
                    **********************************
                          PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
                    RECORDS INFORMATION Leaflet No: 77
                    **********************************

  [Note: this and all other PRO Records Information leaflets are (c)
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           RECORDS RELATING TO ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Public Record Office does not contain detailed information
about staff or pupils of individual schools or their building
plans and log books; where these survive they are to be found
in the appropriate local record office, where local authority
records are also deposited.

State involvement in education began only in 1833. Earlier educational
initiative was essentially private, local and very often religious.
Primary education was provided by dame schools or common day schools,
for those who could afford fees, and by charity schools for those
who could not. Private and endowed schools catered for such secondary
education as there was.


I. ELEMENTARY EDUCATION
1. Trust Deeds

The earliest records in the Public Record Office concerning school
foundations are the trust deeds. Between 1735 and 1925 the conveyance
of land for charitable uses, expressly including school buildings
and schoolmasters' houses after 1836, had to be enrolled on the
Close Rolls of Chancery (C 54) until 1903, and thereafter in the
Enrolment Books of the Supreme Court of Judicature (J 18). Supplementary
trust deeds had to be enrolled if a body of school managers enlarged
the site but not if they merely extended the buildings of an existing
site. There is a topographical index to trust deeds in the Long
Room at Chancery Lane: to the end of 1870 in bound volumes and
to 1904 in card index form. After 1904 deeds can be traced only
if the year of enrolment and the name of the donor or vendor are
known. It is clear that a number of trust deeds, for which there
is collateral evidence, escaped enrolment.

2. Building Grants

In August 1833 annual sums began to be voted by parliament, for
distribution by the Treasury, in aid of private subscriptions
for the erection of schoolhouses for poor children. From 1839
grant-aid was made conditional on inspection (see IV below) and
was distributed to voluntary bodies, such as the National Society
or the British and Foreign School Society, for buildings or improvements.
It continued until the operation of the Elementary Education Act
1870; no applications were accepted after 31st December that year.

Applications for aid are bound in volumes (ED 103) and relate
to the grant, administered by the Treasury between 1833 and 1839
and subsequently by the Privy Council Committee on Education,
for the building of elementary schools. The applications for elementary
schools in England, Wales and Scotland are arranged neither alphabetically
nor chronologically within the volumes. A copy of the index (ED
103/141) is available in the reference room at Kew. A separate
volume of applications for training colleges and practising schools
contains its own index (ED 103/140). Plans associated with the
building grant applications are preserved in local record offices.

Additional information on these grants may sometimes be found
in the Treasury Papers (T1), with registers in T2. The amount
and date of award of grant for elementary schools appear in the
appendices to the Minutes and Reports of the Committee of the
Privy Council on Education (ED 17), under the heading 'Schools
aided by Parliamentary Grant'. These were published as parliamentary
papers.

Before a school received a grant its promoters were required to
submit a preliminary statement. This recorded details of the tenure
and establishment of the school, its income and expenditure and
information about accommodation and staffing. Preliminary statements
for elementary schools 1846-1924 are in ED 7 and after 1924 on
the schools files in ED 21.

3. Surveys and Reports

The first state survey of elementary schools was made in 1816
by a select committee of the House of Commons under the chairmanship
of HP (later Lord) Brougham; information was supplied by parish
clergy. The results were published in the Digest of Parochial
Returns (HC 1819 ix). They are arranged by county, provide details
of the capacity of endowed, unendowed and Sunday Schools and distinguish
between National, British and dame schools.

An enquiry into education in England and Wales was conducted as
part of the 1851 ecclesiastical census. A small number of the
returns, which were voluntary, survives among the Home Office
records of the census (HO 129). Whether an educational return
exists for a particular place can be established only by examination
of the relevant bundle, since there is no separate index. In the
absence of an individual return, the abstract Report of Commissioners
for taking a Census of Great Britain on Education (HC 1852-3 xc)
contains details of attendances, ages of pupils, numbers, type
and capacity of schools, with totals for the whole registration
or poor law district.

