Education and Evacuation in the Second World War Meg Oliver (with particular reference to London)

This is my history of evacuation, which illustrated most aspects of children in London in the Second World War. I was seven when war broke out and I lived in SE London. As early as May 1938, in the shadow of the Munich crisis, the London County Council was already discussing evacuation as a means of saving people from the horrors of aerial bombing as seen in the Spanish Civil War, should war break out with Germany. After the Munich Crisis when war was averted, although Chamberlain promised “Peace in our time,” by the summer of 1939 war seemed likely to break out and people were making arrangements to leave London. My parents, like most, wanted to stay with us if possible, hence they sought to make alternative arrangements. By 1st September my mother and sister and I were staying with friends in Lenham, near Maidstone in Kent, and it was there that we heard war declared. Our evacuation had taken place as the same time as 600,000 children were evacuated by the LCC. Our host was chauffeur to the ‘Big House’, which itself had become the home of a London boys’ school. It was a fairly temporary arrangement and then a relative arranged for us to stay in a farm in Limpsfield in Surrey. I did not go to school during this period. However this was the time of the ‘phoney war’ while Hitler gathered his strength for the onslaught on Britain, and also waiting to see if those, like Lord Halifax, could get support for a deal. No bombs fell, and apart from rationing and people going into the forces, it was quiet. So we returned to London in late November. My education continued. When I first returned, neighbour who had had to give up teaching gave lessons in her living room as a way of war effort. Schools were disorganised; although many pupils had returned, their teachers were still evacuated. l, was in my first year of junior school and eventually I was plugged into the system. I had to go to school in the mornings, in what had been the Secondary school to collect work to do, and to return it when completed. I trudged through the heavy snow to deal with this. As the situation grew more threatening and making a deal disappeared, plans to re- evacuate children were resurrected. The bombing of Rotterdam reinforced the message of Warsaw, destroyed in 1939. Over the period May to July 120,000 children were evacuated many from the South-east areas to Wales, the Midlands Surrey and . My mother and my sister and 1 were evacuated as my mother had obtained employment as a ‘helper’. These helpers were assigned to schools, in my mother’s case, Brixton Central School for Girls. Their duties were various, to help the teachers as they supervised the pupils under their care. In June 1940 we arrived in the village of Kennington, near Oxford, where the junior years were billeted. I was enrolled in the local village school, which consisted of three classes, divided into standards. The desks were old-fashioned, very different from the tables where I had worked in London. I don’t remember learning a great deal. The teachers were overwhelmed with the sudden influx of evacuees and refugees (My best friend was a Czech Jew). When I reached the top standard the staff suggested that I joined the girls from the Central school and this was arranged. I spent about eighteen months as a pupil at the Central school, presumably sorted out with the LCC.

British Schools Museum sent in by Sheila Tickner

British Schools Museum

The British Schools Museum in .

The British Schools Museum is an educational museum based in original Edwardian and Victorian school buildings in Hitchin in Hertfordshire, .[1] The museum complex is made up of Grade II listed school buildings housing infants, girls and boys schools with houses for Master and Mistress.[2] It includes a monitorial schoolroom based on the educational theories of Joseph Lancaster for 300 boys, which opened in 1837, and a rare galleried classroom, dating from 1853.

History of the school[edit]

The school buildings of 1853 (left), 1837 (centre) and 1904 (right). The first school on the site was a schoolroom for 200 boys and 100 girls. It was founded in 1810 by local lawyer William Wilshere in a disused malthouse. This schoolroom was the first monitorial school for the sons of the poor in Hertfordshire. Teaching was based on Joseph Lancaster's methods of monitorial teaching. He developed a system in which large numbers of younger scholars could be taught by older scholars under the supervision of the master (for boys) or mistress (for girls). This method continued until the Revised Code of 1862 that brought in the Pupil Teacher method of teaching.[3] The monitorial system was changed as it was the general consensus that having children teach other children, when they are not well educated themselves, proved to be problematic. The Pupil Teacher method involved an older scholar being given training and being paid to teach. The government hoped that this would increase the number of teachers in the future, using a system that could be described as an apprenticeship in teaching.[4] The school grew steadily and to such an extent that in 1837 a new schoolroom was built that could hold 300 boys. This was completed in 1838, and the original school in the converted malthouse then included an infants school as well as the girls'. HM Inspector of Schools Matthew Arnold visited the school in 1852 and reinforced the 1849 recommendation of inspector J D Morrell that the boys' school would benefit from a new classroom. A new Gallery classroom for 110 pupils was completed in February 1854.

