'Cows before children': Talks held in Jersey for islanders to learn the history behind their schools

The school log books revealed Jersey's quirky school stories, including schools closing for children to take part in the island's potato picking and how cows were once prioritised. Credit: ITV Channel

For the first time, residents in Jersey can discover the history of the island's schools, their ancestors and the island's quirky school stories.

It comes as Jersey Heritage is hosting its 'What's Your School Story'' series where once a month residents have a chance to learn about the teachers and pupils who sat in classrooms in years gone by.

Linda Romeril, Head of Archives and Collections at Jersey Heritage highlights some of the island's interesting stories, such as prioritising the Jersey cow, she says: "We have a great quote from when they were talking about compulsory education and one of the states members from the time was accusing others of putting cows before children, he basically said, "We look after our cows, we are very proud of cows but our children, well we don't mind if they are uneducated and if they go off into the world without the learning that they need", so that is a fantastic quote and is really interesting to see how attitudes have changed over the years."

Linda also says she hopes it reconnects islanders to previous generations, she says: "Primary schools are such an important part of our lives and we do really build up communities in those areas, particularly with some of the traditional parish schools where you see generations of families going to the same school.

"What we wanted was to do was highlight the schools, talk about their role in the community and look at some of the funny stories that happen to the pupils and the teachers."

Talk dates and themes: Saturday, 15 March / St John's SchoolSaturday, 19 April / St Martin's SchoolSaturday, 17 May / St Luke's SchoolSaturday, 21 June / La Moye SchoolSaturday, 19 July / First Tower SchoolSaturday, 16 August / St Mark's SchoolSaturday, 20 September / St Lawrence SchoolSaturday, 18 October / St Clement's SchoolSaturday, 15 November / Trinity SchoolSaturday, 20 December / Schools at Christmas Time

She adds: "Education wasn't compulsory until the late 19th Century and what's interesting is we often see in our early log books, which are books from headmasters, that particularly in those country parishes, lots of children off of school to take part in the potato picking, to the point where schools actually just have a break."

"It is a great way to connect different generations and they can talk to their grandparents about what was school like when you were at school and what they were taught back then."

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