A Royal Commission was appointed in 1858 'to inquire into the
present state of popular education in England'. The report of
this Commission, chaired by the Duke of Newcastle, was issued
in 1861 (HC 1861 xxi).  The combination of the recommendations
of the Newcastle Commission and the efforts of Robert Lowe, vice-president
of the Education Department, with his Revised Code of 1862, resulted
in the introduction of the system of payment by results, with
government grant dependent on average attendance and examination
performance.

Increasing dissatisfaction with the state of elementary education,
complicated by religious controversy, led to a parliamentary investigation
into conditions in Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham
in 1869, by J G Fitch and D R Fearon. (HC 1870 liv) The following
year W E Forster, Vice-President of the Education Department,
introduced his Elementary Education Bill.

4. Elementary Education Act 1870 (Forster Act)

Popular instruction before 1870 was catered for by a system of
government inspected, partially state financed but otherwise independent,
voluntary schools. Files on elementary schools in receipt of annual
grant or accorded temporary government approval are in ED 21.
These files contain statistics, information about school premises,
trusts, accommodation, inspection and organisation.
Forster's Act required locally elected school boards to provide
elementary schools, known as board schools, where existing facilities
were inadequate. Provision was made for the transfer of voluntary
schools to school board control. Files on both types of school
are in ED 21 and among the Parish Files (ED 2). ED 4 contains
files on schools transferred to the London School Board. Section
61 of the Act provided for a census to be taken to establish the
existing school provision. The subsequent returns survive in ED 2
for parishes with no school or more than one, ED 21 for parishes
with only one school, ED 3 for London schools and ED 16 for municipal
boroughs.

The 1870 Act created a dual system: part board schools, undenominational
and supported by government grants, rates and fees; part denominational
schools without rate-aid but with government grants, fees, subscriptions
and endowments. The Elementary Education Act 1876 (Sandon Act)
increased government grants to the voluntary schools and permitted
the election of school attendance committees (papers in ED 6 see
1.6. below) where no school boards existed. The Elementary Education
Act 1880 made the framing of attendance bye-laws compulsory for
school boards and attendance committees.

Between 1886 and 1888 the state of elementary education was considered
by a Royal Commission on the Working of the Elementary Education
Acts (Cross Commission). Its members disagreed over the conclusions
and produced majority and minority final reports (HC 1888 xxxv,
xxxvi; some working papers in ED 10/42@.

The problem of catering for children of 13 plus was highlighted:
should higher grade elementary schools continue to be encouraged,
or should better secondary schools, based on endowed grammar schools,
be developed? ED 20 contains files on the Higher Elementary Schools,
which were recognised after April 1900. These schools provided
a graduated course in elementary science for children between
10 and 15 years of age. Under the provisions of the Education
Act 1918 most of these schools sought recognition as central or
secondary schools.

Information is available on schools outside the maintained sector.
Twelve files survive in ED 48 of associations of voluntary schools
(i.e. non-provided elementary schools) formed to administer grant-aid
under the Voluntary Schools Act 1897. ED 30 contains institution
school files (in England only) mostly relating to schools held
in orphanages. Papers on private and independent schools recognised
by the Education Department as 'efficient' under the varying definition
of that term since 1871 are in ED 33; not all such files have
been preserved.

5. Poor Law Schools

Poor Law Schools were provided and maintained by the guardians
of the poor, either attached to workhouses or as separate schools.
The parliamentary grant was extended to workhouse schools in 1846.
Records of the district schools (run jointly by several poor law
unions in predominantly urban areas), first established in 1849,
are in MH 27. Correspondence about workhouse schools run by individual
unions will be found in MH 12 and MH 32.

