4'S 8 ENGLISH GRAMMAR SCHOOLS BEFORE AND AFTER T9O2 The legal and administrative process by which (the great majorlty of) Endowed Grammar Schools in England were assi:nilated into the system of publicly financed Secondary EducaÈion developed under the Balfour/Morant Act of L9O2, considered ín its educational and social content - 1864-1928. THESIS for the Degree of M.A. (History and Education) IN THE UNIVERSTTY OF ADELAIDE Mrs. Anne Goward B.A. Hons University of LÍverPoo1 Dip. Ed. University of Adelaide June 1981 Appendix XV - A Comparison of Numbers of Grant Aided Secondary Schools and Secondary School Pupils I914-I9I5 and L928-I929 329-33L ÀppendÍx XVf - An Analysis of Board of Education List 60 ffiing the Dístribution of Secondary Schools and SEcondary School Pupfls. 332-334 List of Office Holders at the Board of Education 335 Bibliography 336-346 SUMMARY The purpose of this study j-s to determine the way in which the ancÍent endowed schools developed as a result of the changed circumstances resulting from the Education Act 1902. The study also explores the Íncreasing involve- ment of the local authorities in the provision of secondary education as weII as the ways in which the Board of Educat- ion influenced the stlpply of secondary education by the provided and non-provided schools. The Education Act, I9O2, though not universally popular, \^7as the culmination of great effort on the part of education- istsr. adminístrators and legislators. This legislation had profound and lasting effects in both social and educational terms, providing the corner stone for much of the ensuing reform in England. At the outset 3O4 ancient endowed schools htere identified. These had been examined and reported on by the Schoots rnquiry Commission (I868) and subsequently came within the purview of the Board of Eilucation (,1914-1915). Many of these schools enjoyed a nevr lease of life, benefitting greatly from the increased financial assistance afforded them by the Board and in many cases by the Local Education Authorities as welt. These ancient endowed schools provided a nucleus of secondary education in l9O2 and an administrative model for the new secondary schools provided by the Local Education Authorities. The supply of provided schools increased steadily and after 1915 the majority of secondary school pupils in England $/ere being educated in them. The evidence shows that the majority of ancient endowed schools reÌinquished their autonomy by conforming to the Regulations for Secondary Schools I9O7; this they did to benefit from the enhanced grants provided by the Board of Education. WhiIe these schools ensured their financial viability, they became almost indistinguishable from the provided school-s and in the process developed in a way not intended by their founders. A thorough going reform of the funding of secondary education initiated as a result of the Education Act 1918 and refi¡red as a consequence of the Committee on National Expenditure CL922l was completed in 1928 when non-provided schools chose either to become schools maintained by the Local Education Authorities or schools receiving their financial assistance directly from the Board of Education. The latter becanne the so-called "Direct Grant Schools". It was found that fifty-nine ancient endowed schools adopted "Direct Grant Status" thereby retaining their own unmistakable ind.ividual ethos. It{any of th.ese schools remained within the purview of the central authority for four decades until the Direct Grant was abolished in I975. ft u'as concluded'that the policy of giving the over- sight of secondary education to a central authority, while requiring.Local Education Authorities to improve the provis- ion of secondary education in areas where it was inad.equate, enabled existing secondary schools to develop in line with Board of Educati.on requirements. This resulted in loca1 needs being catered for and a rich varÍety in English secondary educatÍon unknown Ín êIèher France or Germany.. English secondary educatíon aft,er J,}OZ enjoyed a ffexibility which enabled ttre ancÍent endowed school-s to develop in the way that suited them best. Authorrs StaÈement Ttre author certifíes th^at the writing of thís thesis and the orfiginal researclr were her own undertaking and that to the best of her knowledge and be'lief it does not contain materíal previously written or published by another person except when due reference is made in the text. ACKNOVTILEDGEI{ENTS The author wishes to thank Mr. A.F. Denholm, Chairman of the Department of History and the Revd. J.S. Dunkerley, formerty of the Department of Education, the University of Adelaide, for the helpful advice, crj-ticism and encouragement they offered while actÍng as supervisors. I am grateful to the University of Adelaide for permitting me to complete this study while I was in the United Kingd.om. I wish to thank Mrs. M. Robinson, lt{rs. A. Jago' Mr. H.F, Coxon and the staff of the Barr Smith Library' the UniversÍty of Adelaide; the staff