Chalk, slates, sponges and ink

We didn't have books and pencils, but slates and chalk, and when we wanted to clean them we had to go to teacher, who would look at what you had written, then give you a damp sponge to wipe your slate.
L. Scarborough - Backyard Brighton

When the time came for us to use the slates (these were an oblong piece of roofing slate with a wooden frame around same) another boy would go around the class giving out round slate pencils.
Albert Paul - Poverty, Hardship but Happiness

In the other room pupils sat six to a desk. These were a long bench with two shelves. The bottom one was narrow - this was to put books, paper and pens on - the top was wider and had three inkwells let into it.

We had just moved from the time when the ink was made in a small room off the girls' cloak-room. This ink was made of powder grated from a block and mixed with water. If too much water was added it only left faint marks on the paper. If not enough water was added, it wrote like mud.

The ink that followed came in large earthenware bottles, and the ink monitor had to collect the inkwells from the classroom, take them to the cloakroom, fill them from the bottle and return them to their places. And woe betide anyone who spilt the ink!
Doris Hall - Growing up in Ditchling

Strange as it may seem, I got paid half-a-crown a month for being a monitor, though I don't know whether it was official or not. It may have come out of the headmaster's pocket; anyway every time I forgot to do something like changing his pen nib in his study, he would fine me threepence but at the end of the month I'd still get my money. I had to stand up in front of the class and keep control of them, which I had to do as monitor every time the teacher left the classroom.
John Langley - Always a Layman