Hadow (1926)

Notes on the text
Preliminary pages Membership, Analysis, Preface, Introduction
Chapter 1 Development of post-primary education in England and Wales 1800-1918
Chapter 2 The facts of the present situation
Chapter 3 The lines of advance
Chapter 4 Curricula for Modern Schools and Senior Classes
Chapter 5 The place of 'bias' in the curriculum of Modern Schools and Senior Classes
Chapter 6 The staffing and equipment of Modern Schools and Senior Classes
Chapter 7 The admission of children to Modern Schools and Senior Schools
Chapter 8 The lengthening of school life
Chapter 9 The question of a leaving examination
Chapter 10 Administrative problems
Chapter 11 Conclusions and recommendations; Notes of reservation
Chapter 12 Suggestions on the curriculum in Modern Schools and Senior Classes
Appendix I List of witnesses
Appendix II Notes on nomenclature
Appendix III Statistics relating to Chapter 2(ii)
Appendix IV Post-primary education abroad
Appendix V List of publications
Index

London: HM Stationery Office

Chapter 1 Sketch of the development of full-time post-primary education in England and Wales from 1800 to 1918
[pages 1 - 35]

In the following historical sketch of developments in higher primary education from the early decades of the last century to the passing of the Education Act of 1918, we do not aim at giving a consecutive account of the growth of elementary education as a whole. We allude, where necessary, only to the main stages in that development. Our object is to describe the various types of post-primary school which from time to time emerged from the general system of elementary education, and to give some account of the character of the teaching, the content of the curriculum, and the general aims of those schools.

Part 1 The beginnings of post-primary education from 1800 to the issue of the revised Code in 1862

1. At the beginning of the last century, in spite of all the attractions which zealous founders of primary schools could offer, very few children of the poorer classes spent more than two or three years in full-time attendance at school. Few even of the educational enthusiasts of that time believed in a longer school life, and indeed many founders of primary schools were avowedly on their guard against teaching the children too much.

The state of public opinion on the subject of the curriculum and the length of school life in primary schools may be gauged to some extent by the terms of Peel's Factory Act 1802 entitled 'An Act for the preservation of the health and morals of apprentices and others employed in cotton and other mills and cotton and other factories.' (1) Under this statute the employer was required to provide adequate instruction in reading, writing and arithmetic during the first four years at least of the seven years of apprenticeship. The Act provided that this secular instruction must be included in the twelve hours of daily occupation beginning not earlier than 6am and ending not later than 9pm. Many of the apprentices who came within the purview of the enactment were young pauper children who were frequently brought from distant workhouses to work in the cotton mills. (2) Though Peel's Act was imperfectly enforced, it nevertheless established useful precedents, and showed that the State was beginning to realise its social responsibilities in the matter of education.

There were however a few pioneers who recognised the desirability of prolonging school life and of teaching subjects other than the three R's, which at first formed the main objective of the numerous elementary schools which were being established, largely under the influence of Lancaster and Bell, in the early decades of the nineteenth century.

2. The promoters of the ordinary primary schools were, to some extent, indirectly influenced by the Sunday School movement. which was then at the height of its influence, and reading was regarded as particularly important in order to enable children to read the Bible.

A Committee of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, founded in 1699, and the Society for Bettering the Conditions and Increasing the Comforts of the Poor, founded in 1796, devoted much attention to primary education, but a more powerful impulse to the provision of schools on a large scale was given by the foundation of two great educational organisations, the British and Foreign School Society (1808) and the National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church (1811). The British and Foreign School Society supported the monitorial system of Joseph Lancaster. The National Society's schools followed the monitorial system of Dr Andrew Bell, sometimes called the 'Madras' system. In 1816 a Committee of the House of Commons, presided over by Mr Brougham, afterwards Lord Brougham, reported that they had found reason to conclude that a very large number of poor children were wholly without the means of instruction. One of the Reports of this Committee pointed out that the education of the people was a matter in which the State was vitally concerned. (3)

Down to 1833, the new primary schools which had been established in large numbers were wholly supported by voluntary contributions and school fees. In 1833 the government, for the first time, made a grant of £20,000, to be applied to the erection of school houses. This grant was distributed on the recommendation of the two great Educational Societies mentioned above.

3. The supporters of Lancaster and Bell, both of whom had aimed primarily at teaching the three R's in their monitorial schools, soon found it necessary to compromise with employers of labour, landed proprietors and clergy, who were establishing schools from religious and other motives, and who favoured a curriculum somewhat on the lines of that in vogue in the Schools of Industry, a type of charity school with a severely utilitarian curriculum 'mixing labour with learning', which had originated in the 17th century (4) and had been further developed in the last decades of the 18th century in association with the existing Poor Law system. (5) Thus the curricula (6) that were actually in use in many of the monitorial schools were at first largely based on the courses of instruction given in the Schools of Industry, which in addition to the three R's included such practical activities as cobbling, tailoring, gardening, and simple agricultural operations for boys, and spinning, sewing, knitting, lace-making and baking for girls.

For example, in the 'Schools of Industry' at Kendal opened in 1799, the children were taught reading and writing, geography and religion. Thirty of the older girls were employed in knitting, sewing, spinning and housework, and 36 younger girls were employed in knitting only. The older boys were taught shoemaking, and the younger boys prepared machinery for carding wool. The older girls assisted in rotation in preparing breakfast, which was provided in the school at a small weekly charge. They were also taught laundry work. The staff consisted of one schoolmaster, two teachers of spinning and knitting, and one teacher for shoemaking. (7)

Pupils at such schools were able to earn a little money by the sale of articles made in school, and in this way parents were induced to allow their children to remain longer under instruction. (8)

Thus from the first the primary schools established for children of the poorer classes were influenced by two ideals of education (i) a definite training with a vocational aim, such as that given by the schools of industry, designed to improve the earning capacity of children immediately on leaving school, and incidentally to illustrate the soundness of the prevalent economic doctrine of the period - the instruction of the poor in habits of work and in thrift, and (ii) a general education throughout the years of incipient adolescence. (9) In practice, the first-named ideal, which was to some extent analogous to the aims of the contemporary Swiss educationalists, Pere Girard, Wehrii and De Fellenberg, was usually followed, as it appealed more directly to parents and children as well as to the founders and promoters of these Schools.

4. Influenced by the example of Scotland, and of Prussia, France, Holland and other continental States, a small group of thinkers, led by Bentham and Place, aspired to advance still further, and pressed for schools to meet the requirements of the class immediately above the very poor. They aimed at establishing both higher grade elementary schools and secondary schools on the monitorial system, initiated by Lancaster. (10) Unfortunately, the course of studies which Bentham devised under the name of the 'Chrestomathic Scheme' for the higher elementary education of children from 7 to 14 years of age was too encyclopaedic in character, and the proposal met with little support at the time.

5. However, the success with which certain schools connected with the British and Foreign School Society and the National Society gradually developed curricula of a higher elementary type and catered for a more prosperous class of pupils shows that Place and Bentham had anticipated a real need. Thus, in several British Schools, geometry, French, and even trigonometry were introduced into the curriculum for some of the older boys between 1819 and 1824. Singing and linear drawing were added a few years later. (11)

In the same way the National Society about 1838 was interesting itself in the question of establishing Middle Schools designed to offer the middle classes at moderate fees a useful general education based on church principles. The ancient Grammar Schools were unevenly distributed throughout the country, and many of them gave an education little different from that provided by the primary schools. Again the Society observed that many of the ordinary private day schools were inferior to its own primary schools in point of discipline, teaching and religious instruction. It accordingly began to graft superior schools on its already existing Normal Schools. Thus a Middle School (sometimes called the yeoman school) was founded at York, attached to the Training College. It was arranged in six classes, the lowest class containing some children of the age of 5 and 6 years. In addition to the three R's, grammar, history, Latin and mensuration were taught. (12) Schools of similar type were founded at London, Canterbury, Manchester, Lincoln and elsewhere. At Manchester the first of four 'Commercial' Schools established by the Manchester Church Education Society was opened in 1846. It provided a modern curriculum, including French, German, and drawing.

