Song: The daily round

The daily round

Chorus for the Pageant

1.
Now listen all ye eager maids
To what we are reciting
Of honour school has founded been
In times much more exciting
And so before our Muse grows faint
Or simply goes on stri—ike
We will endeavour to show you
What all the school girls looked like

2.
In Queen Victoria’s golden days
Our noble school was founded
In spite of spite and prejudice
By which it was surrounded
Its scholars all wore crinolines [Enter schoolgirl of 1878]
And pork pie hats and bustles
And had an army sergeant then
To exercise their muscles!

3.
That bustles are unpleasant things [Enter schoolgirl of 1890]
We need not lay great stress on
And nor did they for every day
Walked round between each lesson!
We next see them in trailing skirts [Enter schoolgirl of 1900]
Attempting to be sporty
We wonder if these maids demure
Were ever really naughty

4.
Behold these maids demure and straight [Enter schoolgirl of 1910]
Who walk in single file
For playing games in hobble skirts
Is somewhat of a trial
And next we see the wartime raid [Enter schoolgirl of 1914]
With skirts below the knee—ee
She looks efficient, neat and trim
And does war work you see-ee

5.
The modern miss is different quite
From those who went before
Her skirts are neither long nor tight
More comfortable I’m sure
And now we see the futurist
And she is quite masculine
And as she moves we see in her
The male in every line!

CHORUS

And so you see the fashions change
The High School changes never
Tho’ girls may come and girls may go
The school goes on forever

Apologies for the poor quality of this photograph. We found the lyrics to this song on a very fragile fine onion skin of tracing paper. The typed words are so feint that they are barely visible. The school referenced in the song is  Sheffield High School for Girls (now Sheffield Girls' School), established in 1878 (as noted in the song) on 12th March. Lorna was a pupil here.

If you would like to see the dress of some of the earlier pupils, there is a photograph of them on the School's web site at https://www.sheffieldhighschool.org.uk/why-us/our-history/.

We have already blipped some girls in the school uniform of the early 1930s in Lorna's journal. See the entry for 12th January 2020.