In 1904 inspection of the educational and industrial work of these
schools was transferred to the Board of Education from the Local
Government Board. The surviving poor law school files are in ED
132. Under the Local Government Act 1929 educational provision
for poor law children became the responsibility of the local authorities.
In many areas these children already attended public elementary
schools; existing poor law schools were formally converted into
public elementary schools. The London County Council, however,
continued to administer residential schools and homes established
by the boards of guardians. Local authority schemes for the education
of poor law children between 1929 and 1944 are in ED 95.

6. Local Education Authorities

Local Education Authorites (LEAs) were created by the Education
Act 1902. Before this the education authority could be the school
board, created after 1870, the school managers, the parish council
or any other local body with educational responsibilities. Under
the 1902 Act LEAs assumed the duties of the school boards and
board schools became council schools. They became responsible
for the maintenance but not the provision of voluntary or non-provided
schools as distinct from council or provided schools.

There is no single series of correspondence with individual school
boards. Local Government Board correspondence relating to the
audit and financial control of London School Board expenditure
for the period 1871 to 1905 is available (MH 27/130-142). The
School Board Office files, ED 57, relate to the site of such offices
and only then if attached to a Pupil-Teacher Centre and not to
any school board functions. Petitions by school boards and later
LEAs for the compulsory purchase of land for schools are in ED
5 until 1919, and thereafter on the schools files (see Appendix).

The Parish Files (ED 2) contain correspondence on both supply
and attendance with local authorities of parishes not included
in a borough or in the metropolis. The series relates to those
parishes in which there was no school or only one in 1870. The
Supply Files (ED 16) were made up after 1903 and relate to the
supply of elementary school accommodation by the LEAs established
under the 1902 Act. In the case of county councils, the files
begin no earlier than 1902 but the files for county boroughs and
those for municipal boroughs and urban districts designated as
Part III Authorities(1) under the Act contain earlier correspondence
with school boards and school districts superseded or taken over
by those authorities. They also contain surviving papers from
earlier Free Education and Poor Law series of files. ED 14, the
London General Files contain papers on the general problems confronting
the London School Board in the implementation of educational legislation.

The Attendance files (ED 18) contain correspondence with school
boards of boroughs and, where no school board existed, with school
attendance committees, and with LEAs after 1903, concerning the
enforcement and other aspects of school attendance. School attendance
committees, required under section 7 of the Elementary Education
Act 1876 for school districts outside the jurisdiction of a school
board and not in a borough, were appointed by guardians of the
poor law unions. ED 6 contains papers relating to the formation
and business of these Union School Attendance Committees. ED 19
includes material on some aspects of school attendance, as well
as matters relating to the administration of the Code of Regulations.

Note 1. Boroughs with a population over 10,000 and Urban District
Councils with a population of over 20,000, defined in section
I of the Education Act 1902 as Local Education Authorities for
the purposes of Part of the Act.


II SECONDARY EDUCATION

The provision of secondary education became compulsory with the
implementation of the Education Act 1918. The previous century
saw a variety of secondary provision: public schools, grammar
schools, endowed schools, private and proprietory schools. Such
state control as existed by the turn of the century was shared
among the Charity Commissioners for endowed schools, the Education
Department, which aided higher elementary schools (papers in ED
20) and supported some evening classes and day-continuation schools,
and the Science and Art Department, which administered grants
to science and technical schools and some art classes (see information
leaflet 80).

1. Clarendon Commission

Dissatisfaction with secondary education increased as the nineteenth
century progressed. Some reforms occurred, such as when, consequent
on the Grammar Schools Act 1840, the curriculum was freed from
the narrow classical studies. Private initiative, for example
by Dr Arnold of Rugby followed by other public schools, led to
further changes but official investigations also took place. Between
1861 and 1864 a Royal Commission on the Public Schools (Clarendon
Commission) investigated 9 such schools and the subsequent Public
Schools Act 1868 resulted in more representative governing bodies
and eventually in a more flexible curriculum. HO 73 contains the
surviving papers of the commission, and its report was published
for parliament (HC 1864 xx, xxi).