In these developments may be observed, probably for the first time, the tendency which has been implicit throughout the whole growth of primary education in England and Wales to throw up experiments in post-primary education.

6. Several of the ordinary National (13) Schools retained a considerable proportion of children over the age of 11 and provided appropriate instruction for them. The National School at King's Somborne in Hampshire was noted at this period for the variety and practical character of its curriculum. Mr Moseley, Inspector of Schools, describing the School in 1847, stated that among the most interesting features of the Girls' Department was the needlework: 'The elder girls are taught not only to work, but by paper patterns to cut out work for themselves, and the dresses of the First Class on the day of my examination were many of them thus cut out and all made by themselves.' The boys in the First Class took algebra and the first book of Euclid, and mensuration was taught as an application of the principles of geometry. Vocal music was also included in the curriculum: Mr Moseley states that the greatest excellence of this school was the union of instruction in a few simple principles of natural science, applicable to things familiar to the children's daily observation, with everything else usually taught in a National School. In 1847 there were in the school 28 boys and 28 girls over 11 years of age. (14)

7. A similar tendency to develop post-primary instruction for the older pupils was observable in many of the Wesleyan Schools which were being founded in considerable numbers from about 1843.

As Matthew Arnold pointed out in his reports, many of the children attending these schools were drawn not from the very poor but from a more prosperous class of parents who were prepared to keep their children longer at school. (15) A considerable number of the pupils remained after the age of 11, and in addition to reading, writing, cyphering and scripture lessons, received instruction in English, grammar, geography, history, elementary science, hygiene and singing. (16) Some of the Wesleyan schools in rural areas had an agricultural bias, with lessons in mensuration, land surveying, book-keeping, and agriculture. (17) In the same way, some of the Wesleyan urban schools had a slight commercial bent. There were also throughout the country many private Elementary Schools in which older children were taken as well as younger.

One of the most potent causes which stimulated public interest in schools providing higher primary instruction of the type described above was the pressing need in the ordinary primary schools for an adequate supply of the assistant teachers who were gradually replacing the monitors of earlier days.

8. It is interesting to find that several Inspectors in the forties urged strongly the desirability of establishing completely organised schools for older children, under the charge of able teachers in central localities, with smaller contributory schools in each village. For example, the Rev FC Cook, in his Report for 1847, wrote:

'I adhere, however, to the opinion which I formerly expressed, (18) and which I now repeat, having had the advantage of conversing with many of the most experienced supporters of education upon the subject, that in most country districts it would be advisable to have a preparatory school in each village, and a completely organised school, under the charge of able teachers, in a central locality.' (19)

A similar recommendation was made in the same year by another Inspector, the Rev HW Bellairs:

'I think it very desirable that district schools should be formed for three, four, or five parishes, wherein, under an efficient master with apprentices, a superior education may be provided not only for the elder children of labourers, but also for such of the farmers, small tradesmen, and mechanics, as may choose to avail themselves of it.' (19)

Suggestions of the kind quoted above had, however, little effect at the time, as the provision of primary schools was viewed as a parochial matter, and as the state of public opinion on the whole subject of elementary education and its relation to the education given in existing grammar schools was singularly blurred and confused.

9. Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth, Secretary to the Committee of Council on Education from 1839 to 1849, had been much impressed by the practical work which he had seen in Switzerland in the schools established by Pere Girard, Wehrli and De Fellenberg, and by the success which had attended his efforts to introduce work of this type into some of the Poor Law Schools. He accordingly made a determined attempt to introduce more practical instruction into the ordinary primary schools. (20) In the Regulations respecting the education of pupil teachers and stipendiary monitors, which he submitted to the Privy Council in December 1846, it was provided that pupil teachers at the end of their fourth year should be examined by the Inspector 'in the first steps in mensuration with practical illustrations, and in the elements of land surveying and levelling.' The women pupil-teachers in every year of their course were expected 'to show increased skill as seamstresses, and teachers of sewing, knitting, etc.'

The minutes of the Committee of Council on Education for 1846 also provided for grants towards the provision in day schools of industry of field gardens, workshops for trades, and kitchens and wash-houses, and for gratuities to the masters who taught boys gardening and crafts and to mistresses who gave satisfactory instruction in domestic economy. (21)

10. Kay-Shuttleworth's efforts in this direction however had but little effect on the great mass of primary schools. Most of the persons concerned in developing the system of elementary education at that time were university graduates whose interests were chiefly literary and scientific. They accordingly, for the most part, pressed for more culture in the schools, and there was a noticeable tendency to emphasise the superiority of a general non-manual education over any sort of vocational training such as that given in the schools of industry.

It is interesting however to find that several inspectors in the fifties expressed profound dissatisfaction with the purely literary character of the work done in most schools, and emphasised the importance of industrial training. The Rev HW Bellairs, in his Report for 1856, after describing the work done in school gardens in a few schools in his district, stresses the importance of industrial training. After pointing out that industrial work was not practised either by pupil teachers or by students in Training Colleges, he concludes as follows:

'If, therefore, it should be determined that instruction in manual industry ought to form a part of the peasant's education in school, it would be necessary for your Lordships to encourage it or insist upon it, on the part of the pupil-teachers and the students in Training Colleges. I see such clear and unmistakably good results from gardening, when a master takes to it in earnest, that I cannot but entertain hopes that the practice of this will, at all events, increase.' (22)

The gradual abandonment of practical work was doubtless partly due to economic considerations. It was soon discovered that any effective form of practical instruction cost much more than the teaching of the three R's. Moreover, it was almost impossible to arrange for such instruction in large classes taught by monitors. Owing to the growth of commerce and sea-borne trade in the middle decades of the last century, there was a great demand for clerks, and it was found in schools, where advanced work for older pupils was attempted, that it was much easier to train them for clerical work than for manual occupations. Matthew Arnold, writing about 1858, stated that the humane studies in the upper classes of the best elementary schools were by far the most interesting part of the curriculum. (23)

11. An important stage in the development of post-primary education is marked by the Report of the Royal Commission appointed in 1858 under the chairmanship of the Duke of Newcastle 'To inquire into the state of public education in England and to consider and report what measures, if any, are required for the extension of sound and cheap elementary instruction to all classes of the people.' The Commissioners in their Report, presented in 1861, stated that the plan of leaving the initiation of popular education to religious bodies had, on the whole, been justified by results, but they suggested that county and borough boards of education should be established with power to levy local rates in aid of efficiency. (24) The weakness of existing arrangements lay rather in the doubtful value of much of the so-called educational provision, the early leaving age of the children, and the low standard of attendance. Even in the best of the inspected schools, only about one fourth of the pupils reached the highest class. It appears, however, that the Commissioners thought that some teachers were disproportionately interested in the work of their older scholars to the neglect of the younger and less brilliant pupils. (25)

Part 2 From the issue of the Revised Code of 1862 to the passing of the Elementary Education Act 1870

12. The Commissioners' recommendations were the result of compromise, and as the government was not disposed to take the risk of attempting to embody them in an education bill, it devolved on Mr Lowe, as Vice-President of the Committee of Council on Education, to make such administrative changes as were considered advisable. In order to meet the criticism that too much attention was given to the older scholars to the neglect of younger pupils, Mr Lowe provided in the revised Code of 1862 that grants would not as a rule be earned by children above 12. This arrangement had the effect of leading teachers to devote most of their attention to pupils below that age and to concentrate on the teaching of 'the three rudimentary subjects' and needlework for girls.

Mr Lowe, explaining the principles of the revised Code to the House of Commons on 13 February 1862, said 'It proposed to give capitation grants on each attendance above a certain number - say 100, to be subject to reduction upon failure in reading, writing, or arithmetic. It was said that by this plan we were degrading education. The truth is, what we fix is a minimum of education, not a maximum. The object of the Privy Council is to promote education among the children of the labouring poor.' Thus the higher primary work which was beginning to appear before 1861 in the best elementary schools was seriously discouraged by the Code of 1862. The curriculum was largely restricted to the three R's, and the only form of practical instruction that survived was needlework.

