School leavers

[Lakeslass]

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to do this, but I have a question for Ethel. Responding to a question from bligh she said that certain criteria had to be met in order for a child to leave school at 11. My grandmother was born in January 1860 and left school to work in a cotton mill when she was 10. I would love to know the criteria.

[Lakeslass]

Sorry I meant to type "leave school at 10" and cross my heart I put an apostrophe in I'm.

[dot.hawkes]

she would have had to have obtained a half-day certificate from the local education authority, these started about 1890 i think and were certianly still used well into the 20th century, but they usually had to be 13 , maybe some School Governers allowed that, especially in the big Mill towns. I know that if a large shpment of cotton arrived it was all hands to the wheel and school took a back seat.

[Lakeslass]

Thankyou, Dot, but my grandmother left school in 1870, so before the change you mentioned. My mother obtained a half day certificate and went to work in a cotton mill half time when she was (I think) twelve and a half, though may have been 13. She was born 30th March, 1900.

[dot.hawkes]

well during Victorian times schools were run by benefactors or religious orders and they were mainly penny schools paid for by parents managing to find enough to send at least one child to school to help the family at home with anything that needed reading a writing skills. there were no LEAs to make the rules and a child went to school if the parents could afford he penny and they left school to work if there was work to go to.

[kempie]

From 1780 to 1870, all elementary schools were "voluntary", that is, they were established and maintained by private effort, by individuals, religious groups, or charitable organizations. After 1833 they were assisted by an increasing amount of government money in the form of grants.

The Elementary School Act of 1870 divided the country into about 2500 school districts and although intended to provide elementary education for children aged 5-13, schooling for children between 6 and 10 was not made compulsory until 1880.

In 1893, the minimum school leaving age was raised to 11 with further leaving age increases occuring in 1899 (12), 1918 (14), 1944 (15), and raised to 16 during the 1972-73 school year.

[kempie]

Hah... I found the original thread this question is based upon.

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/History_and_Myt hs/Question230463.html

[Lakeslass]

Sorry Kempie, should I have mentioned the original thread? Still very new to this game