2. Taunton Commission

The endowed secondary schools and proprietory schools were examined
by the Schools Inquiry Commission (Taunton Commission), which
sat from 1864 to 1868. Its investigations demonstrated that the
provision of secondary schools was woefully inadequate, the distribution
uneven and the endowments misused. It also revealed that there
were only thirteen secondary schools for girls in the country.
The Commissioners recommended (HC 1867-8 xxviii) the establishment
of a national system of secondary education based on existing
endowed schools. The resulting Endowed Schools Act 1869 created
the Endowed Schools Commission to draw up new schemes of government
for these schools. The Secondary Education Endowment Files (ED
27) contain drafts of these schemes.

3. Bryce Commission

Progress since the Taunton Commission was assessed by a Royal
Commission on Secondary Education (Bryce Commission) of 1895.
The Commission were asked to look at the state of secondary education
alone but felt they must also consider both elementary and technical
education. Bound copies of the Commission's minutes survive (ED
12/11-12) and its reports were published (HC 1895 xliii-xlix).

The limited results of its sweeping recommendations were threefold:
the establishment of the Board of Education by the Board of Education
Act 1899, replacing the Education Department, the Science and
Art Department and the educational functions of the Charity Commissioners;
the creation by the same act of a consultative committee to advise
the Board (see II.7. below); and eventually, after the Cockerton
Judgement (ED 14/25, ED 24/83, 136, MH 27/141-2) which made school
board financial support for higher grade schools illegal, the
1902 act which set up the LEAs to 'supply or aid the supply of
education other than elementary'.

The Secondary Education Institution Files (ED 35) include papers,
mostly later than 1902, dealing with the recognition and inspection
of all schools and institutions (some not subject to Board of
Education jurisdiction) providing secondary education. ED 27 contains
files on endowed schools (papers between 1903 and 1921 are on
ED 35 files), with the estate management papers in ED 43. The
main series of LEA files on secondary education is ED 53. Under
the provisions of the Education Acts 1918 and 1921 an attempt
was made to take a census of private schools. The surviving returns,
which relate mainly to art, commerce and professional training
schools, are in ED 1.

4. Secondary Schools after 1902

The Education Act 1902 (Balfour Act) resulted in two types of
state-aided secondary school: the endowed grammar schools, which
now received grant-aid from LEAs; and the municipal or county
secondary schools, maintained by LEAs. Many of the latter were
established at this time and others evolved from higher grade
science schools or pupil teacher centres. The Board of Education
Regulations for Secondary Schools were first promulgated in 1904
and inclined to reinforce the tendency of the new secondary schools
to adopt the academic bias of the established ones.

5. Free Places and Special Places

The Education (Administrative Provisions) Act 1907 introduced
the free place scholarship system to give promising children from
elementary schools the opportunity of admission to secondary school.
All grant-aided secondary schools had to admit free place scholars
(not less than 25% of the previous year's total intake) who had
spent at least two years at public elementary school. The school
received @5 per head for each scholar (ED 12/125, 327; ED 24 code
48/3). The 1932 economy campaign caused free places to be converted
to special places for which a means-tested scale of fees was introduced.
ED 55 contains files on the administration of the special place
system. Fees for secondary schools were abolished by the Education
Act 1944 (Butler Act).

6. Examinations

Candidates for scholarship entrance to secondary schools were
required to sit a qualifying examination which became highly competitive
and had repercussions on the work of elementary schools. The examination
was held at eleven plus because a minimum of three years at secondary
school was deemed necessary when the school leaving age was 14.
Grammar schools usually had at least a four year course with pupils
staying until 16.

The Taunton Commission in the 1860s had declared in favour of
external examinations for secondary schools. These had existed
since the mid-nineteenth century: for example the Oxford and Cambridge
Locals or those organised by the College of Preceptors. The Consultative
Committee investigated the subject in 1911 (ED 24/212, 220, 1634).
Its recommendations were accepted in 1917. Universities were designated
as responsible bodies for conducting external examinations and
a Secondary Schools Examination Council was established with representatives
from Universities, LEAs and the teaching profession. Two standard
examinations were recognised: School Certificate at 16 and Higher
School Certificate at 18. The Board of Education declared that
the 'examination should follow the curriculum and not determine
it' but in practice this was largely ignored.