13. These rigid rules were slightly relaxed by Lowe himself and still more by his successor Corry, who stated in his Minute of 20 February 1867, that one of his aims was 'to encourage instruction beyond the elementary subjects'. The intention was to effect this by offering grants on the result of individual examination to schools which in addition to the obligatory subjects organised a three years' course of instruction for pupils in Standards IV, V and VI in at least one of the 'specific' subjects of secular instruction beyond the three R's, e.g. geography, grammar, history, geometry, natural philosophy. It is clear, however, from the Reports of Matthew Arnold (26) and other Inspectors that this process of relaxing the rigidity of the revised Code was not carried sufficiently far to resuscitate many of the 'select classes' which had existed up to 1862.

14. The movement, however, was not wholly suspended by the operation of the revised Code, as at that time many country schools were maintained by the local squire, whose pride in his estates often led him to decline government aid. In these elementary schools, outside the purview of the state system, an arrangement was frequently in operation which provided a central village school taught by a trained master, while the smaller schools of adjacent hamlets were staffed by women. Under such an arrangement it frequently happened that boys of 11 were sent for one or two years to the central school, thus strengthening considerably its upper classes.

At this time also a number of large industrial concerns maintained primary schools on their works (27) for the children of their employees. Schools of this type sometimes contained special classes at the top for the older and more gifted boys.

These attempts to organise 'Tops' to elementary schools, inadequate as they may seem at the present day, nevertheless marked a great advance at the time, and had a certain salutary influence on the numerous private schools and on many of the smaller grammar schools which were compelled to raise their standard of attainment.

15. The Report of the Schools Inquiry Commission (1864-1868) exercised a certain indirect influence on the development of higher primary education. The Commissioners recommended (28) that three grades of higher or secondary schools should be established according as the leaving age of the majority of pupils was at 18, 16 or 14. They thought that schools of the second type should be established in every town of over 5,000 inhabitants.

The third grade schools (29) for pupils leaving at about the age of 14 or 15 were to teach the elements of French and Latin. Such schools would now be regarded as 'post-primary', but the Commissioners envisaged them as 'secondary' because the Elementary School Code of 1862 had practically fixed the leaving age for elementary schools at 12. They represented a type intermediate between primary and secondary schools, resembling the Prussian Burgerschulen and the Sekundarschulen of Canton Zurich as they existed in 1868. (30) The Commissioners thought that it was not desirable to attempt to combine the work of all three grades in one school, nor to treat the work of schools of lower grades as a fragment of the work of schools of higher grade. Three different kinds of work required three different kinds of school. The Commissioners recommended that each kind of school should have its own proper aim set before it, and should be put under such rules as would compel it to keep to that aim.

Many persons interested in elementary education were much impressed by these recommendations and immediately set to work to grapple with the problem, which seemed to them urgent, and tried to develop new schools of the third grade type as well as 'tops' to existing primary schools.

16. Several of the Reports (on the educational systems of foreign countries) prepared by Assistant Commissioners for the Schools Inquiry Commission (1864-1868) laid particular stress on the importance of grading schools. For example, the Rev James Fraser (afterwards Bishop of Manchester) in his Report on the Common School system of the United States (1866) writes: 'There can be no doubt that if we could introduce the graded system into our elementary town and city schools - it would, I think, be impracticable in country districts - we should be introducing a principle of union which would be a principle of strength. ... The gradation of schools is just the strength of the American system.' (31) Similar passages occur in Matthew Amold's Report to the same Commission on the educational systems of France, Italy, Germany and Switzerland (1868). (32) These Reports which were widely read at the time in association with the main Report of the Commission helped to prepare public opinion for the development of 'higher grade' schools during the next three decades.

Part 3 The Elementary Education Act 1870 and the development of 'higher grade' schools up to 1900

17. The Elementary Education Act 1870 marks a most important stage in the development of the national system of elementary education. The Act mapped out the country into school districts, each of which might have a School Board separately chargeable with the duty of providing elementary education within its own borders, which were to be boroughs or parishes or groups of parishes, London being constituted a district by itself. Section 5 of the Act enacted that 'there shall be provided for every school district a sufficient amount of accommodation in Public Elementary Schools as hereinafter defined, available for all the children resident in such district for whose elementary education efficient and suitable provision is not otherwise made.'

Section 74 empowered School Boards to frame bye-laws making attendance at school compulsory for children between the ages of five and thirteen. This provision, however, was only permissive, and the bye-laws, if made, were subject to numerous exemptions.

18. In most parts of England and Wales the number of existing voluntary schools was not nearly sufficient to provide for the needs of all children of school age, and so for some years after the passing of the Act the School Boards were mainly occupied in providing Public Elementary Schools to meet the shortage of school places. The voluntary schools on their part made a great effort to strengthen and consolidate their position, and thus it came about that for several years after 1870 most of the schools retaining any considerable proportion of older children were voluntary schools. (33) The following descriptions of the work done in two 'high grade' schools of this type, given by persons who were pupils at them in the early seventies, throw an interesting light on the general character and aim of the curriculum.

(i) Lancaster (34) National School: The 'head class' was composed of boys drawn from miles around. Admission was chiefly determined by an oral examination intended to reject all but the most promising candidates. This class supplied a number of intending teachers and from it boys, usually between 15 and 16 years of age, were appointed to vacant clerkships at industrial works which frequently led to partnership in the firms later on in life. The curriculum beyond the three R's included a little Latin, and a great deal of mathematics, drawing and science.

(ii) Oswestry (34) National School: The 'higher top' was largely composed of farmers' sons who came, after attending small country schools, particularly to acquire clear and accurate English speech. Entrance was not difficult; but pupils were expected to stay to the age of 16 or even later. Many went afterwards into merchants' offices in Liverpool and elsewhere. In addition to the usual subjects much attention was given to English literature accompanied by Latin, grammar, algebra and arithmetic, practical mensuration, drawing, mechanics and heat, which included a certain amount of practical work.

19. From about 1870 the growth of public interest in education, fostered largely by the writings of Herbert Spencer, Huxley and others, began to make itself felt in various attempts of the Education Department to expand the curriculum of Elementary Schools. The policy initiated by Corry's minute of 1867 (described in section 13) was carried a stage further by the Code of 1871 which provided for a special grant for each individual scholar who passed a satisfactory examination in not more than two 'specific' subjects of secular instruction beyond the three R's. At the same time the list of 'specific' subjects was greatly extended so as to include foreign languages, various branches of pure and applied science, or any definite subject of instruction extending over the classes to be examined in Standards IV, V, and VI. In 1875, a further step was taken by the introduction of 'class' subjects, viz., grammar, geography, history and plain needlework, for which additional grant was paid. Later Codes, especially that for 1880, extended the list of these 'class' subjects which, if taught at all, had to be taught throughout the whole school above Standard I. The curriculum of an elementary school from 1875 to the later 90's thus consisted of three main parts:

1. The obligatory subjects, i.e., the three R's (called 'the elementary subjects') with needlework for girls. The optional subjects -
1a. The class subjects, which were optional for the whole school above Standard I.
2b. The specific subjects which might be taught to individual scholars in Standards IV to VI. (35)

20. In 1876 Lord Sandon included in his Education Act of that year a system of Honour Certificates, which gave free education for three years to pupils who had passed the Standard IV examination at 10 years of age and held a Certificate of regular attendance for five years. (36) This arrangement lasted only for five years, but several leading witnesses who gave evidence before the Cross Commission in 1888 spoke of the useful results of the system while it was in operation, and there seems no doubt that it helped considerably in the development of 'tops' to many Elementary Schools. (37)

The provisions in the Education Acts of 1876 and 1880 in regard to attendance bye-laws, and the like, had the indirect effect of producing a very considerable increase in the number of children who remained at school up to and beyond the age of 13. To meet the needs of these pupils a seventh standard was added in 1882 by the Education Department to the previously existing six standards.

