Board schools

An act passed in 1870 started a state system of schooling in England and Wales. But to save money, it did not go as far as many people would have liked. The act said that where there were church schools, they would continue to get public money. New schools would be built only where there were no church schools. The new schools would be called 'board schools'.

The 1870 act did not make it compulsory to go to school. From 1880, though, parents were compelled to send children up to ten years old to school. By 1900, full-time schooling was compulsory up to the age of twelve. The 1870 act did not make education free, either. Parents had to pay nine old pence (about 4p) a week for each child. (Board schools became free in 1891.)

Board schools, as a rule, were solid, dismal buildings, red brick outside and stone corridors and stairs inside. Iron railings round the concrete yards made them look even more like prisons. Most of them had no science labs, art or craft rooms, or gyms. P.E., which was called 'drill', was done outdoors, in the yard.

Classes were huge (sixty was common), and lessons were dull. The children were taught to read, write, and do simple sums, and they learned a lot of scripture. Sometimes, there was singing or drawing for a change. Boys and girls were shouted at for most of the time, and caned when they were slow to learn.

Walter Robson: Britain 1750 – 1900; Oxford University Press, 1993/2002, page 83