All were ready by the official opening.  Children were organised into four houses named after steel firms in the City of Sheffield.  These were Mappin, Osborn, Firth and Allen.

School started at 8.55 a.m. and finished at 4.00 p.m. There were nine periods during the day.  Between periods three and four there was a fifteen minute break and lunch was after period five, there was another ten minute break between periods seven and eight.

They had to pay for their school dinners at the start of the week and there was no choice of dinners.  Very few children took sandwiches.  School milk was available free for all pupils.

Bad behaviour could be punished by corporal punishment.

Although it was only compulsory to stay at school until the end of the fourth year (Y10) the plan was to offer courses leading to public examinations (GCE and CSE) and pupils were going to be encouraged to stay on to take these exams.