The 1857 school building with the houses for the Master and Mistress to the left. In 1857, it was decided by the School's Board of Trustees to completely rebuild the Girls' and Infants' School. The new building was completed in 1858 together with adjoining houses for the Master and Mistress. When Matthew Arnold paid a return visit to the school in 1867 he reported that the new buildings were "excellent". By 1904 additional classrooms were needed because of the growing number of pupils, and these were built in 1905, but by 1929 the school was too small (and quite worn out!) and the Boys' and Girls Schools transferred to the new Wilshere Dacre School in the town. The Infants School carried on in the original buildings, but because of the number of evacuees who were sent to Hitchin at the outbreak of World War II the school reverted to a Junior Mixed Infants School in 1940. This school continued on the site until 1969, when it closed, but the buildings were taken over by North Hertfordshire College as the Queen Street Activities Centre.

Recent years[edit] The buildings were listed as Grade II in 1975 for their importance as a site of historic school architecture. Mrs Jill Grey, a local educational historian, opened a small museum in one of the Edwardian classrooms. In July 1990 North Herts College left the site and Hertfordshire County Council put the buildings up for sale. The Hitchin British Schools Trust was formed and by 1994 were successful in purchasing the buildings. The Trust, mainly through the efforts of volunteers, has restored the schoolrooms to reflect their original condition, and work continues to improve them. The museum is visited by adults and groups of children from all over the country who are interested in seeing how their ancestors were taught. The BBC filmed scenes from the 2010 children's television series Just William at Hitchin.

The 1944 Education Act by Margaret Ventham A debate about secondary education was happening in the later 1930s. It continued during WW2 until the 1944 Education Act was presented to Parliament by Rab Butler and became law. These years of discussion and gathering of ideas were the outcome of changes in society after WW1, innovations in industrial and technical processes, better communications and the gradual improvement of education, resulting from the Education Acts of the 1900s which raised the school leaving age to 14, and made all county and town councils offer secondary education. At this point in time secondary education was not free. Local Authorities required fees and the schools demanded that pupils wore uniforms – an expense that many families could not afford. Some elementary pupils aged 13 from poor homes were able to take the entry exam for secondary school or technical institute. If they passed the entry exam they could achieved a free, scholarship place. Those who did not take the exam left elementary school at the end of spring or summer terms when they were 14. Many went into apprenticeships for what, today, would be considered very basic skills and trades. Alongside statutory education, there were public schools and old established grammar schools offering education up to entry level for university. Some of these schools awarded free scholarships to very bright students. People involved in higher education and those of influence in the upper classes also became part of the national debate about secondary education for all. Meanwhile various organisations, societies and trade unions, all wanting changes to the system, were making their voices heard. The ideas and suggested changes were not universally compatible! Some wanted complete closure of public and private schools. Some wanted religious foundations banned from running schools. Others wanted both of these to continue! There were suggestions for comprehensive, grammar, secondary modern and technical schools. What Rab Butler wanted was State Secondary Education to be provided by Local Authorities, without charge, for all children up to the age of 15 years followed quickly by a future rise to 16 years - which was not achieved until1969. He trod a very difficult path through the debate before he managed to get the 1944 Education Act passed into law. In the end, private, public and Christian schools survived. Secondary Education was to be provided by all Local Authorities free of charge. The school leaving age was raised to 15. There were to be Selective Grammar Schools, with selection by the 11 Plus Examination. Secondary Modern Schools or similar non-selective schools to be provided for the rest of the population. Some other types of schools could be provided in special circumstances. As we know now, the plan held good for another 30 years until 1974 when most LA’s decided to do away with the 11 Plus Exam. Co-educational Comprehensive Schools became the norm in most areas. And now, nearly 40 years later, education and training are expected until students reach 18 years of age. Thank you Rab Butler for the 1944 Act.

