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Modern Britain
Key Dates in English Education
by Jackie Speel, 31 May 2008
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Part 2: 1900 to 1972
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FOLLOWING PAGES:
Britain's First Domestic Goddess
Precious Story Slides Restored
Gallery: Magic Lantern Slides
A Fake Princess's Part in History
RULERS OF BRITAIN:
House of Hanover
House of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha
House of Windsor
EXTERNAL LINKS:
Beamish Museum
Charles Trevelyan at
www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk (dead link)
Midland Counties Dairy
Spartacus Educationalists at
www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk (dead link)
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1900
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'Cockerton Judgement' (T B Cockerton, government auditor) – rates
could only be spent on elementary education (part of an official
intrigue by Vice President of Education Department Sir John Gorst
and associate civil servant Robert Morant to undermine the School
Board system). City Parochial Charities. Board of Education
constituted higher elementary schools. University of London set up
the Extension Board for the examination and inspection of secondary
schools. Balfour Act: local government system established for
primary and secondary schools.
6 April: London Board of Education issued a minute approved by
Parliament enabling the Board to recognise 'higher elementary
schools.'
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1902
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Education Act: School Boards abolished and to be replaced by
Local Education Authorities in county education authorities made
responsible for running costs of schools provided by the churches
led to protest among Nonconformist groups and some Welsh councils.
London Day Training College established by LCC in association with
University of London.
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1903
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Education (London) Act. London County Council created a local
education authority: had previously had powers under the Technical
Instructions Acts. Employment of Children Act.
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1904
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Board of Education 'Regulations for Secondary Schools.' Day
trade schools or junior technical schools begun, increasing in
number over next few years. Education (Local Authority Default) Act:
authorised Board of Education to act when local authorities refused
to do so. Higher School Certificates established, initially using
the same papers as the intermediate examinations and thereafter a
specialist examination.
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1905
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Ministry of Education 'Handbook of Suggestions' (for elementary
teachers). School Certificate Examination established.
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1906
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Private Members Bill (first such introduced by Labour) gave
Local Education Authorities the power to provide school meals –
became Education (Provision of Meals) Act. Empire Day first
celebrated.
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1907
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In July, the LCC substituted a longer term record for the Junior
Leaving Examination. Only teachers holding teaching certificates
eligible for work in LCC's school services. LCC decided no classroom
should accommodate more than forty in senior and 48 in infants
departments. Education (Administrative Provisions) Act. County
Councils, as educational authorities, made partially responsible for
School Medical Service. Regulations – all secondary schools
receiving state grants should provide free places for a quarter of
annual entry – led to scholarship examinations.
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1908
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National System of School Certificate examinations established
by the Board of Education, and the Secondary Schools Examinations
Council established. Regulations of Secondary Education.
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1909
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Board of Education required that the number of children per
single teacher class should not exceed sixty (down from eighty), with a
changeover period allowed.
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1910
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Milk Scheme for undernourished children introduced. Dispute LCC-Board
of Education over reorganisation of schools.
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1911
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Edmond Holmes, Chief Inspector of Schools, 'What is and what
might be.' London (among other authorities) established Central
Schools for promising pupils in practical studies. Last
pupil-teacher centre in London closed, and last pupil teacher gave
last lesson in 1913. LCC established a series of 'central schools'
with an industrial or commercial bias.
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1913
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LCC began Junior Technical schools.
With WWI male teachers enlisting, it was necessary to use
university trained women in secondary education for the first time.
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1914
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July Circular 849 – a result of pleas from teachers and their
organisations to be delivered from the chaos of examinations –
issued following report made by consultative committee Dec 1911:
reported that nearly ninety separate examinations professed to test
children's proficiency. Concept of group of subjects to be passed in
the first examinations rather than single subjects.
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1916
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Arthur Henderson, Minister of Education appointed a Departmental
Commission on Juvenile Education in relation to Employment after the
War. Submitted final report 1917 which then Education Minister H A L
Fisher developed into what became the Education Bill.
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1917
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April Departmental Committee on Juvenile Employment (The Lewis
Committee) reported.
Secondary Schools Examinations SSEC founded, replacing a variety
of separate qualification examinations.
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1918
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2 April: NUT conference voted 42,757 – 26,040 against equal pay
for women.
Education Act (Fisher Act): school leaving age increased to
fourteen
and half timers disappeared. Provided for physical education,
nursery schools and technical or specialist classes for more
advanced pupils who would benefit from them. Elementary schools
became free. Also provided for compulsory part time education for
young persons 14-18: in practice this latter largely postponed due
to financial considerations.
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1919
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Burnham Committee established – considering teachers' salaries.
