Post-primary education in West Ham, 1918-39. Kim Lorraine O'Flynn. A thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of PhD. Institute of Education. For Kevin and Frances. 2 Abstract. This thesis is concerned with post-primary education in West Ham 1918-39, with particular reference to secondary education. The realities of local educational experience are set against a background of educational acts an economies. The economic difficulties of the 1920s and the Depression of the 1930s were keenly felt in West Ham despite the efforts of the predominantly Labour council to mitigate poverty. A gap sometimes existed between the educational opportunities Labour councillors wished to provide and those they were able to provide. Generally a pragmatic approach was taken and certainly a secondary education was not seen as essential for all. Chapter One outlines West Ham's pre-1918 history and growth with reference to local politics and immigrant and religious groupings. West Ham's interwar history is told in greater detail. Chapter Two relates the difficulties encountered by the West Ham Education Committee in its decision to establish compulsory continuation schools, not least from the parents of West Ham. West Ham was one of the few areas in the country which succeeded in implementing compulsory continuation education albeit for a limited period. A section on technical education is also included in this chapter, although detailed treatment is hampered by a scarcity of records. Chapter Three examines West Ham's secondary school scholarships in the context of the national situation. West Ham's higher elementary/central school scholarships are subjected to the same scrutiny. Each of West Ham's secondary schools shared a broadly similar curriculum and ethos. Chapter Four highlights these similarities but also points out differences. Of the five interwar secondary schools, two catered for girls, one for boys and two were mixed. Two of the secondary schools were Catholic institutions, although both accepted non-Catholic pupils. Three of the schools were aided and two municipal. A section is included on West Ham's higher elementary/central schools but records are less full than those for the 3 secondary schools. Chapter Five compares and contrasts West Ham's interwar secondary school system with that in East Ham, its sister borough. Chapter Six discusses both the economic and cultural factors underlying local attitudes to post-compulsory schooling. The main conclusions drawn relate to these attitudes which militated against any easy acceptance of such education as necessarily beneficial. 4 Contents. Abstract. P.3 Abbreviations. p.8 Acknowledgements. p.9 Illustrations. p.10 Chapter One: West Ham and its educational provision from the nineteenth century to 1939. p.11 1.1 West Ham's early history; the roots of working-class culture. p.14 1.2 Politics in West Ham both local and national 1830-1939. p.28 1.3 Education in West Ham from the eighteenth century to 1939. p.38 Conclusion. p.58 Chapter Two: Continuation education in West Ham 1918-39;'...they are all elementary school children'. p.66 2.1 The national debate concerning continuation education. p.66 2.2 Reactions to the continuation education clause of the 1918 Education Act in West Ham. p.68 2.3 West Ham's compulsory continuation institutes. p.76 2.4 West Ham's voluntary day continuation institutes. p.90 2.5 Other forms of post-primary education open to West Ham children 1918-39. p.103 Conclusion. p.108 5 Chapter Three: Selection for secondary school education '...the examination should be so framed as to ensure that every child who has been through the ordinary curriculum of the junior school shall have a fair and equal chance,...'. p.116 3.1 Post-primary education during the 1920s and 1930s; the national situation. p.116 3.2 The secondary school scholarship system in West Ham 1918-39. p.121 3.3 Scholarship papers and the provision for fee-paying places in West Ham secondary schools. p.144 3.4 West Ham's higher elementary/central school examination 1918-39. p.147 3.5 West Ham's intending teacher and university entrants 1918-39. p.151 Conclusion. p.156 Chapter Four: The secondary and higher elementary/central schools of West Ham 1918-39. p.163 4.1 West Ham's secondary schools prior to 1918. p.164 4.2 The 1918 Education Act and the secondary and higher elementary schools of West Ham. p.166 4.3 West Ham's secondary schools during the interwar period, similarities and peculiarities. p.167 4.4 The problem of early leavers. p.209 4.5 The relationship of the Schools with each other and the wider community. p.213 4.6 Girls and selective education in West Ham 1918-39. p.215 4.7 The higher elementary/central schools. p.217 Conclusion. p.220 Chapter Five: East Ham 1918-39; a comparison with West