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The state school system was the subject of extensive debate and reform. It was the private schools, both preparatory and public (elite secondary boarding) schools that set the standards in British education. The state system was basically a primary school system, albeit with an 8-year program for children through about age 13 years. In addition to the public schools were schools with religious association. The largest was the Anglican system. The Government provided financial support for these schools. There were also the grammar schools which were kind of a state-private mix. It was the grammar schools that provided secondary education to the large lower middle class that could not afford the private (prep and public) schools. The grammar schools essentially replicated the methods and ethos of the public school, but in a day school setting and at a lower cost that made the schools more accessible to low income children. While school reforms made important changes in primary education, the secondary schools were left largely untouched. And most British children ended their education when they finished primary school. It should be stressed that this was also the case in other countries. The primary difference between Britain and other countries is the importance of private education.
Private schools dominated British education until 1870. A variety of state primary schools developed in the 19th century,but it was not until 1870 that Brutain launched a system of state primaries providing univeral free access to all children. The state school system was the subject of extensive debate and reform. It was the private schools, both preparatory and public (elite secondary boarding) schools that set the standards in British education. The state system was basically a primary school system, albeit with an 8-year program for children through about age 13 years. Secondary education was provided by the public schools and the grammar schools. The prstigious public schools were expensiv and largely boarding schools. The grammar schools offered a day chool experience and were less expensiv than the public schools. There were also the grammar schools which were kind of a state-private mix. It was the grammar schools that provided secondary education to the large lower middle class that could not afford the private (prep and public) schools. The grammar schools essentially replicated the methods and ethos of the public school, but in a day school setting and at a lower cost that made the schools more accessible to low income children. The primary difference between Britain and other countries is the importance of private education.
There were also schools were schools with religious association. This was primarily the Anglican (Church of England) and Catholivc school systems. Many private schools like the public schools and prepartory schools had religious associations. The Anglican and Catholic schools were part of the state system. The Government provided financial support for these schools. Here we see children returning home from an Anglican school (figure 1).
We notice three basic levels of schools in England. There were pre-peimary schools like kindrgartens. It is not alwats clear just what kind of school we are looking at. Some of the available images of these pre-schhols show children of the same age and others show a range of pre-school ages. And we are not sure who was sponsoring them. We know that the churches played a major role in these schools.
The largest level was the primary schools. This state schools were a primary school system which began with 6-tear olds. They provided an 8-year program for children to about 13 years of age. This is 2 years beyond what is considered secondary school age in most modern systems. The great bulk of English children attended the state schools. There were private primary schools. Actually they followed the state arrangement of teaching to children through age 13 years. These were the preparatory schools which fed children into the public schools. Most were boarding schools in the 1890s which of course prepared them for the boarding school program of the public schools. The prep schools had a little older statring age than the primary schools in part because boarding was not seen as appropriate for most children. Actual rules varied from school to school, but most children began around agge 8 years.
While school reforms made important changes in primary education, the secondary schools were left largely untouched. And most British children ended their education when they finished primary school. It should be stressed that this was also the case in other countries. Most children did not gomon to secondary schools. There were of course seondary schools. The private schools were the public schools which werre boarding schols. The grammar schools were also fee paying schools, but with lower fees than the public schools, although they emulated the public schoolm, program on a day school basis. They received some state support. .
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