21. It was found, however, that a number of children remained at school after passing the seventh standard. Ex-standard classes were accordingly formed for these, and after a time it was found convenient to draft off children from these schools into one central school. Sometimes a building was erected for the purpose and sometimes a previously existing school was set apart for the work, but in either case the school chosen became what was called in the last two decades of the 19th century a 'Higher Grade School.' By far the greater number of these Higher Grade Schools had an upper portion arranged as an 'organised Science Course or School' under the Science and Art Department, though some School Boards retained a few ex-standard scholars in their schools in 'Science Classes' under the Science and Art Department. (38) A number of School Boards, especially those in large urban areas, devoted much attention to the development of these 'higher grade' schools. For example, Sheffield established about 1878 a 'Higher Central School' for the Sixth and Seventh standards, to which pupils were admitted by competition. The upper part of the school was arranged as an 'organised Science School' under the Science and Art Department, and the course of instruction comprised mechanics, physics, chemistry, and drawing, which included machine drawing and construction. The Central School at Manchester, which was one of four higher grade schools in the city, was also an Organised Science School. The Birmingham School Board established a similar school with a three years' course. During the first year the pupils were seventh standard scholars earning grants from the Education Department. For the remainder of the Course they became students earning grants on examination from the Science and Art Department. (39) This procedure was adopted by other School Boards in financing and managing Schools of this type, which were (40) known locally as 'Higher Elementary' or 'Higher Standard' Schools. They were essentially an organic outgrowth of the system of elementary education established by the Education Act of 1870. (41)

The higher subjects usually taken up by the pupils in these schools included mathematics, plain geometry and projections, free-hand drawing, in addition to one of the following subjects: machine construction and drawing, theoretical and practical chemistry, electricity.

22. As soon as it came to be understood that these schools were institutions at which education could be continued for a year or two longer than at the ordinary elementary schools a large number of parents who intended to keep their children at school after the age of 13 began to send them to the 'Higher Grade' school as early as possible in their school life. Furthermore, the fact that the pupils in these schools were to have a two years' course beyond the ordinary standards reacted on the education given in the standards, with the result that in many schools it became the practice to begin the teaching of elementary mathematics and languages at the fifth or sixth standard. Many of the Higher Grade Schools had preparatory, junior or elementary sections.

A certain amount of science had long been taught in the best elementary schools. It was therefore a natural development that the ex-standard classes in higher grade schools should take up one or two science subjects and present pupils in them for the examinations conducted by the Science and Art Department, so as to obtain the grants paid for first and second class passes in these tests by individual pupils. The choice of science subjects offered by the Science and Art Directory was fairly wide, and the selection of such subjects by head teachers of higher grade schools was naturally influenced not only by the utility of a subject from the educational aspect, but also by the ease or difficulty of preparing pupils to pass in it and so earn grants on which the existence of the upper part of the school largely depended. Thus, in a certain Midland city a class was instructed in navigation, and in a girls' school situated in a large manufacturing town the headmistress proposed to teach agriculture. To check such eccentricities, the Science and Art Department encouraged Higher Grade Schools to adopt the organised Science Course which provided for instruction in mathematics, practical geometry, physics, chemistry, and drawing. This course was soon generally adopted by the schools.

23. The Reports of the Royal Commission on Technical Instruction (1882-1884), more especially the second Report (1884), had a considerable indirect effect in strengthening the position of Higher Grade Schools and in enriching generally the conventional curriculum of elementary schools.

The Commissioners recommended that the State should recognise the distinction between elementary and secondary education to a greater extent than had as yet been attempted, that instruction in the rudiments of the sciences bearing upon industry should form a part of the curriculum of elementary schools, and that instruction in drawing, and more especially in drawing with rule and compass, of a character likely to be useful to the children in their future occupations as workmen and artisans, should receive far greater attention than heretofore.

After commenting favourably on the plan adopted by the School Boards of Liverpool and Birmingham of giving instruction in natural science by well qualified demonstrators, the Commissioners recommended that 'Higher Elementary Schools, like those of Sheffield and Manchester,' should be established, into which the more advanced pupils of the primary schools might be drafted, especially if the parents were able to keep them at school up to the age of 14 or 15.

It was also recommended that manual work should be introduced into the primary schools (as had already been done at Manchester and Sheffield) and correlated with the teaching of drawing, especially mechanical and geometrical drawing, both in ordinary schools and in higher grade schools.

The recommendations of the Commission in regard to higher technical teaching were largely incorporated in the Technical Instruction Act of 1889 which vested the newly established County Councils and other local bodies with power to supply or aid the supply of technical and manual instruction.

The phrases 'technical instruction' and 'manual instruction' were defined in the Act as follows:

'The expression "technical instruction" shall mean instruction in the principles of science and art applicable to industries, and in the application of special branches of science and art to specific industries or employments. It shall not include teaching the practice of any trade or industry or employment, but, save as aforesaid, shall include instruction in the branches of science and art with respect to which grants are for the time being made by the Department of Science and Art, and any other form of instruction (including modern languages and commercial and agricultural subjects), which may for the time being be sanctioned by that Department by a minute laid before Parliament and made on the representation of a local authority that such a form of instruction is required by the circumstances of its districts.' (42) 'The expression "manual instruction" shall mean instruction in the use of tools, processes of agriculture, and modelling in day, wood, or other material.'

24. The Welsh Intermediate Education Act of 1889 facilitated the development of an adequate system of Secondary Schools in the Principality, but in England the public provision of Secondary Schools was retarded during the last two decades of the 19th century by the absence of larger Local Authorities vested with educational powers. On the other hand, much attention was devoted by many public men and members of School Boards to what they regarded as the urgent need of the day, viz., more fully developed elementary education, particularly for children in the higher standards.

This is brought into high relief in the elaborate Reports of the Cross Commission (1886-1888) and particularly in the Final Report (1888) (43)

The familiar arguments adduced for and against central elementary schools today were then brought forward in regard to the higher grade schools. 'While the evidence before us is abundant for the purpose of showing how popular, and for the most part successful, these higher elementary schools are in the various places where they have been founded, still opinions are much divided as to the policy of extending, or even continuing them.' (44) Some witnesses, while much desiring to see a sound system of secondary education established, looked coldly upon higher grade schools, thinking that the ground they claimed to occupy would be better assigned to secondary schools, to which children might be promoted by means of exhibitions. Other witnesses expressed the opinion that the effect of withdrawing from the ordinary elementary schools all the children in the higher standards would be to injure those schools educationally by destroying a source of interest to the teachers and of ambition for the scholars.

On the other hand, it was urged that in view of the difficulty of finding sufficient teaching power in the ordinary elementary school to deal effectively with the few scholars attending the higher standards, a system of collecting these higher standard children from all the schools in the same town into one department and providing for them there a full course of higher subjects would secure better classification and prove to be a wise division of labour. It was contended that whatever harm might be done to the lower elementary schools by depriving them of their more forward scholars was more than outweighed by the superior educational advantages enjoyed by children in the higher grade schools. The evidence shows that a considerable variety existed in the organisation and curriculum of such schools, and that the pupils were generally drawn from the more well-to-do working class.

25. The Committee was divided in its conclusions and recommendations; a majority of the Commissioners agreed that the Higher Grade Schools had many advantages. They recommended that the State should recognise the distinction between elementary and secondary education to a greater extent than had as yet been attempted. However desirable Higher Elementary Schools might be, the principle involved in their addition to the national system of education should, if approved, be avowedly adopted; and their indirect inclusion in the existing system was injurious both to primary and secondary education. If the curriculum of Higher Elementary Schools were restricted within due limits, avoiding all attempts to invade the ground properly belonging to secondary education, and if due precautions were taken to secure that promising children of poor parents were not excluded from the privileges to be enjoyed in them, such schools might prove to be a useful addition to the provision for primary education. The Commissioners held that in certain cases the object of Higher Elementary Schools might be secured by attaching to an ordinary Elementary School a class or section in which higher instruction was provided for scholars who had passed the VIIth standard. A strong minority of the Commissioners recommended that Higher Grade Schools should be encouraged which would prepare scholars for advanced technical and commercial instruction; such 'technical' instruction should cover commercial and agricultural as well as industrial instruction. (45)

26. During the next decade there was no great increase in the number of Higher Grade Schools, but a distinct rise took place in the general level of elementary education. The system which was coming into vogue of grading Elementary Schools into Junior, Middle and Senior Departments enabled improvements to be made in the courses of instruction for older pupils. In many small towns, the higher or Senior Standard Schools in the early nineties provided a curriculum on lines very similar to that of the Higher Grade School of the same period. Children drawn from schools over a wide area often sought admission to the best known of these Senior Standard Schools.