The connected subjects of secondary school examinations and curricula
were examined by a committee of the reconstituted Secondary Schools
Examination Council (papers in ED 147/133-8, 212-326), appointed
in 1941 under Sir Cyril Norwood (ED 12/478-80).

The committee's recommendations were finally accepted in 1947
when the School Certificate was replaced by the General Certificate
of Education (GCE) in three levels: ordinary, advanced and scholarship.
The work of the Beloe Committee 1958-60 on examinations other
than GCE led to the introduction in 1965 of a less academic examination
for secondary school children, the Certificate of Secondary Education
(ED 147/303-13, but please note many of these records are still
closed under the 30 year rule).

7. Consultative Committee Reports

The Consultative Committee, created under the Education Act 1899
on the recommendation of the Bryce Commission, issued several
influential reports in the inter-war period, three under the chairmanship
of Sir Henry Hadow and one signed by Sir Will Spens. The first
Hadow report, Education and the Adolescent published in 1926 was
concerned with both elementary and secondary education. ED 97
contains files on the consequent reorganisation of schools to
provide a system of advanced elementary education. Working papers
of the Committee are in ED 10/147, ED 24/1265. 1931 saw the issue
of a separate report on The Primary School (papers ED 10/148)
and two years later The Infant and Nursery School report came
out (papers ED 10/149, 150). The Spens report of 1938 on Secondary
Education recommended parity of all types of school in the secondary
system, with a tripartite arrangement of grammar, modern and technical
school (papers ED 10/151-3, 221-2; ED 12/530; ED 136/ 131).

8. Education Act 1944 (Butler Act)

The Hadow and Spens reports, supplemented by the work of the Norwood
Committee (see II.6. above) together with the consultative exercise
of the 'Green Book' memorandum of 1941 on post war education (ED
136/212-301) resulted in the Education Act 1944 (Bill Papers ED
31/500-48; Private Office Papers ED 136/377-541). Its recommendations
encompassed those of the Bryce Commission (see Il.3. above) on
central administration, introducing a Minister of Education and
replacing the Consultative Committee with an Advisory Council
(ED 146 contains its papers and reports). Secondary education
was redefined and reorganised. Junior technical schools, junior
commercial schools and junior art departments became recognised
as secondary technical schools. LEAs were required to submit development
plans for primary and secondary education- ED 152 contains the
resulting files. Public education was to be organised in three
progressive stages: primary (schools digest files ED 161 continue
those in ED 21)- secondary (digest files in ED 162 are a continuation
of those in ED 35), and further education (see information leaflet
80). General aspects of primary and secondary education are covered
in the General Files (ED 147).


III WELSH EDUCATION

Demand for separate treatment for Welsh education increased from
the mid-nineteenth century. In 1880 a departmental committee was
formed, under Lord Aberdare, to investigate Welsh secondary education.
The report of Lord Aberdare's committee revealed a state of affairs
in Wales similar to that found in England by the Taunton Commission
(papers ED 91/8; HC 1881 xxxiii). The immediate result of the
report was the establishment of university colleges at Bangor
and Cardiff. Intermediate education, that is between primary and
university, was ignored until the Welsh Intermediate Education
Act 1889, which created joint education committees as local authorities
for every county and county borough in Wales. This act foreshadowed
events in England by providing a pattern of control of secondary
education by county councils.

The Welsh Department of the Board of Education was set up in 1907
as a result of the Welsh nonconformist opposition to the Education
Act 1902 (files in ED 111) and the return of a liberal government
with strong Welsh support. School and local authority files are
in the same classes as those for England (see Appendix). The main
papers of the Welsh Department relating to aspects of general,
elementary and secondary education are in ED 91, ED 92 and ED
93 respectively. Many files on Welsh schools were destroyed during
the Second World War and by flooding in 1960 of the Welsh Department's
office in Cardiff.

