On 16 June 1873 St Peter’s School opened on the Dewsbury Road in Hunslet. This school has changed its name and been located on three different sites but now exists in the form of Hunslet Moor Primary School.
On Friday 16 June 2023, Hunslet Moor School celebrated the 150th anniversary with a history day. The day started with an assembly during which I shared some of the research I have been doing into the school history and the changes we have gone through in the last 150 years. We looked at photos of the three different sites of our school; Dewsbury Road, Burton Avenue and our modern site on Fairford Avenue and also old photos of Cockburn High School, when it was on Fairford Avenue.
The children then went to class and spent the morning looking at old maps and photos, and reading some memories I have collected from ex pupils and teachers and extracts from the Head Teacher log books that I was lucky enough to get to look through at the Leeds Archives.
During the afternoon each year group were given an event in history connected with the school to learn about. For example, Year 1 looked at the City of Leeds adopting the Ark Royal in 1941 and then raising money to build a new ship when she was sunk; Year 2 looked at the Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918 which was mentioned in the log book due to the effect on attendance and the fact that a teacher died; and Year 6 looked at the evacuation of children in World War 2 when children from Hunslet Moor were evacuated to Caistor in Lincolnshire.
At 2:30pm we went out into the grounds and buried a time capsule. This was something the children have been working on since the Coronation and we are leaving instructions for it to be opened in 70 years on 16 June 2093. It contains a selection of work that the children have done, including letters to future pupils telling them about life and school in 2023, reports about King Charles’ Coronation, aspirational letters – By the time you read this I will have lived my life as… and more. As well as this we put in planning and curriculum documents, photos, our last Ofsted report and information from our website, all chosen by the children.
This post was written by Maria Read
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