fence outside school.

Interviewing my Granny and Aunty about Scalford Primary School

by Claudia Clemons

Granny Penny (Mrs Clemons) started teaching at Scalford School in 1985 and stayed for 25 years. She started as the football teacher (she replaced a dad who went in his wellies and long Mac).She stopped for the rest of the afternoon and listened to readers. Then she started doing school trips and this led her to be asked to look after the class when the Head went off to meetings, or was having her hair done! Eventually she took over the Head's non-contact time, and things progressed from there

What was Scalford School like when you taught there?

There were three classes, but no divide between 2 and 3 like today. Sheds took over back playground as storage space was needed and the front playground is now bigger because the toilets are inside. Later the resources room constructed and so there was no longer a back playground.

While I was there a screen was put between the classes and we stopped using the front door as the office was put in the porch area. This had been the entrance and where the washing up was done after dinners.

Do you have any funny or entertaining memories?

I have lots of good memories of school trips and extended visits. We often went to sports events, including trips to Twickenham, Wimbledon, Leicester Tigers and Leicester City Football Club. We also had super teams representing the school and doing really well.

My aunty Ra Ra was a pupil at Scalford School from 1982 to 1988. I also asked her some questions:

What was Scalford School like when you were there?

It had outside toilets with tracing paper toilet roll and it was very cold in the winter. Mrs Robinson was very strict. They once had a head teacher called Mrs Pratt. There used to be a playground where the resources room is now and it had hopscotch in it. There was a nit nurse who came every month to check the children's hair. There were no iPads or computers and not even calculators. They did plays in Base 3 and the stage had to be put up under the big window. Sports Day was in the Vicarage garden. At one point the school was in danger of being closed as there were only 26 children.

We had milk in bottles every day. We had Houses (I was in ‘Apples’). We went swimming and to the library every Friday. There was a pottery kiln in the cupboard. Granny Penny used to bring the ponies down so we could ride home.

Can you tell me about any funny or entertaining times? 

I was once told to 'pull my socks up' and when I bent down to do it got told off. Edward Kitson squeezed his banana in a plastic bag until it turned to pulp and then he tipped it down Mrs Gatehouse’s neck. Granny Penny (Mrs Clemons) cut three big chunks out of my hair because she was not allowed by her father to have it cut and when got to school was made to stand in the corridor by the pegs all day.

What type of things did you do?

We did spelling, times tables and I remember learning about the planets. I wrote a story about a horse and won a prize. We did PE in the classroom where Base 3 is now – there were wall bars for climbing.

My Gran at Scalford Primary School

by Esther Mapletoft

My Gran went to Scalford Primary School and I talked to her about it. In 1959 there were 60 children and two teachers, Mr de Haro (Head teacher and KS2 teacher) and Mrs Pearson (infant teacher). Mr De Haro split the junior class into two classrooms (Mrs Bailey became class two teacher) but they didn’t have the screen across the middle so sometimes it was chaos.

The classrooms were very different in many ways. The tables were desks with a pot of ink and they used dippy pens to write with because biros hadn’t been invented yet. In class two and class one there were big furnaces.

Outside, there were two playgrounds - the girls had the smaller one and the boys used the big one to play football. Meanwhile the girls played circle games and skipping. The toilets were outside and they got very cold bottoms on the freezing toilet seats.

The school day was not dissimilar to ours, however whilst the boys got taught football the girls got taught how to sew and knit. You could either go home for lunch or have sandwiches or hot dinners. My gran decided not to have them because they were horrible. They were delivered from one of the high schools in a metal food canister.

There were still lots of special events like Sports day that was held across the road from my house where there are now two houses. At Christmas there was always a film show which was exciting for everyone. They also put on shows every year in Class 3.

Every morning all the children in Goadby, Wycomb and Chadwell got on the double decker bus with the secondary school children. In the winter the older boys used to sit on one side of the bus to try to push the bus over but thankfully never succeeded. One day the buses all went on strike so gran and her brother had to walk all the way from Chadwell.

In year six every pupil had to take the eleven plus to try to get into Melton Grammar School.

Our School’s History

by Ruby Holmes

We have been investigating our school. It has been in the village since 1844 but the room we now use for Base 1 was built in 1902. At times there were lots of children; as many as 130 – that’s twice as a many as we have now. We found some information from newspaper cuttings, photos and old pupils and staff. We have interviewed Mrs Robinson who was an old teacher and Mrs Wright who was a caretaker.

My mum went to Scalford School from 1978 to 1984 (I think). When she came they did not have to wear uniform. She used to go out of school to my grandma's at lunchtime for her lunch. The toilets were outside so in the winter it was very cold as there was no heating and the toilet paper was really hard like tracing paper. There were five children in my mum’s year three girls and two boys.

They didn't go to church and Chapel as often as we do know. They hardly went to the village hall. In year six one of their treats was to climb up the church tower. When they went swimming, on the way back they stopped outside the library and picked books and then got back on the bus and came back to school.

There were three teachers: a reception teacher, another teacher and then the head teacher (who used to teach as well as being a head teacher). In the olden days there was no pencil fence, there also was a little play area around the back. They had no equipment so they would play ball games, ring games and do skipping. They had toilets and a kitchen outside in the playground.

In the past they had no colourful displays like us now, and at the top they had a picture of the queen. They only had a black board, they had wooden tables and chairs .They used to perform their plays in the classroom but it was very tight between the door and stage. There was no door in between Bases 2 and 3.

My mum went away with school to great Yarmouth on a week’s holiday and they stayed in a small hotel. They went on week trips but the ones they went on weren’t as good as the ones we go on now.