Reports on Welsh schools occur in the general files on Welsh education
(ED 91-93). A Welsh inspectorate was formed in 1907 for Welsh
elementary and secondary schools. ED 22 contains a separate series
of Welsh inspectorate memoranda for the years 1907 to 1940; most
of the later series of memoranda in ED 135 was also adopted in
Wales. Under the Welsh Intermediate Education Act 1889 the Central
Welsh Board was given the task of inspecting secondary schools
established under the act. Papers reflecting relations of the
Board of Education with the Central Welsh Board are in ED 35,
secondary education, and ED 37, further education.


IV INSPECTORATE

Inspection was made a condition of grant-aid in 1839 and two inspectors
of elementary schools were appointed. The churches were given
a say in the selection of inspectors from the following year,
and until 1876 the inspectorate was organised by religious denomination,
with inspectors for Church of England, nonconformist and Roman
Catholic schools. Thereafter area organisation was introduced.

Standards of institutions aided by the Science and Art Department
and of secondary schools administered by the Charity Commissioners
were generally tested by public examinations set both by the grant-aiding
and other independent bodies. After 1902 the principles of inspection
applied to elementary schools were extended to other levels of
education. Educational aspects of institutions otherwise administered
by separate government departments such as industrial, reformatory
and borstal schools under the Home Office or poor law schools
in the control of the Local Government Board, were inspected by
the Board of Education.

Early inspectors' reports are within the reports of the Committee
of Council on Education printed for parliament as House of CommoTls
Sessional Papers. ED 17 contains a set of these from 1839 to 1899.
ED 9 includes some miscellaneous reports, with a separate series
for London in ED 4.

After 1899, abstracts of the inspectors' reports are m the appropriate
class of institution file (see Appendix). Thele are also separately
filed series of the full reports for primary schools in ED 156,
secondary schools in ED 109 and independent schools in ED 172.
Full reports on institutions are closed for 50 years. Reports
on Welsh schools occur in the series of general files on Welsh
education (ED 91-93). ED 176 contains the records of the inspectorate
central panel and the papers of the inspectorate primary education
committee are in ED 158. Two series of inspectorate memoranda
are available (ED 22 and ED 135) and there is a series of inspectorate
special reports (ED 109) and of collected special reports, mainly
on education overseas (ED 77). ED 110 includes reports on examinations
for free places.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

APPENDIX: LIST OF CLASSES

I   Records Relating to Particular Schools and colleges

      Elementary schools

1. Chancery Close Rolls, 1204-1903 (C 54) - from 1725 private
conveyances in trust for schools enrolled on dorse.

2. Supreme Court Enrolment Books, 1903-1981 (J 18) - continuation
of enrolment in C 54, include deeds conveying land in trust under
School Sites Acts 1841 to 1852.

3. Parish Files, 1872-1904 (ED 2) - educational census returns
and reports for schools outside London and boroughs c.1871; accommodation;
school boards; new schools; examination schedules; loan sanctions

4. Educational Returns, London, 1871 (ED 3) - educational census
returns for London; types of school; pupil numbers; classrooms;
school income; religious connection

5. Local Education Authority Supply Files, 1870-1945 (ED 16) -
including educational census returns for boroughs and other urban
areas c.1871; accommodation

6. Public Elementary School Files, 1857-1946 (ED 21) - educational
census returns for single-school parishes c.1871; accommodation;
premises; organisation; staffing; trusts and endowments

7. Public Elementary Schools: Preliminary Statements, 1846-1924
(ED 7) - tenure and foundation; accounts; accommodation; staffing

8. Transfer Files, London, 1871-1901 (ED 4) - tenure and foundation;
accommodation; premises; government; trusts

9. Primary Education: Schools Digest Files, 1936-1969 (ED 161)
- similar to School Files (ED 21), but with only the main papers
preserved

10. Elementary Education: Endowment Files, 1853-1945 (ED 49) -
administration of endowments; schemes and orders

11. Building Grant Applications, 1833-1881 (ED 103) - applications
for grants towards cost of erecting public elementary schools

12. Treasury Board Papers (T 1) - contain similar applications
and correspondence with the Committee of the Council on Education
on school building grants, 1833-1902.