The reports of both the majority and the minority of the Cross Commission had excited considerable public interest, and steps were soon taken to give effect to some of its recommendations. For example, a number of important changes were introduced into the Code from 1890 onwards. Manual instruction was recognised but no special grant was paid for it. Physical exercises, including swimming, gymnastics and Swedish drill, were included in the curriculum. Shorthand, horticulture and hygiene were made 'specific' subjects, and grants were paid in respect of laundry work, dairy work and housewifery.

A considerable extension of the curriculum took place when the system of individual examination and payment on results was gradually abandoned. (46)

From one aspect the introduction of free education in 1891 (47) emphasised the special character of a few schools in each district, and more especially of those retaining pupils to an age later than the normal leaving age.

27. A further stage in the development is marked by the appointment in 1894 of the Royal Commission on Secondary Education, which reported in 1895, inter alia, in favour of a state system of Secondary Schools, including arrangements for transferring to them the more intelligent pupils from Elementary Schools, who desired to continue their education. The position of the Higher Grade Schools and other Elementary Schools doing work beyond the seventh standard was fully discussed in the Report, which pointed out that the name 'Higher Grade Elementary School' had been applied in at least three senses. 1. The first type, which might be described as normal, was represented by the School which taught from the fifth standard upwards and gave an education for two years after the seventh standard, i.e., to the age of 15 at least. 2. Another type was that which taught from the lowest standard upwards, also giving an education for two years (in some cases even four) after the seventh standard, though the proportion of pupils remaining after the seventh standard was seldom large. A school of either of these two types might or might not include an Organised Science School working under the Science and Art Department. 3. 'Lastly, there was the pseudo "Higher Grade" School, which charged a fee, and was supposed to be more select, while in respect to its curriculum it was almost wholly elementary.' (48)

Following the threefold classification of Secondary Schools adopted in the Report of the Schools Inquiry Commission (1868) (49) the Commissioners described Third Grade Schools as those of which the special function was the training of boys and girls for the higher handicrafts or the commerce of the shop and town. This could best be effected by continuing and enlarging the education of the Elementary School, with of course such addition of manual instruction as might be needed to educate the hand and eye of the craftsman and at once to define and illustrate the principles he had learnt. Higher grade schools, which were adduced as an example of the type required, were held to be an absolute necessity in any efficient system of Secondary Education. Properly organised they would become the crown of the elementary school system.

They were judged very differently by different witnesses, but one thing was generally admitted, namely that such schools were necessary to the completion and efficiency of the educational system. For boys and girls whose education would cease at 16, in the opinion of one witness, these schools supplied 'the secondary instruction best suited to their wants'. According to another witness 'the demand for these board secondary schools had increased year by year in volume and intensity in the large centres of population'. The Commissioners summed up their own views as follows: 'We may hold it as certain, then, that these schools have risen to meet a legitimate demand, and admit of correlation and development, but not of abolition or even repression.' (50)

In their final recommendations the Commissioners pointed out that these higher grade elementary schools had a double aspect, being in one sense Elementary Schools, and in another sense wholly or largely Secondary Schools, teaching subjects which could not be deemed elementary and not receiving in respect of those of their pupils who were beyond the so-called 'standards' any grant from the Education Department. In point of fact, they did supply in those populous places where they existed much the same kind of secondary education which the Schools Inquiry Commission of 1868 had proposed to have supplied by their Schools of the Third Grade. The Commissioners accordingly recommended that such schools should be treated as Secondary Schools, placed under the jurisdiction of the Local Authority for Secondary Education, and coordinated with other Secondary Schools in the district by being brought into a definite and organic relation with other Secondary Schools and institutions of the districts, so that they should rather cooperate than compete with the latter where they existed, and should be made more available as places of preparation for advanced instruction. (51)

28. In the course of the next few years, legislative and administrative action was taken to carry out some of the more important recommendations of this Report. For example, between May and November 1897, a series of conferences took place at the Education Department between the Incorporated Association of Headmasters and the Association of Headmasters of Higher Grade Schools and Schools of Science and in August 1898 the Department issued a joint Memorandum (52), which had been adopted by the two Associations, on the relations of Primary and Secondary Schools to each other in a national system of education.

The Royal Commission of 1895 had recommended that one central education authority should be established. This was effected by the Board of Education Act 1899, which merged the powers of the Education Department, the Science and Art Department, and the Charity Commission (in respect of educational trusts and endowments) in the newly constituted Board of Education, which was at the same time authorised to inspect Secondary Schools. The control of the Board over secondary education was increased by the Education Act 1902, which empowered the newly created Part II Local Education Authorities to aid higher education and provide new Secondary Schools. Even before the passing of the Act of 1902, the position of the Higher Grade Schools had been seriously affected by the decision of the Court of Queen's Bench (1901) against the London School Board (upheld by the Court of Appeal) on the point raised by Mr Cockerton, the Auditor of the Local Government Board, that the School Board had spent the rates illegally on educating children on lines not provided for in the Code. (53)

Part 4 From the Cockerton ruling 1900 to the passing of the Education Act of 1918

29. In consequence of this ruling the Board of Education found it necessary to establish by Minute dated 6 April 1900 a new system of Higher Elementary Schools. The Minute recognised a class of Elementary Schools which were to receive a higher rate of grant than ordinary Public Elementary Schools, on condition that they were so organised as to give a four years' course of instruction to children between the ages of 10 and 15, who had been certified by the inspector as qualified to profit thereby. The curriculum was required to show a sufficiency of science instruction, both theoretical and practical in each year, and to include one foreign language and elementary mathematics. (54) Special attention was devoted to drawing. Owing partly to the requirement that such Schools must have a dominantly scientific curriculum, irrespective of local conditions, and partly to the general uncertainty in regard to the future of Higher Elementary Schools, as distinct from Secondary Schools, few schools of this type were recognised, and in 1906 only 30 such schools were in existence in England and Wales.

Meanwhile, after the passing of the Education Act 1902, many of the 'Higher Grade' Schools and Pupil Teacher Centres were being converted into Council Secondary Schools. The merging of this important type of higher primary education, which had slowly developed since 1870, into secondary education marks a very important stage in the history of secondary education in England and Wales; for these new Municipal Secondary Schools, influenced by the tradition of the Higher Grade Schools, attached more weight on the whole to scientific and modern studies than the older types of Secondary School, especially for girls.

30. The development of Higher Elementary Schools and post-primary education generally after the passing of the Education Act 1902 was much influenced by the policy of the Board in regard to Secondary Schools, which were defined in the Secondary School Regulations for 1905-1906 as being schools which 'offered to each of their scholars up to and beyond the age of 16, a general education, physical, mental and moral, given through a complete graded course of instruction of wider scope and more advanced degree than that given in Elementary Schools.' (55)

The Regulations delimited the aim of the curriculum by requiring that a Secondary School must offer at least a full four years' course, providing instruction in a group of subjects so selected as to ensure due breadth and solidity in the education given. These subjects were defined as: The English Language and Literature, together with Geography and History; at least one Language other than English; Mathematics, Science both theoretical and practical, and Drawing.