Higher Grade Schools by Dot Bedenham Prior to the 1870 Education Act, elementary schools for the children of the poor were usually built and maintained by the churches. The 1870 Act allowed for the setting up of school boards to build and maintain schools where provision had previously been non-existent or inadequate. Board members were democratically elected, could include women, and in many cases ran their schools exceptionally well. Education was not made compulsory by the 1870 Act and no provision was made by the government for children who wanted to further their education once they had reached the school leaving age. Higher grade schools were established by some local school boards after the 1870 Education Act to fill this need. As there was no central direction for these schools, they were of different types in different parts of the country. Higher grade schools were never considered as secondary schools – they were always thought of as an extension of elementary education. The first higher grade school was built in Bradford in 1876. Bradford went on to build five more, all as a result of pressure from local residents. By 1895 there were 65 higher-grade schools in England, including one in Portsmouth, and 80 just four years later. There was obviously a need, and the need was growing. The curriculum of the schools varied to some extent according to the employment possibilities of the district, but it generally placed strong emphasis on scientific and practical subjects. The higher-grade schools acted in some cases as stepping-stones to the grammar school and university but were seen usually as routes to skilled and clerical occupations. They were unlike any other educational institutions and might be seen as the forerunner of the comprehensive system brought in many years later. The schools usually charged fees as there was a heavy financial outlay to get them up and running. Fees were usually between 1d and 9d a week. This meant that the poorer section of the community was underrepresented at higher grade schools although efforts were made to keep an exceptional student at school. The school boards in , and Bradford made the decision not to charge. I was brought up in Birmingham and have recently discovered that the grammar school situated at the top of our road, Waverley Grammar, was originally a higher grade school. It was the school that I would have attended if my father hadn’t decided to send me and my sister to one in a less built-up area in the town – I lived in what had once been Peaky Blinders territory!

Waverley Road School was the only purpose-built higher grade school built by the Birmingham School Board. It was designed by Martin and Chamberlain, a leading architectural practice in late-Victorian Birmingham. The original school building remains largely as constructed and is now a Grade II* listed building. Waverley was opened in 1892 offering a further two years of education, largely technical and commercial, to able children, after the age of twelve. It was superbly equipped. At the time of opening, the facilities included a chemical laboratory, a lecture room and workshops. It offered places to 600 girls and boys at its opening. (The elementary part of the school closed in 1905 as a result of the 1902 Education Act. It then became a secondary school and subsequently a grammar school after the passing of the 1944 Education Act. It is now Small Heath Leadership Academy.) Higher grade schools awakened educational aspirations in a class of the population previously excluded from all but the most basic of education. However, not everyone considered that higher grade schools were necessary, and they came in for a lot of criticism in their day. Grammar schools and private schools felt they were losing pupils as a result of the higher grade schools. Leading educationalists of the day were usually public school educated and wanted Latin and Greek to be on the curriculum for older children rather than science. Some ratepayers objected to the maintenance of the schools from the rates and made their objections known. The Cockerton judgment of 1900 made local financial support for higher grade schools illegal. Two years later a Conservative government, strongly supported by the High Church, brought in an Education Act which abolished the school boards and put education in the hands of borough and county councils. The Act introduced state aid for secondary schools. For the first time Britain had the makings of a proper system of secondary education but the way in which the Conservative government chose to shape the system made it elitist and selective on the basis of social class and the ability to pay rather than intellectual capacity. The number of secondary schools was kept low, they had to charge fees and adopt many of the characteristics of the great public schools viz a curriculum which included Latin and Greek and less science and vocational subjects, teachers who were untrained but from public school and Oxbridge backgrounds, school uniforms, crests and mottoes, and playing fields for organised team games such as rugby and cricket. The higher grade school buildings were kept but were either used for elementary or secondary children. If you are interested in knowing more about these schools, there is a book written by Meriel Vlaeminke called ‘The English Higher Grade Schools – A Lost Opportunity’. She considers that the 1902 Education Act was a retrogressive move by which much was lost. Having read her book, I would tend to agree. The Bluecoat School by Maggie Perry The Bluecoat school is a type of charity school for about 40 boys The first of which was founded in the 16th century and their motto is Semper Virtutem Let Us Always seek Virtue .

They are know as bluecoat schools because of the distinctive blue uniform originally worn by their pupils. The colour blue was tradionally the colour of charity and was A comon colour for clothing at that time. The uinform included a blue frock coat and yellow stockings with white bands.

Most of them closed some remain open as schools often on different sites and some of tThere was a smaller school for girls known as the Grey coat School . The first school to be established was Christ’s hospital. By Edward Vi in Newgate street as a foundling hospital.

Between the 16 th and 18th centuries around 60 similar institutions were formed around England and also there was a grey coat school for girls, but this only housed only forty three girls their uniforms and their uniform was a different colour .

Supporters who donated more than a guinea a year were allowed to put forward the name of one boy and one girl