This study brings together two neglected fields of research—the writing of ordinary people and the materiality of schooling—to explore the representation of gender in a British girls’ school exercise book from the early twentieth century. The exercise book belonged to my great-grandmother, Violet Haynes, who attended Hannah More Girls’ School in St Philips, Bristol from 1907 to 1919. The pupils of Hannah More Girls’ School were predominantly working class and came from the surrounding districts of Easton, Eastville, and St Jude’s, impoverished areas characterised by their insalubrious and crime-infested slums (Smith 7). The school exercise book is an example of what Jennifer Sinor calls “ordinary writing”—that is, “writing that is typically unseen or ignored and is primarily defined by its status as discardable” (5). Julia Gillen and Nigel Hall (170) argue that ordinary writing from England’s past represents “an elusive quarry” in which only the writing of the elite or distinctive educated individuals has survived in archives, libraries, and personal collections. Thus, using a working-class exercise book to study ordinary writing is powerful, as it represents one of the few remaining tangible resources for exploring the life of working-class girls in post-Edwardian Britain. Furthermore, emphasising a working-class girl’s experience offers a new perspective on schooling in the early twentieth century, given that most historical accounts tend to concentrate predominantly on the experiences of men (Johnson; Simon; Silver), use language that hides or marginalizes the presence of girls (Hunt) or focus overwhelmingly on middle-class girls (Burstyn; Hobsbawm; Hunt). This research aims to redress the stereotype that girls were passive recipients of information, and demonstrate that, in fact, the board school encouraged working-class girls to play an active role in their educative experience and to negotiate their female identity in light of the New Woman movement.