13. Elementary Education: Compulsory Purchase Files, 1873-1922
(ED 5) - land acquisition; plans and schedules; petitions; inspectors'
reports on sites; provisional orders

14. Elementary Education: Premises Survey Files, 1919-1942 (ED
99) - area reports on buildings by inspectors; 'black lists'

15. Inspectorate Reports on Primary Institutions, 1946-1955 (ED
156)

  Institution schools

1.  Elementary Education: Institution School Files, 1873-1945
(ED 30) - schools in orphanages and institutions; accommodation;
premises; organisation; staffing

2.  Elementary Education: Poor Law School Files, 1904-1953 (ED
 132) - selected poor law schools; inspectors' reports

    Secondary schools

1.  Higher Elementary School Files, 1896-1926 (ED 20) - preliminary
statements; syllabuses; timetables; staffing; accommodation; some
inspection reports

2.  Secondary Education Institution Files, 1818-1946 (ED 35) -
applications for recognition; inspectors' reports; endowment schemes;
university exhibition endowment papers; establishment of science
schools and classes and teacher training courses in schools;
papers on free places; premises and finance

3.  Secondary Education: Schools Digest Files, 1918-1973 (ED 162)
- similar to Secondary Institution Files (ED 35), but with only
the main papers preserved.

4.  Secondary Education: Endowment Files, 1850-1945 (ED 27) -
administration of endowments; schemes and orders; charities; estates
and property

5.  Secondary Education: Endowment Estate Management Files, 1894-1924
(ED 43) - management of estates, property and other assets

6.  Inspectorate Reports on Secondary Institutions, 1900-1955
(ED 109) - reports on applications for recognition as efficient;
subject reports; conferences with governing bodies; staffing;
curricula; premises; equipment; 1932 survey of health of school
children

    Independent schools

1. Privy Council: Unbound Papers (PC 1) - including papers on
school charters, statutes and endowments

2. Independent and Private Schools: Returns of Schools not recognised
for Grant or Efficiency, 1919-1944 (ED 15) - returns under
the Education Act 1918 s.28 and the Education Act 1921 s.155
 with brief descriptions of art, commercial and vocational institutions;
lists of private schools and institutions.

3.  Certified Efficient Independent and Private Schools, 1871-1944
(ED 33) - applications for recognition as efficient mainly from
denominational and charity schools, orphanages and, after 1927,
profit making establishments, secondary schools and training
colleges; inspectors' reports

4.  Inspectorate Reports on Independent Schools, 1949-1969 (ED
172) (closed for 50 years)

5. Home Office: Various Commissions (HO 73) - including papers
of the Public Schools Commission, 1861-1864


II Records of dealings with Local Education Authorities

    General

1. School Attendance Committee Files, 1877-1902 (ED 6) - union
school attendance committees (outside boroughs and school board
districts); byelaws

2. School Board Office and Pupil Teacher Centre Files, 1884-1911
(ED 57) - mainly relating to the formation of centres providing
secondary education for pupil teachers outside their own schools

3. Establishment of Education Committees, 1902-1966 (ED 139) -
schemes for constitution of committees

4. Grant Scrutiny Files, 1920-1933 (ED 88) - claims for annual
grants to authorities; inspectors' reports

5. Reorganisation of Schools, 1909-1945 (ED 97) - schemes and
programmes for advanced elementary education from 1925; returns
to questionnaires; accommodation; central schools in London, 1909
 1910