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1921
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Education Act – implemented provisions of Fisher Act.
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1922
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Geddes Act (otherwise known as the Geddes Axe).
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1924
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Charles Trevelyan – Commons spokesman on education – number of
grammar school free places was to be doubled. Schools Broadcasts by
BBC began. LCC embarked upon program of concentrating in special
departments children over eleven, which became a national policy in
1926, with the Hadow report's adoption.
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1926
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Consultative Committee of the Board of Education on the
education of the adolescent set up, with Sir Henry Hadow chairman.
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1931
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23 March: Notice to terminate Burnham Award agreement on
teachers' salaries announced by Local Authorities Board.
R H Tawney Equality. The Primary School (Second Hadow Report).
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1932
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22 November: Board of Education decided to confirm new
regulations in Circular 1421 for raising fees in secondary schools
and imposing means tests on parents.
Third Hadow Report Infant and Nursery Schools.
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1933
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22 May: Board of Education called for review of staffing of
secondary and elementary schools with view to reduction of teachers.
Children and Young Persons Act – restrictions on employment of
juveniles (prohibited for children under thirteen etc).
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1934
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Milk Marketing Board scheme for the provision of milk for school
children.
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1936
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30 January: Text issued of Government's Education Bill raising
school leaving age to fifteen from 1 September 1939 with certain
exceptions.
Board of Education Circular – more free places in secondary
schools and state scholarships, and increased grant for elementary
schools.
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1938
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Spens Report Secondary Education with Special Reference to
Grammar Schools and Technical High Schools.
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1939
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Survey of the London Scheme of Further Education – dealt with
technical colleges, colleges of commerce, day colleges and junior
commercial and technical colleges, together with provision for young
people who could be released from employment if compulsory part time
education was introduced.
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1941
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Minister of Education's Green Book on post war school education
published.
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1942
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Fleming Committee – considering ways of linking public schools
to the state system: report issued in 1944.
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1943
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9 February: LCC agreed to recommendation of Education Committee
refusing to collaborate with independent public schools which they
regarded as educationally undesirable as at present moment.
16 July: Government's post-war policy on education announced:
more nursery schools up to five, compulsory school attendance 5-15 and
subsequently to sixteen: primary schools up to eleven and free secondary
education, part time schooling to eighteen, with Young People's Colleges
to be founded.
17 July: Government's White Paper on education: aims 1) securing
to children a better childhood and a better start in life. 2)
Insuring a fuller measure of education & providing opportunities for
all young people to develop their individual talents on the basis of
equality of opportunity & diversity of facilities. The plans
intended to be brought into operation by stages as part of post-war
compulsory education for young people up to sixteen.
2 November: City Corporation approved Government's White Paper
on Education.
8 November: Government announced decision not to set up a Royal
Commission on the Universities.
Butler White Paper 'Educational Reconstruction' Curriculum and
Examinations in Secondary Schools – Norwood Report Curriculum and
Education in Secondary Education.
Norwood Report Curriculum and Education in Secondary Schools.
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1944
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19 July: LCC Education Committee adopted scheme to replace
secondary and senior schools by large schools with up to 2000
pupils.
Education Act: Board of Education replaced by a Minister. Fees
for secondary education schools maintained by public education
abolished, and former distinction between elementary and higher
education replaced by a three stage system - primary, secondary and
further education: establishment of grammar schools, secondary
modern and technical schools 11-Plus examination introduced.
Exempted London from the requirement to prepare a scheme of
divisional arrangement.
10 August: R A B Butler announced raising of school age to
fifteen
would be postponed for a year, and implemented 1947. On McNair
Report on Teacher Training. The Public Schools and the General
Educational System (Fleming Report), Teachers and Youth Leaders
(McNair Report).
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1945
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Education Act covering Scotland. 'The National Schools.'
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1946
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Education Act.
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1947
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17 February: Development plan for primary and secondary
education prepared by LCC published.
29 September: Minister of Education issued a report proposing
changes to examination system in secondary schools – report based on
school record and tests being given to every child on leaving with
one external examination for those over sixteen instead of existing
advanced examinations.
LCC raised status of commercial institutes to that of technical
colleges and schools of art: renamed colleges of commerce.
School leaving age raised to fifteen. Ministry of Education pamphlet,
The New Secondary Education.
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1948
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14 June: LCC Education Committee lifted ban on sex teaching in
public elementary schools.
25 April: Announced that in 1951 school and higher school
certificate examinations would be discontinued and replaced by
examination for general certificate of education.
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1951
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GCE introduced at Ordinary and Advanced levels: unlike School
Certificate, where all subjects in a group had to be passed, a
single subject exam.
