Back in Time for School

Fifteen pupils and three teachers embark on an extraordinary time-travelling adventure to discover just how much life at school has changed over the past 100 years. The school itself is their time machine, transporting them through seven eras of British history – from Victorian grandeur and the age of Empire through a postwar grammar, a 60s secondary modern, and finally the dawning of the digital revolution in the 80s and 90s. Guided through their time travels by presenter Sara Cox and social historian Polly Russell, everything the students and teachers experience – from the lessons they learn to the dinners they eat, technology, discipline and playtime, is based on historical data and school records of the past.