6. Education Acts 1918 and 1921: Scheme Files, 1917-1932 (ED 120)
- development schemes for progressive education; schemes for compulsory
attendance at day continuation schools

7. Education Act 1944: Divisional Administration Schemes, 1944-1966
(ED 151) - objections to divisional administration schemes; claims
for consideration as excepted districts (selected)

8. Education Act 1944: Primary and Secondary School Development
Plans, 1945-1966 (ED 1 52) - plans; discussion of proposals; protests;
proposals for provision for children with special educational
needs

9. Schemes for Major Awards, 1933-1956 (ED 153) - senior scholarships;
criteria for assessing candidates for awards; calculations of
parental contribution; regulations for awards

10. Major Building Projects, 1946-1955 (ED 154) - discussion of
schemes arising out of development plans (ED 152);

11.  Extra-District Children, 1904-1945 (ED 89) - approval of
agreements between authorities; reports of public inquiries;
 disputes

12.  Poor Law School Districts 1848-1910 (MH 27) - accommodation;
staffing appointments; building loans; auditors' statements; inspectors'
reports

13.  Poor Law Children, 1929-1944 (ED 95) - administrative schemes
for their education under Local Government Act 1929

14. Religious Instruction, 1919-1944 (ED 106) - provision of religious
education, mainly in public elementary

15. Social and Physical Training, 1919-1944 (ED 101) - approval
for school trips, camps, acquisition and equipping of buildings
and playing fields

    Elementary Education

1. Supply Files, 1870-1945 (ED 16) - including returns and reports
of educational census c.1871; school accommodation; school board
reports for county boroughs and some urban districts

2. Code Files, 1903-1944 (ED 19) - staffing; grant approval; school
attendance

3. Attendance Files, 1871-1945 (ED 18) - papers relating to religious
instruction, exemptions from attendance, child employment and
school leaving age; statistics; byelaws

4. Staffing Files, 1922-1955 (ED 60) - annual returns of pupil
and teaching staff numbers

5. Maintenance Allowances, 1921-1944 (ED 107) - schemes; inspectors'
reports on educational requirements; returns of expenditure

    Secondary Education

1. Secondary Education Files, 1869-1946 (ED 53) - higher grade
elementary schools and post elementary institutions, pre-1902;
schemes under Education Act 1902- free places; schemes for teacher
training; schemes under Education Acts 1918 and 1921; reorganisation
of secondary education under Education Act 1944
(see also General dealings with LEAs)

2. Grant Files, 1921-1934 (ED 59) - grant aid to non-provided
schools and direct grant schools

3. Aid to Pupils, 1919-1955 (ED 63) - schemes of assistance; annual
accounts

4. Fees and Special Places, 1932-1946 (ED 110) - fees and special
places schemes; inspectors' reports on free place examinations

------------------------------------------------------------------------
All records listed here may be seen at the Public Record Office,
Ruskin Avenue, Kew with the exception of PC 1, C 54 and J 18 which
may be consulted only at the Public Record Office, Chancery Lane

------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Public Record Office, Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1LR.
  Public Record Office, Ruskin Avenue, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 4DU.
  Tel: +44 (0) 181 876-3444

  Opening hours: 9.30am - 5.00pm, Monday to Friday. Closed on public
  holidays and for annual Stocktaking (normally the first two full weeks
  in October).

  Admission is by reader's ticket which will be issued on production of
  proof of identity, such as a (UK) driving licence or passport.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

This text, and that of other PRO leaflets, is also available from:
 - World Wide Web URL: http://sable.ox.ac.uk/~malcolm/genealogy/pro/
 - Anonymous-FTP  (site)  sable.ox.ac.uk
             (directory)  /pub/users/malcolm/genealogy/pro
     - if you have trouble accessing either of the above, please contact
                                    (email) malcolm.austen@oucs.ox.ac.uk
 - Wishful Thinking BBS (Cheltenham, UK) - SysOp Rosemary Lockie
     Fidonet:  2:253/188         Tel: +44-1242-232623
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