SCHOOL RECORDS AND FAMILY HISTORIANS
School records are an excellent and often overlooked source of family history information telling much about a child’s formative years, along with factual information about a child and his family.
Some of the school records you may find are:
Admission registers – from 1870. These give the name of the child, date of birth, date of admission to the school, father’s name, address and sometimes occupation, the names of any previous school and the date of leaving.
Log books - first kept in the 1840s they dealt with the general information on the school such as the appointment of teaching staff, punishment records, the careers of former pupils, school accounts and may include governors’ minute books.
Withdrawal or discharge registers – give information on the date a child may have withdrawn from the school and the cause of leaving. If a child was evacuated during WWII this may be recorded in the withdrawal register.
Anniversary publications – may take the form of books, booklets, newspaper reports and photographs.
Local Education Authority Records – may contain governors' meetings minutes, committee minutes, lists of school managers and accounts details.
There may be access restrictions and closure notices on some records.
THE HISTORY OF SCHOOL RECORDS
Before the 19th century, schools were set up and maintained on a voluntary basis by individuals, religious groups and charitable organisations. It wasn’t until 1833 that Government money, in the form of grants, was given for the building of schools for the education of children from poor families.
As the century progressed, educational facilities were unable to keep up with a growing population, particularly in spreading industrial towns and in the mid 1800s less than half the children in the country were getting a basic education.
The Education Act of 1870 required locally elected school boards to provide
elemental schools for children under the age of ten in England and Wales,
although attendance wasn’t compulsory until 10 years later.
From 1893 compulsory education was extended to age 11 and was raised to age
12, except for those employed in agriculture, in 1899. There was no further
extension until 1918 when the school leaving age raised to 14, to 15 in 1947 and
to age 16 in 1965 but this was not implemented until 1972.
EARLY SCHOOLS
Charity schools. The Society For Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) first established charity schools in the early 1700s to encourage children of the poor to learn to read the bible and become moral citizens.
Some middle class trades also set up charity schools which were financed by subscription and usually gave children work skills.
Dame schools. These were small private schools, usually run by an elderly woman in a room of her own house. Often they were no more than child minding establishments costing around 3 pence a week, although some children were shown how to read and write. Successful Dame Schools could be found listed in trade and commercial directories as ‘private academies’.
 |
Photograph of Sunday School class, Beech Road Mission Chorlton cum Hardy. Image courtesy of Greater Manchester County Record Office ref 211/9 |
Sunday Schools. First established in the 16th century Sunday Schools sprung up in many places and by 1801 there were 2,290. By 1851, this number had grown to 23,135 with around two-thirds of all working class children between the ages of 5-15 attending. Their records could be found amongst parish records. (link to parish record page)
Workhouse schools. Under the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, workhouse children should have received daily instruction in district schools set up away from the workhouse. In fact, only 6 were set up as parishes were reluctant to spend money on the children’s education when were already feeding and housing them. Most of the teachers were barely literate themselves. Records for workhouse schools may be found amongst Poor Law records. See POOR LAW
Day schools were funded by subscription and were not so well attended. In
1841 there were only 2,841 children in day schools.
 |
Ragged schools. So called because they'd take in children who didn't have the shoes and clean, tidy clothes for them to be accepted into other schools, Lord Shaftesbury formed the Ragged School Union in 1844 and over the next 8 years over 200 free Ragged Schools were established in Britain. Lessons were given in whatever accommodation could be found and the children were given a basic education and help with finding work, or even emigration. |
| Mr John Lee Founder of Adelphi Ragged School. Image courtesy of GMCRO (ref 1117) |
ADULT EDUCATION
Mechanics Institutes. These developed from a course of lectures on the 'mechanical arts' given by George Birkbeck in Glasgow in the early 1800s.
By 1821 the first Institutes were being attended by working class men and women interested in self improvement. There were 100 Institutes in 1826 and by 1841 the number had grown to 300. Mechanics Institutes took a strong hold in the industrial areas of Lancashire and the West Ridings of Yorkshire which had 27% of all British Institutes.
Often funded by wealthy industrialists, Mechanics Institutes were the forerunners of the University extension movements which began in 1867, and the Workers Educational Association (WEA) which was founded in 1903.
Records for Mechanics Institutes can be found in archives – search the catalogues at www.a2a.org.uk to find where. They may also be found in University archives – search the catalogues at http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk
WHERE TO FIND SCHOOL RECORDS
Information on schools and their records can be found in a variety of places including County and Metropolitan District Archives Services, local Education Authorities, libraries, The National Archives, charitable and industrial archives and also the schools themselves.
Census records will give information on staff and children at residential schools.
Local trade and commercial directories will help in finding an address and head of a school or institution.
A list of all archives can be found at: http://www.archon.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archon/
Searching Access to Archives (A2A) may help in locating the whereabouts of particular records. Some records of delinquent children and corrective institutions such as training ships and farm schools, may be found amongst Quarter Sessions records.
Catalogues of holding in United Kingdom Universities can be found at the Archives Hub at http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk
The Society of Genealogists holds some school records and histories
Local newspapers and libraries may have back copies of newspapers with stories about school. Or try the British Newspaper Library at Colindale in London.