31. The progress of post-primary education after 1902 was also largely determined by Section 22 of the Education Act 1902, which enacted that the power to provide instruction under the Elementary Education Acts 1870-1900 should, except where those Acts expressly provided to the contrary, be limited to the provision in a Public Elementary School of instruction given under the regulations of the Board of Education to scholars who, at the end of the School Year, would not be more than 16 years of age; provided that the Local Education Authority might, with the consent of the Board of Education, extend those limits in the case of any such school if no suitable higher education were available within a reasonable distance.

32. The Minute of April 1900 which first created 'Higher Elementary Schools' in the official sense of the expression, did not result in any considerable growth of such Schools. It should be mentioned that at this time (1903-06) much interest was taken by persons concerned with the problem of higher primary education in the facilities afforded in Scotland for higher grade schools and departments (56), which suggested an inevitable comparison with the less generous provisions of the Code for Higher Elementary Schools in England and Wales. The Board in its Report for 1904-5 expressed the view that the causes which had restricted the growth of such Schools were the high cost of building, equipment and maintenance required under the Minute, and the predominantly scientific nature of the curriculum demanded. The Board, in the prefatory memorandum to the Code for 1905, pointed out that the development, under the new Regulations for Secondary Schools, of schools of that type with a complete curriculum had made it possible and necessary to reconsider the educational needs of those pupils who could not afford the extended period for study which would enable them to profit by admission to a Secondary School, but who could with advantage receive some education more advanced than that given in any ordinary Public Elementary School. After explaining that scholars in an Elementary School should not be transferred to Secondary Schools unless they could remain there to the age of 16 and preferably later, the Board pointed out that many would be going into employment of some sort at the age of 15 or shortly after, and that special educational provision was necessary for them so long as the ordinary Elementary School was attended by very many scholars who would leave at the age of 13. The scholar who must, at the age of 15, begin an industrial employment or enter the lower ranks of business needed a course of instruction different from that of the Secondary School, and yet higher and somewhat more special in aim than that given in an ordinary Public Elementary School. While developing more fully a study of some of the fundamental subjects of the Elementary School curriculum he should also devote time to the study of other subjects which he could apply to his own practical needs. For those reasons the term 'Higher Elementary School' was convenient as a descriptive title for this particular type of School.

33. The revised Regulations for Higher Elementary Schools included in the Code for 1905, (57) and repeated in subsequent Codes up to 1917, were accordingly based on the principle that the determination of the curricula for such schools should be left to local consideration in the first instance, but that in each case the curriculum must be approved by the Board as a condition of the recognition of the school as a Higher Elementary School. The curriculum had to have for its object the development of the education given in the ordinary Public Elementary School and the provision of special instruction bearing on the future occupations of the scholars, whether boys or girls. The curriculum would not be approved unless it provided together with this special instruction, a progressive course of study in the English language and literature, in elementary mathematics, and in history and geography. Drawing and manual work for boys, and domestic subjects for girls, had to be included in every case as part of the general or special instruction. Admission was limited to scholars who were not less than 12 at the date of admission, and had been for at least two years under instruction in a Public Elementary School. No scholars might remain after completing the third year of the course, or for any portion of a school year at the close of which they would be over the age of 16.

34. In July 1905, the Board referred to the Consultative Committee certain questions affecting Higher Elementary Schools. In the letter of reference it was pointed out that the special problem of difficulty was the determination of the nature and amount of that special instruction which marked off the Higher Elementary School from the upper part of the ordinary Elementary School. The Board asked for the Committee's views regarding the principles which to them seemed of most importance in determining the character of the curriculum that would best meet the needs of the various possible kinds of Higher Elementary School. More particularly, the Board desired to be informed of the Committee's conception of the part (if any) which instruction in technical subjects should play in the curriculum of a Higher Elementary School.

In its report dated May 1906 (58) the Committee took the view that a Higher Elementary School should continue the general education which a child had already received in the ordinary Elementary School; the course should develop in an unbroken progress the work already done, strengthen the foundations of primary education already laid, and attempt to build upon them as good a general education as the conditions would allow. The first need was 'to secure for each child as much humanity, as much accurate knowledge of general elementary fact and as much mental power and manual aptitude, as could be expected during a short course of instruction extending over three years at a comparatively early age.' Such a course must receive a bent towards the special needs of the life which the child would enter, as it was the immediate preliminary to livelihood. It should consist of three strands, which might be roughly described as humanistic, scientific, and manual, and in the case of girls, domestic. It was evident that in the circumstances the range of subjects must be strictly limited; a few subjects taught as well and sufficiently as possible rather than a larger number treated superficially; and all as far as possible taught in relation to each other. In regard to the question how such schools were to be distributed throughout the country and what was to be the relative predominance of the industrial and commercial types of curriculum, the Committee held that the number of centres in which a commercial type of curriculum was permitted ought to be comparatively small. In regard to the distribution of such schools in rural districts, in towns with a population of 20,000 to 50,000, and in large towns respectively, the Committee recognised that it was impossible to lay down any rigid rules as to the way in which the problem was everywhere to be solved; the problem would present itself differently in different places and would require in consequence different solutions. The Committee considered that a Higher Elementary School should not, under ordinary circumstances, be recognised in places where there would only be room for a single school giving education higher than that of the ordinary Public Elementary School. If Higher Elementary Schools providing a three years' course with the express object of fitting pupils to enter trades and factories were organised, it was essential that great pains should be taken to induce employers to take an interest in them. Pupils in such schools should not be allowed to prepare for external examinations, as the taking of such examinations was apt to influence unduly the character of the curriculum and to act in the direction of producing a pseudo-Secondary School. Further it tended to encourage a deviation from the true type which had been so inimical to the Higher Grade Schools. The Committee, however, thought it was desirable that a school record corresponding to the French livret Scolaire should be instituted, and a certificate granted to all pupils who had satisfactorily completed the full three years' course.

35. No important modifications were introduced in the Regulations for Higher Elementary Schools after 1905, and the number of schools recognised under those Regulations between 1905 and 1917 was never large. (59) This was partly due to the fact that the requirements of the Regulations were rather exacting and the additional grant obtainable comparatively small. A number of Local Education Authorities, for example London and Manchester, preferred to carry on schools giving advanced elementary education and working under the ordinary provisions of the Code. (60)

In London the Central School system dates from the educational year beginning 1 April 1911. (61) A number of Higher Elementary and Higher Grade Schools which had long been giving education considerably in advance of the ordinary Elementary School standard, including some built originally as Organised Schools of Science, were absorbed into the new system. Chapter XV of the London County Council Education Committee's handbook for Elementary Schools (62) explains that the chief object of the Central School is to prepare girls and boys for immediate employment on leaving school, and that the instruction should therefore be such that the children will be prepared to go into business houses or workshops on the completion of the course without any intermediate special training. It is pointed out that Central Schools are designed for the provision of an educational course not provided in the Public Elementary graded schools or in the Secondary Schools, and that the curricula of such schools should be framed so as to have an industrial or commercial bias or both. The aim evidently was that the trend of education should be eminently practical without being vocational in any narrow sense. Thus the position of the Central School was intermediate between that of the Secondary School on the one hand and that of the Junior Technical School or Trade School on the other, being distinguished from the former by its lower leaving age and less academic curriculum, and from the latter by its earlier age of admission and the fundamental fact that it did not in any sense aim at providing technical training for any particular trade or business.

About 1912 the Manchester Education Authority instituted six District Central Schools on rather similar lines, designed to give an improved general education to children up to the age of 15. (62)

Several other Local Authorities had established 'Central' schools of like type before the passing of the Education Act 1918.

