The school system for working class children in the early 1900s

Based on childhood recollections of Silver Street School, Edmonton which was built in 1900 to earlier Victorian specifications.

The Board School system

Like other children from working class backgrounds in the early 1900s, my brothers and I started our education at what was called a Board School because it was under the Middlesex Education Board. It was Silver Street School in Edmonton, which was well situated at the edge of a housing district, the Huxley Estate in Edmonton.

Segregation of boys and girls

The school was typical of other Board schools in providing free education designed to equip boys for earning a living and girls for keeping house. For this reason alone it was hardly surprising that boys and girls were taught separately.

Boys and girls were even taught on different floors. However the segregation of boys and girls went further than the teaching. Once the children had grown older than what were called 'juniors', the two sexes were kept entirely separate.

There were three floors to the school building. The youngest children were on the ground floor, girls on the first floor, and boys on the top floor. There were separate entrances for all three, and there were also separate playgrounds. The youngest children and the girls played in one playground, while the boys used a playground on the other side of the building.

School entrances - for the youngest children on the left and for girls on the right, leading from a shared playground to separate floors, the ground floor for the youngest children and first floor for girls.	School entrance for boys leading from their own playground to the top floor.
Photograph courtesy of Cliff Raven, 2011. Below are details of the lintels. The girls' and juniors' lintels have since been painted white whereas the boys' lintel is probably more the original colour. Such lintels can still be seen on old buildings of Victorian and Edwardian schools, even where segregation has long since vanished.

 

The school playing field

There was a small field or playing ground at the end which was turned into an allotment during the 1914-18 war, and worked by the boys. There was also a cycle shed for the staff as they mostly arrived by bicycle. I like to picture them. No cocking a leg or dashing along for them. The women would cycle along at a dignified pace with their cycle baskets on the handlebars in front of them, and the headmaster would get on to his bike elegantly by stepping onto a little bit of metal on the middle of the back wheel to go raise himself onto the saddle. He was a well built, grey headed, imposing man who looked as though he was in command of any situation.

School attendance and meal breaks

We were called to school by the school bell which could be heard quite a distance away. It was in its own bell tower, like church bells.

We started school at 9.00 am. Dinner-time [lunch-time] was from twelve until two, and home-time was at four. Most children brought a slice of bread and butter to school to eat in the playground at morning break, but they went back home for dinner. No food or drink was provided.

Checks were made on absentees by an inspector known as the School Board Man. He would make enquiries if a child was absent for any length of time, then send in his report. The School Board Man who came to our house was respected. He always wore sombre clothes and lived in a very nice house. Like everyone else, he went around on a bike.

This website Join me in the 1900s is also known as Join me in the 1900's and is © Pat Cryer.