Elementary school (England and Wales)

In an effort to expand this "voluntary" system, the government made grants available to these societies, initially for new school buildings but later towards their running costs.

It became apparent that although this system worked reasonably well in rural communities, it was far less successful in the rapidly expanding industrial cities, and that Britain was falling behind the rest of the developed world.

The problem of how the education of older pupils should be managed was solved by abolishing school boards in 1902 and passing responsibility to local councils.

At the start of the 19th century, parents of the middle and upper classes could afford to pay for tuition of their children by a governess or tutor at home, or at a private school.

[1] Working-class children under the age of 7 could be cared for at private dame schools, which were usually located in the home of the teacher, generally an older woman who was unfit for other work and was often barely literate herself.

[4] In 1820, Whig Party reformer Henry Brougham introduced an Education Bill to parliament, which would have resulted in schools being subsidised through the rates, a local property tax.

Where this requirement was actually observed, factory owners often appointed a semi-literate worker as a teacher, although a few employers established well-run schools.

The commission rejected the proposal for compulsory school attendance on the grounds that: ...if the wages of the child's labour are necessary, either to keep the parents from the poor rates, or to relieve the pressure of severe and bitter poverty, it is far better that it should go to work at the earliest age at which it can bear the physical exertion than that it should remain at school.Furthermore, the commission, while noting that "all the principal nations of Europe, and the United States of America, as well as British North America, have felt it necessary to provide for the education of the people by public taxation", rejected the proposition of fully publicly funded schools in England and Wales because "the interference of Government with education is objectionable on political and religious grounds".

In a scheme devised by Robert Lowe, a grant was payable for each pupil, depending on their attendance and ability in "the three Rs"; reading, writing and arithmetic.

Liberal MP William Edward Forster submitted an education bill to parliament in February 1870 which tried to balance the demands of the various factions.

Within the following decade, elementary schools were providing: singing, recitation, drawing, English, geography, science, history and domestic economy.

In some cases schools could provide for older pupils: mechanics, chemistry, physics, animal physiology, agriculture, navigation, languages and shorthand.

This was sometimes in direct competition with local borough and county councils who ran technical and arts schooling for the same age groups.

Following a court case in 1899, the Cockerton Judgement ruled that school boards were exceeding their powers by educating this older age group.

[22] The earliest elementary schools followed the monitorial system and only required a large space in which desks could be arranged in rows accommodating between 50 and 100 children; a National Society report of 1816 stated that "a barn furnishes no bad model".

[26] The first of these "three-decker" elementary schools was built in Fulham in 1873 by architect Basil Champneys in the newly fashionable Queen Anne style.

During the middle of the 19th century, there were concerns that government grants to schools were becoming increasingly expensive and the 1857 Newcastle Commission recommended that funding be based on results from academic testing.

The 1862 "Revised Code" established that the issuing of government grants to schools would be based on attendance and the results of tests in reading, writing and arithmetic conducted by a visiting inspector annually.