36. A number of full-time Day Trade Schools, chiefly for boys, were established, especially in the London area, from about 1900 onwards. The first of these schools in London was the Trade School for Furniture and Cabinet-making founded at the Shoreditch Technical Institute in 1901 with a three years' course. They were designed to take boys on or near the completion of their elementary school career for a period of one, two or three years, and give a specialised training that would fit them to enter about the age of 16 into workshop or factory life with a certain definite prospect of becoming skilled workers or of rising ultimately to positions of responsibility as foremen, draughtsmen, or even managers. The aim of the courses was to give a fairly wide but sound knowledge of the scientific principles underlying the operations of the group of trades in preparation for which the school specialised, to afford such an initial training in handicraft as would lead to a thorough understanding of the essential character of the trade and to make the learner an asset of value when he entered the workshop. (63) Character, cultivated observation, intelligence and adaptability were the essential factors aimed at. Such Trade Schools received grant as 'Day Technical Classes' from 1904-05 onwards under Article 42 of the Regulations for Evening Schools, Technical Institutions, etc. Many of these were organised as Courses within an existing Technical School or College.

In 1913 the Board issued Regulations for a new category of Junior Full-time Schools to be known as Junior Technical Schools. These were Day Schools, providing courses for boys and girls during two or three years after leaving the Public Elementary Schools, in which a continued general education was to be combined with a definite preparation for some industrial employment at the age of 15 or 16. After prolonged consultation with representatives of Local Education Authorities and teachers in Technical Institutions the Board drew up Regulations which came into operation as from 1 August 1913, under which Junior Technical Schools might be detached for administrative purposes from the other somewhat miscellaneous full-time or part-time courses aided under Article 42 of the Regulations as Day Technical Classes, and encouraged and strengthened by means of increased grants. These Schools are definitely intended to prepare pupils either for artisan or other industrial occupations or for domestic employment. Under the Regulations the Board required that each course should cover not less than two or more than three years and should occupy the whole time of the pupils during not less than 36 weeks of each year. The courses are normally planned to provide for pupils leaving the Elementary Schools at the age of 13 or 14. The staffs of these schools contain a reasonable proportion of members who have had practical trade experience of the occupations for which the individual schools furnish a preparation, and the establishment of advisory bodies containing representatives of employers and employees in those occupations is encouraged with the object of bringing each school into close touch with the industry to which it is related.

37. Section 2 (1) (a) of the Education Act 1918, which came into operation on 1st August, 1919, gave a new direction to post-primary education by providing that it should be the duty of the local education authority responsible for elementary education so to exercise its powers in regard to elementary education as to make, or otherwise to secure, adequate and suitable provision by means of central schools, central or special classes, or otherwise

'(i) for including in the curriculum of public elementary schools, at appropriate stages, practical instruction (64) suitable to the ages, abilities, and requirements of the children;'

and

'(ii) for organising in public elementary schools Courses of advanced instruction for the older or more intelligent children in attendance at such schools, including children who stay at such schools beyond the age of 14.'

It would appear from the Parliamentary Debates (65) that the 'advanced instruction' referred to was not intended to be practical or vocational instruction, but practical general instruction. It was to be suitable not only to the older children who remained at school longer than the law required, but also to clever children who attained the highest standard, perhaps a year or more before they could lawfully leave school, and who were apt to drift into desultory reading if no advanced instruction suitable to their requirements were available.

In consequence of these provisions in the Act of 1918 the Board withdrew their Regulations for Higher Elementary Schools.

The steps taken by various Local Education Authorities to provide and organise advanced and practical instruction on the lines indicated in the Education Act of 1918 are described in Chapter 2.

38. It will be seen from this historical survey that at every stage of the development it has been the general tendency of the national system of elementary education to throw up experiments in post-primary education.

Though such experiments have again and again been curtailed or rendered difficult by legislative or administrative action, they have persistently reappeared in various forms. This fact in itself seems to indicate the half-conscious striving of a highly industrialised society to evolve a type of school analogous to and yet distinct from the secondary school, and providing an education designed to fit boys and girls to enter the various branches of industry. commerce, and agriculture at the age of 15.

Footnotes

(1) 42 Geo. III C. 73

(2) Under 43 Eliz. C.11, Section 5, pauper children under the age of 9 years could be compulsorily apprenticed. This provision of the Elizabethan statute was not modified till 1819. 59 Geo. III. C. 13, Section 7.

(3) In the time of the Commonwealth, various Acts had been passed, making provision for salaries for schoolmasters and for their appointment or removal from office, e.g. an Act of 22 February 1649 made provision for salaries to schoolmasters in Wales, and an Act of 8 June 1649 provided for payment of salaries and augmentations of salaries to schoolmasters in England and Wales. Firth and Rait Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum II, pp. 142 foll. and 346 foll, cf. also the Act of 1 October 1646. op cit I p. 83.

(4) Thomas Firmin's factory school in Little Britain, London (1681) was probably the earliest of the schools of industry. See Proposals for the employment of the poor by Thomas Firmin (1681) and Kirkman Grey A history of British philanthropy (1905) pp. 103-105.

(5) Many of these Schools of Industry were however little more than sewing classes, e.g. 'The Settlement of Industry' at Caistor. The theory of such schools was expounded by Mrs Trimmer in her Oeconomy of Charity (1781). The younger Pitt, in his proposal for a reform of the Poor Law (1796), provided for the compulsory establishment of Schools of Industry for children whose parents were receiving Poor Relief.

(6) cf. the Gower Walk Free (Industrial) School at Whitechapel, founded in 1807 by W Davis, a philanthropic manufacturer, under the guidance of Dr Bell. The trust funds 'are to defray the expenses of schooling and instruction of a certain number of poor children of both sexes, as also of instructing and employing them in certain useful trades and occupations and in purchasing the necessary implements and tools for setting them to work, and in paying the wages of proper persons to instruct them therein.' Return of endowed charities (County of London) 1897 (c. 394) I. pp, 289-290.

(7) Records of the Society for Bettering the Conditions of the Poor III. 300-312.

(8) cf. J Lancaster Improvements in Education (1806), p. 120: 'One proper object of schools of industry is to enable children to earn as much money as will remove the difficulty occasioned by the poverty of their parents. By this means parents are enabled to keep their children at school until they have acquired habits of industry, which will follow them into future life.'

(9) cf. Mr Roebuck's speech in the House of Commons on 30 July 1833 in support of his resolution that the House should consider means for establishing a system of national education, in which he explained that the schools contemplated were to be confined to the education of the poor and were to be of three classes: (1) Infants' schools; (2) schools of industry for children between the ages of 7 and 14; (3) normal schools for the instruction of teachers. The schools of industry would have two objects in view: (i) The imparting of what might be termed scholarship; (ii) the knowledge of some trade." Hansard, Vol. XX. col. 159-161.

(10) cf. J Bentham Chrestomathia Part I (1816) and Graham Wallas Life of Francis Place Chapter IV.

(11) HB Binns A Century of Education, being the Centenary History of the British and Foreign Schools Society 1808-1908, p. 113. Select Committee on Education (1834) Q. 262 foll.

(12) Birchenough History of Elementary Education 2nd ed. 1925 pp. 325-326. cf. Appendix II. s.v. Middle School.

(13) National School at that time meant a school in union with the National Society. This term and the similar term 'British' for schools associated with the British and Foreign Schools Society, were removed from official usage in 1906. Report of Board of Education for 1906-07 (Cd. 3862) p. 28.

(14) Minutes of the Committee of Council on Education (1847-1848), I. pp. 7-38; Minutes (1844) II. 101-107; Minutes (1845) I. 103-106; cf. Rev R Dawes Schools for the Industrial Classes London, Groombridge and Sons 1853 pp. 4-16.

(15) cf. Matthew Arnold's General Report for 1852: 'On the whole, the Wesleyan Schools which I have seen must be considered as existing for the sake of the children of tradesmen, of farmers, and of mechanics of the higher class, rather than for the sake of the children of the poor.' Reports on Elementary Schools 1852-1882, by Matthew Arnold, HM Stationery Office 1910.

(16) From information supplied to the Committee by Dr Joseph H Cowham, late Master of Method at the Westminster Training College, and Mr Samuel Brook, formerly Headmaster of the Westminster Wesleyan Practising Schools, cf. Rev J Scott Addresses to the Students in the Wesleyan Training Institution, Westminster (1869) pp. 53, 59, 212.