of the library of the University of l¡lestern Australia; Mr. J.E' Vaughan, Tutor Librarian, the School of Education Library, the University of Liverpool, and Mr. J.R,V. Johnston, Education Librarian, the University of Leeds. I also wish to thank Mr. J.A. Partington, Senior Lecturer Ín Education, the University of Nottingham and Mr. J. Goodchild, Archivist to the Wakefield Metropolitan Council. Transcripts of crown-copyright records in the Public Record Office appear by kind permission of the Controller of H.M. Stationery office and the Map in Appendix XIV appears by kind permission of George Philip and Son Ltd- FinaIIy I w-ish to thank Miss Susan A. Nemes for preparing the manuscrÌpt. "The value of education is often overestimated by those who have had little of it and underestimated by those who have had much of it". L.A. Selby-Bigge, The Board of Educati'on. London 1929 p.66 I CHAPTER 1 Introduction Enqlish Education I87O-]-9O2 Popular education has sprung out of the ideas and necessities of modern times, and the elementary school for the poor is an institution which has no very remote history. With tþe secondary school it is otherwise. I The first of the four Royal Commissions, each examining a particular facet of English educatÍon during the nineteenth century, was the Newcastle Commissj-on of 1858. This Royal Commission wás set up to examine "Popular Education", i.e., education for the boys and girls of the labouring classes. The Commission was to have far reaching consequences though legislation for elementary education was not enacted until 1870. The Newcastle Commission wtrich reported in 1861 noted that there needed to be made "... a further attempt to influence the instruction of the large body of inferior schools and of inferior pupils who have hitherto been little ) affectedr"' by the provisions of the time. The 1870 Education Act sought only to rectify the deficiency in elementary education identified by the Newcastle Commission. The Education Act of l870 became known as Forester's Act because as Hugh Owen said: 2 Mr. Forster in the conduct of the BÍII' affecting as it did so many interests and prejudices, not only displayed great ability, broadness and catholicity of views, and a thorough appreciation of the difficutties attending the question but his rare tact and concilÍatoriness ot manner rnaterialty aided its passing.3 Forsterrs intention had been to obtain complete and efficient provision of elementary education with the least possible expenditure of public money, and the least poss- ible injury to existing sch-ools.4 To 'fiII ttre gapsr in elementary education, new tad hoct.agencÍes, local school boards, \^rere to be set up to provide elementary schools where the existing denominational provi-sion was insufficient. Forsterls Act was both a landmark and a watershed in educational administration. It at once provided a universal system of elementary education, ending, ât the same time, the era purely of state assistance and supervision of educat- ion provided by the churches.5 A fair basis was established for a J-asting partnership between the state and local and ecclesiastical auttrorities. Hitherto grants had been paid only to schools connected with one of ttre nominated religious societies and grants had been conditional upon suitable religious instruction being given in the schools. After t87O State responsibility was confined to secular education; Schoo1 Managers and School Boards were permitted to arrange religious instruction, but it was neither examined nor did it attract state benefit. School- Boards brere forbidden the use of catechisms or formularies. 3 The Education Act 1870 hampered tfre progress of voluntary elementary schools which, though receiving an increase in a capitation fee, lost their building grants after the initial year of grace. Before l89lr because of f inancial dif f iculties, I'the church of England had surrendered almost a thousand of her schools".6 Neverthe- Iess Voluntary agencies spent considerable Sums of money, without benefit of matching Parliamentary grants, to avoj-d the compulsory establishment of School Boards in some .t".=.7 Protestant dissenters saw the continuance of single- school areas in the Education Act of t87O as an intolerable grievance, since it meant tt¡-at in rural areas the Anglican parish schools had a near monopoly of elementary education. The resentments of both ttre Church of England and of Non- conformists smouldered until aft.er the Balfour Act of I9O2 ' when the Church of England felt it had achieved some redress' but when, in consequence, the Nonconformists were coffespond- ingly aggrieved. The term "elementary education" within the meaning of the Act of I87O was defined as "a school or department of a school at which elementary education is the principal part of the education there given, and does not include any part of the school or departrnent of a school at which the ordinary payments for each school or department of a school exceed ninepence a weekrr.