Birmingham board school

The Birmingham board schools were set up very rapidly after the Forster Elementary Education Act 1870 (33 & 34 Vict.

The act allowed each municipality to: The first Birmingham board was created on 28 November 1870 and included nonconformists Joseph Chamberlain, George Dawson and R. W. Dale.

Schooling in this era strictly segregated boys from girls, with separate head teachers, class rooms, playgrounds, and entrances from the road.

John Henry Chamberlain believed that the architecture of schools should provide a pleasant contrast from the drab homes and environment of their pupils.

Typically in red brick and terracotta, gabled, with steep roofs supported by large arches of internally exposed ironwork, and freely planned, they were towered to provide ventilation using the Plenum system, with fresh air being drawn in from above the polluted ground level, heated if necessary, and vented also from the tower.