The Scalford School Punishment Book

by Esther Mapletoft, Grace Riley, Evie Cox, Louise Davies, Isabel Jackson and Kayla Wallis

The Year Sixes have been looking at a very old book from the school’s archives called ‘The Punishment Book’. It was kept between 1900 and 1962 and it details bad behaviour and the punishments administered to pupils as a result. Most punishments were strokes of the cane, either on the hand or across the shoulders.

Below are some examples from the book.

On 4 November 1901 Joseph Stapleton was hit twice on the hand and four times across the shoulders for persistent talking.

On 15 November 1901 Harry Stapleford got ‘1 stripe’ across the back and the across the hand for persistent talking.

On 22 October 1902 Arthur Kirk was caned for ‘tickling the girls in the row in front of him’ having already been warned not to.

On 6 December 1907, Mabel Hodson and Eva Wilford got ‘one stripe’ on the hand and two across the shoulders for ‘indecent writing’.

In 1912, on 24 May, Samuel Durrand stole some pen nibs and he received one stripe on each hand and three across his back.

In 1913, Ernest Cox was hit twice on both hands for ‘setting fire to a girl’s pinafore on leaving school’.

In 1915 on 3 March, Wilson Pearson was hit three times on the back for insolence and then four more times for throwing a pen at his teacher when he became angry after being caned.

On 15 December 1916, Harold Cox received ‘about six stripes across the back’ as after receiving a slight punishment he began thumping the boy next to him and he had refused to take punishment in other ways.

On 31 October 1917, there was a fight involving Harry and Robert Lambert and Harold and Bertie Cox. This took place in the dinner hour and they also used ‘foul language’; as a result they all got a punishment of two stripes on each hand.

On 29 September 1919, Gilbert Watchorn was disobedient, refused to take a slight punishment and was insolent. He got several stripes across the back and one on the hand.

On 15 September 1920, Alec Bailey was given one stripe across each hand for cutting the desk with a knife. On 6 October 1921, Wallis Hill was not paying attention in class and he was also playing around. He refused to take punishment on the hand so he got three stripes across the back. However, he then dashed out of the school.

On 11 September 1923, Neville Watchorn received two strokes for playing with a balloon in lesson time.

On 30 October 1924, Dennis Bray got one stroke for telling a lie.

On 24 March 1925, Iain Swain got one stroke for climbing on the tiles.

On 31 March 1925, Harry Cox, Cyril Hill and Noel Pritchett got two strokes each for ‘reading improper chapters in the Bible’.

On 10 November 1925, Noel Pritchett and Jack Barnett got two strokes each for climbing on the roof of the porch.

On 11 February 1926 Edwin Pearson and Kenneth Giblett got 2 strokes each for ‘inattention and copying in arithmetic’.

The final entry in the book is from 28th February 1962, when Alan Watchorn received 2 strokes of the cane for insolence.

The original cane is still in school. Just in case…

The History of Scalford School - Log Books

We have spent some time looking at the school’s old log books. These date back to the 1800s and they provide details of attendance and events in the school calendar. We had to wear special gloves to look at them. We learnt a lot about the school’s history. Some examples of what we discovered follow. Sometimes the old-fashioned handwriting is tricky to read!

On this page from 1878 you can see how the harvest affected school attendance. It also shows how the summer holidays were delayed because of wet weather and the harvest holiday did not start until the end of August and they continued until October. When school started again, attendance remained poor for a while because a lot of children were still in the fields gleaning – which meant they were collecting the left-over spilt crops to help feed their families.

The next pages show an inspector’s report from 1878.

He said that the school was in an awful state when Mr Cockayne took charge as head teacher. He did his best to gain proper discipline, but standards were still low.

The school had not been doing very well therefore it would not receive any more grant money as the inspector thought the arithmetic was poor and the infant class knew nothing about letters.

The next page from 1887 explains there was really bad weather so that made many people not come to school. People at Scalford School got told off because the children were climbing on the walls next door and the teachers thought it was dangerous. The school broke up because of the snow and they had a week off for Christmas.

The next page is from 1889 and describes a bad accident. Joseph Bridge had not come to school because he was potato picking and then he jumped onto a cart to get a lift home. Then he caught his leg in one of the wheels when he fell off. He broke his thigh bone.

The next page from 1889 describes how illness affected attendance. Minnie Wilford had only attended 20 times during the last 14 weeks that the school had been opened. Minnie Wilford’s mother said that her daughter wasn’t coming to school, because her health was very poor. Minnie’s mother was scared that her daughter had consumption (a disease also called tuberculosis). Frederick Woodcock was at home with a broken arm. Mary woodcock (his sister), is very dangerously ill with erysipelas (a nasty infection that causes large red parches on the skin), the doctor informed the school on Tuesday that it would be a long time before she could attend school again. The average weekly attendance was 103.9.

This next page from 1889 describes an epidemic of measles. It says that between 40 and 50 children were absent. Most of the infants had measles. They closed the school for one week because there were only a few children who didn’t have measles. The school was also closed on Monday due to a Sunday School treat.

The next page from 1918 is from the end of the First World War. The Reverend was present that morning, opening the school gates for the first time since the world war finished. They spoke a few words to the children about the recent armistice. They also sang the National Anthem. Two weeks later they found out that most of the German Navy had surrendered. 

The next page from 1939 is from the beginning of the Second World War. The Vicar came to the school to tell the children what to do if there was an air raid, because the enemies were trying to bomb and kill them.

This last page from 1939 is from the beginning of the Second World War. There is proof in this page that at least 5 evacuees joined the school from large cities. The nurse also came to check on the pupils and the Reverend Woodcock visited to help with the nativity show.