Jersey pupil compares homework to Edwardian namesake as old schoolbooks uncovered

  • Jersey pupil Florence Jones has been comparing her work with Florence du Feu from the 1900's

A 12-year-old pupil from Jersey has been exploring what children in the early 20th century would have been studying.

Florence Jones is the same age as her Edwardian namesake Florence du Feu would have been when she attended Le Coin School in St Ouen during the 1900s.

Ms du Feu was born in Jersey in 1890 and would have been aged between 12 and 14 at the time that she took her classes.

Jersey Heritage have 23 of Ms du Feu's books in their social history collection which provide an insight into the subjects she studied and what children were being taught at school at this time.

Archives & Collections Director Linda Romeril says: "What's lovely here is that we tend to have school admission details, so we know which pupils went to which schools in the island, but this gives us much more more of a flavour of the day-to-day life of the school and the way that children would have been taught.

"It is very very factual and it is very different to the way children would be taught today."

Florence Jones compares her exercise books with Florence du Feu from 1902. Credit: ITV Channel

In her history classes, Ms du Feu learnt about the English monarchs from the Saxons to the present day, as well as key events in British history such as the Civil War, the Reformation and the Hundred Years' War.

Jersey Heritage also have the exercise books from her Maths, English, Geography and French classes.

Linda says Ms du Feu's textbooks are a good indicator into her social background and that she was a "well educated young lady".

Linda adds: "I think if we looked at other schooling in the island at the time, maybe people wouldn't be working at this level at that sort of age.

"I mean not long after that age, people would be going out to work but obviously Florence has got a good education behind her."

Archivists say that Ms du Feu's work was incredibly intricate and detailed. This is a photograph taken from her map exercise book. Credit: ITV Channel

Florence from the 21st century was surprised to see how beautiful her Edwardian namesake's work was.

She explains: "Her handwriting is so fancy, beautifully joined-up and really neat, compared to mine it's quite different."

However, she does notice some similarities in their work, adding: "The topics are really similar, we have both been learning about Henry the Seventh and there is even a similar question in our textbooks, but the teaching and learning is really different."

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