(17) The textbook in use was the Book of Agriculture published by the Commissioners of National Education for Ireland. The Committee of Council on Education never issued any official textbooks.

(18) cf. Rev FC Cook's Report on Eastern District for 1846 in Minutes of Committee of Council on Education (1846) I, p. 280. 'It seems highly desirable to establish within an easy distance of small parishes good district schools, conducted by masters of reputation and talent, where, as is the case in Scotland, well disposed youths may continue and complete the studies begun in childhood.'

(19) Minutes of Committee of Council on Education (1847-8) pp. 53 and 109.

(20) Kay-Shuttleworth Four Periods of Public Education pp. 300-308 and pp. 287-292. In the Battersea Training College founded by Kay-Shuttleworth in 1840, the young pupil-teachers were taught the various subjects of the elementary school curriculum on practical lines, with references to their bearing on everyday life. Similar methods were employed in the Battersea School used as a Practising School by the College students. T Adkins History of St John's College, Battersea pp. 66-67.

(21) Minutes of Committee of Council on Education (1846), Vol. I, pp. 4-6; 12-13

(22) Minutes of Committee of Council on Education 1856-7, pp. 268-270. cf. ibid. p. 482.

(23) cf. Matthew Arnold's Report on Systems of Popular Education in use in France, Holland, and the French Cantons of Switzerland printed in Vol. IV of the Report of the Education Commission (1858-1861) p. 103. 'In England meanwhile what is the system of education offered to our people by its Government? A system not national, which has undoubtedly done much for superior primary instruction, but which for elementary primary instruction has done very little.'

(24) Graham Balfour Educational Systems of Great Britain and Ireland pp. 15-17.

(25) Report of Education Commission (1858-1861) pp. 320-321. The accuracy of this statement was challenged by Matthew Arnold.

(26) e.g. M Arnold's general reports for 1863, 1867, 1869. Reprinted in Reports on Elementary Schools 1852 and 1882 by Matthew Arnold, HM Stationery Office, 1910.

(27) Report of Committee of Council on Education 1863-4, pp. 114-115, of Rev R Dawes Teaching of Common Things (1856) Groombridge & Co. p. 44. Smiles Life of Stephenson pp. 479-481. J Talbot Messrs Chance's Schools, Smethwick, a sketch of their history from 1845 to 1887.

(28) Report of Schools Inquiry Commission (1868) pp. 577-582.

(29) The Committee of Council on Education had expressed the opinion in an official letter on 'middle' schools in 1856 that a system of 'secondary' schools might, with great advantage, be added to the existing system of primary schools in all those localities where schools of the latter kind were sufficiently large or sufficiently numerous to afford a supply of children who had mastered the common elements of instruction, and were prepared to proceed with more specific studies. The letter ends as follows: 'Schools of this secondary kind are beginning to be established in different parts of the country under the name of Trade Schools, the instruction being generally directed towards the application of science to productive industry.' Minutes of the Committee of Council on Education 1856-7 p. 42

(30) See Appendix IV, Prussia and Switzerland.

(31) Report on the Common School System of the United States by the Rev James Fraser, 1866, p. 319.

(32) Schools Inquiry Commission VI. pp. 623-633.

(33) cf. Final Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Elementary Education Acts (England and Wales) 1888 (C. 5485) p. 168. 'Similar schools (i.e., higher grade schools) promoted by voluntary managers were not unknown previous to the passing of the Education Act of 1870, and, as we have reason to believe, still exist. We have had before us as a witness the Master of St. Thomas' Charterhouse Church School, one of the best known of those voluntary schools which have supplemented the elementary course by higher branches of education. In the seventh standard, boys take up one or more of the following subjects: chemistry, mechanics, mathematics, botany, electricity, acoustics, and some other subjects.'

(34) There were no School Boards at Lancaster and Oswestry in the early seventies.

(35) See Special Reports on Educational Subjects (896-7) pp. 58-63

(36) Elementary Education Act, 1876 (39 and 40 Vict. C 79, Section 18). See also Lord Sandon's explanatory speech in introducing his Bill on 5 August 1876, quoted in Final Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Elementary Education Acts, England and Wales (1888) C. 5485, p. 33.

(37) 0p. cit. p. 34.

(38) In 1872 the Science and Art Department had organised a system of substantial grants for a three years' course in science and cognate subjects. Directory of the Science and Art Department for 1872 pp. 33-36. See note on 'Organised Science School' in Appendix II. cf. Higher Grade Board Schools and Public Secondary Schools (Statistics) - Return to the Order of the House of Commons, dated 28 June 1898 264. p. 3.

(39) Final Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Elementary Education Acts, England and Wales (C. 5485) 1888 pp. 167-168.

(40) Mr Hanson, Chairman of the School Management Committee of the Bradford School Board described the four Higher Board Schools existing in Bradford in 1880 as 'simply advanced elementary schools'. See his letter of 17 November 1880 to Mr H Richard MP, printed as Appendix No. 7 to Report of the Departmental Committee on Intermediate and Higher Education in Wales (1881) C. 3047.

(41) The School Board Chronicle 19 October 1898, pp. 449-456.

(42) Technical Instruction Act 1889 Section 8. A very similar definition of 'Technical Education' is given in the Welsh Intermediate Education Act 1889 Section 17.

(43) Final Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Elementary Education Acts, England and Wales 1888 C 5485. Chapter V and passim.

(44) Final Report p. 169.

(45) Final Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Elementary Education Acts, England and Wales 1888 C 5485 pp. 219, 339 and 248.

(46) Report of Board of Education for 1910-11 (Cd 6116) pp. 18-20. 'The introduction of the "Block Grant" in 1900 marked the end of the system in force since 1862 by which the choice of subjects in Elementary Schools had been controlled mainly by monetary considerations.'

(47) Elementary Education Act 1891. 54 and 55 Vict., c. 56.

(48) Report of the Royal Commission on Secondary Education (1895) pp. 52-54.

(49) See Section 5 ante.

(50) Op. cit. pp. 143-144

(51) Report of the Royal Commission on Secondary Education (1895) pp. 289-290.

(52) Education (Primary and Secondary Schools) Education Department 1898. (C. 381) cf. Higher Grade Board Schools and Public Secondary Schools (Statistics) - Return to the Order of the House of Commons, dated 28 June 1898 - 264.

(53) R. v. Cockerton (1901) I.Q.B. 322, and Rex v. Cockerton, C.A. (1901). I.K.B. 726.

(54) Code of Regulations for Day Schools 1901 (Cd. 513) Article 110.

(55) Regulations for Secondary Schools 1905-6 Prefatory Memorandum pp. 1-9 and articles 1 to 13.

(56) cf. ME Sadler Report on Secondary and Higher Education in Derbyshire (1905) pp. 12-21.

(57) Code of Regulations for Public Elementary Schools 1905 (Cd. 2579) Chapter VI, Articles 38-42.

(58) Report of the Consultative Committee upon Higher Elementary Schools (1906) pp. 9, 36, 48 and passim.

(58) In 1916-1917 there were only 31 Higher Elementary Schools in England and 14 in Wales. Report of Board of Education for 1916-17 pp. 10 and 17.

(59) Report of Board of Education for 1911-1912 (Cd. 6707) pp. 42-43.

(60) Report of Board of Education for 1911-1912 (Cd. 6707) p. 32. Report of Board of Education for 1912-1913 (Cd. 7934) pp. 60-62.

(61) LCC Elementary Schools Handbook (1923) No. 2276, pp. 118 foll.

(62) Report of Board of Education for 1911-1912 p. 43.

(63) See the report on the London trade schools for boys and girls in LCC Education Committee's Report on eight years of technical education and continuation schools (No. 1576) 1912 pp. 63-66.

(64) 'Practical Instruction' is defined in Section 170 (4) of the Education Act 1921, as meaning 'instruction in cookery, laundrywork, housewifery, dairy-work, handicrafts and gardening, and such other subjects as the Board of Education declare to be subjects of practical instruction.'

(65) Vol. 105 Parliamentary Debates (House of Commons) 7 May 1918, 2056.