Ham. p.232 5.1 East Ham's early growth politics and educational provision. p.232 5.2 East Ham's post-war educational plans. p.236 5.3 Reorganisation and conflict in East Ham in the late 1920s. p.238 5.4 Selection for secondary education in East Ham. p.243 6 5.5 East Ham's secondary and higher elementary schools and scholarships. p.256 5.6 Finances, curriculum and staffing. p.258 Conclusion. p.260 Chapter Six: Conclusion. p.265 Bibliography. p.281 Abbreviations. TUC Trade Union Congress. LEA Local Education Authority. WEA Workers' Educational Association. NUWT National Union of Women Teachers. GWR Great Western Railway. NUT National Union of Teachers. PRO Public Record Office. WHHSG West Ham High School for Girls. ST. A St. Angela's High School for Girls. WHGSB West Ham Grammar School for Boys. MSS The Municipal Secondary School. PSS Plaistow Secondary School. 8 Acknowledgements. I would like to extend my grateful thanks to the following for the assistance they have given me in this study: The staff of Newham's Local Studies Library; the archivists of Brentwood Cathedral; Mr Frank Sainsbury; the late Mrs V Reid and Mrs Phyllis Gardner; Mrs Grace Glegg, Mrs Molly Fossey and Miss Mary Steeds. Shawn O'Flynn for undertaking the printing, layout and all associated works connected with this thesis. I would like to extend my special thanks to Professor Peter Gordon, with whom I initiated this research but most particularly to Professor Richard Aldrich for the clarity of the help and guidance and the quality of the encouragement I have received from him. 9 Illustrations. Illustration 1 West Ham High School for Girls 1931. p.170 Illustration 2 St. Angela's High School 1937. p.177 Illustration 3 West Ham Municipal Secondary School 1930s. p.182 Illustration 4 The Grove Central School 1930s. p.219 Illustration 5 East Ham Grammar School for Boys 1960s. p.235 Illustration 6 East Ham Grammar School for Girls 1960s. p.244 10 Chapter One: West Ham and its educational provision from the nineteenth century to 1939. He's bought up a marsh and a gasworks at least 7 miles out of town. We'll either go down with swamp fever or the whole ruddy workforce will drown. (Comment by Henry Tate's nephew on the acquisition of land in South West Ham to build a sugar refinery, 1874). This thesis is concerned with the provision of post-elementary education in a London borough during the period 1918-39. It examines the effect of local cultural, social and financial conditions whilst setting them in a national context. It studies the complexities of West Ham life and the multitude of factors that influenced educational provision and practice, including kinship ties, traditional work values and the poverty of the area. National educational innovations are discussed in their pure form and as they were translated and transformed for West Ham life. East Ham, West Ham's neighbouring and sibling borough is used as a comparison over the same period of time. With the implementation of Hadow reorganisation during the 1930s post-elementary education could also be accurately described as post-primary education with the institution of a break at the age of 11; although this was not universal even within West Ham by the outbreak of the Second World War. Although education acts and movements were conceived at governmental level, frequently with the assistance of academics in the field, their implementation was at a local level and was adapted, voluntarily or otherwise, to the local setting. An understanding of the make-up, political, economic and cultural of interwar communities, is therefore vital to understanding the interwar post-primary education system since the variety of provision was by no means uniform across 11 the country or even in adjacent areas. A study of West Ham in this context is particularly important because the Borough introduced compulsory continuation education in 1921 one of the few local authorities to succeed in doing so and was, in this manner, out of step with neighbouring boroughs. In addition, West Ham's secondary school provision did not conform to the norm in that it possessed three aided secondary schools, in contrast to only two municipal secondary schools and could provide far greater numbers of secondary school places for girls than for boys. Further local studies are therefore relevant in this context because they often provide the most accurate account of how secondary and other forms of post-primary education were actually provided during the period 1918-39. In studies such as Brian Simon's The politics of educational reform 1920-1940 much emphasis is placed on the detrimental effects on education of the country's economic condition between the two world wars: The educational policy of succeeding governments depended directly on the prevailing climate.