Another school-related question (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Thursday, September 26, 2013, 13:46 (4070 days ago) @ downunder

This MAY also help, re school leaving-ages etc.

"Elementary school was the name given to publicly funded schools in Great Britain which provided a basic standard of education for working class children aged from five to 14, the nominal school leaving age at the time. They were also known as industrial schools.

Elementary schools were set up to enable working class children to receive manual training and elementary instruction. They provided a restricted curriculum with the emphasis on reading, writing and arithmetic (the three Rs). The schools operated on a 'monitorial' system, whereby one teacher supervised a large class with the assistance of a team of monitors, who were quite often older pupils. Elementary school teachers were paid by results. Their pupils were expected to achieve precise standards in reading, writing and arithmetic such as reading a short paragraph in a newspaper, writing from dictation, and working out sums and fractions.

Before 1944 around 80 percent of the school population attended elementary schools through to the age of 14, before entering the adult world and hopefully employment. The remainder transferred either to secondary school or junior technical school at age 11. The school system was changed with the introduction of the Education Act 1944. Education was restructured into three progressive stages which were known as primary education, secondary education and further education."

For the absolute history of schooling in the UK this site lists it all in great detail, http://www.educationengland.org.uk/history/chapter04.html
The legal school leaving age varied through the early C20th, as altho governments felt children should stay longer at school, it was accepted that during these difficult years many parents wanted their children to leave education as early as possible & start bringing another wage into their often very poor households.