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1952
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Ministry of Education said that from 1953 children could take
the GCE before sixteen if teachers thought they were ready.
On employees under eighteen required to attend some for of educational
instruction on one day a week.
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1954
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8 July: Establishment of the Associated Examining Body for
General Certificate of Education announced.
Ministry of Education Report on Early Leaving.
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1955
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4 March: The Burnham Committee and similar bodies recommended
that scheme of equal pay for women similar to that adopted by civil
service should be applied to teachers.
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1958
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14 June: Labour Party's educational policy document contained a
proposal to absorb local authority grammar schools into the
comprehensive schools.
29 October: Middlesex County Council decided to end 11-Plus
examination – other local authorities followed intermittently
thereafter.
LCC launched, in conjunction with the BBC, an experiment in the
use of TV as a teaching aid.
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1959
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Crowther Report on pupils 16-18, Secondary pupils of average and
below average intelligence.
Elizabeth Fraser – study Home Environment and the School
Crowther Report on pupils 16-18, Secondary pupils of average and
below average intelligence.
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1960
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Beloe Committee grades 1-5 and U for CSE, with one being
equivalent to an O level and four average candidates (to some extent
covered different curricula to the O-levels).
On Associate Examination Board – examinations aimed at
candidates in comprehensive schools, and offering new subjects.
Secondary School Examinations other than the GCE (Beloe Report).
System of numerical grades for A levels introduced by some boards,
and in 1970 replaced by A-F and U.
From the mid-1960s multiple choice began to be used in 16+
examinations.
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1961
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2 March: Ministry of Education announced that from 1964 school
leaving dates would be reduced to two a year – Easter and July – for
those leaving at the minimum age of fifteen.
Secondary Schools Examination Committee report 'The Certificate
of Secondary Education' that a new school leaving examination should
be introduced, being subject based.
White Paper 'A Plan for Polytechnics and Other Colleges.'
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1962
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Brian Jackson and Dennis Marsden Education and the Working
Class. Nuffield Science Project. Sir David Eccles, Minister of
Education set up a Curriculum Study Group, which led to setting up
of a Working Party, under Sir John Lockwood, Chairman of SSEC which
reported to the Minister in March 1964 and recommended the
establishment of a Schools Council for the Curriculum and Education.
Government accepted terms of the Beloe Committee which led to the
creation of the Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE) alongside
the General Certificate of Education – replaced a number of local
examinations.
The Secondary Schools Examination Committee announced that the
CSE would probably start by 1965.
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1963
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Half Our Future (Newson Report), Higher Education (Robbins
Report).
The Third Report of Secondary School Examinations Council: new
and uniform system of grading and presentation of results of GCE
examinations at A levels would be uses by all examining boards –
five
grades of pass on main or 'basic' papers and two 'supplementary'
grades (Distinction and Merit) for 'S' papers: the existing
'Scholarship' papers to be abolished.
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1964
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Minister for Education became Secretary of State for Education
and Science. Education Act... Industrial Training Act.
Schools Council for the Curriculum and Examinations established
1 October, Sir John Maud first Chairman, replacing Secondary School
Board: by 1971 proposing a 16+ exam to be taken by all school
children. After various reorganisations the Council was
re-established as a charity 1969.
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1965
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First CSE examinations: nine examination boards.
January: Circular 10/65 from the Department of Education stated that
the Government's declared objective was to end selection at 11-Plus
and to eliminate separatism in secondary education. Local
authorities asked to submit short and long term plans for
reorganisation maintained schools in their areas on comprehensive
lines and ways of doing this, based largely on what six authorities
had already done.
June: Inquiry into Primary Education by Central Advisory Council
(England) reconstituted under chairmanship of Lady Plowden
announced.
The Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) was set up to cover
the area of the former LCC, and in outer London education was the
responsibility of the London boroughs.
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1967
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6 October: ILEA decided to retain at least forty grammar schools in
London in 1971.
Children and their Primary Schools (Plowden Report).
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1968
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February: Select Committee of House of Commons appointed to
consider affairs of Department of Education and Science and Scottish
Education Institute.
Public School Commission first Report; second Report 1970.
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1970
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Council for the Curriculum and Education became an independent
body financed in equal parts by the Department for Education and
Science and the LEAs.
The Organisation of Secondary Education Circular 10/70.
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1971
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Education (Milk) Act.
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1972
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Teacher Education and Training (James Report), Education: A
Framework for Expansion (government white paper). School leaving age
raised to sixteen.
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Continued in Part 3
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Text copyright © Jackie Speel. An original feature for the History Files.
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