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The basic state school for younger children is a primary (elementary) school. This is how the English state system began. There were at first no state secondary schools. It is hear that the children learn to read, write, and do basic math. There are also programs in the curiuculum for art, music, history, science a phyical education. Small village schools were coeducational because there were not enough children for two separate schools. A good example is the Kirby Thore School village school in Cumbria. City schools tended to be single gender schools. This was possible because there were so many children in close proximity. As the system developed they were for children through age 14. These became called full-term primaries. Few children went on to secondary schools even in the early-20th century. We have archived quite a number of primaries in our school section. A good example is the Barton Mills School (early-20th century). Another is the Holton Road Boys School (1924). Here the boys are mostly wearing sweaters. Another example is New Kings Road School (1925). Here the bioys are mostly wearing suits. Unlike private schools, the children in primaries did not wear uniforms, although some schools adopted basic uniforms in thee post-Workd War II era. A major new Education Act (1944) reformed British education. Primaries were made to only care for children through age 11 and children above that age were tauhht in secondary schools. The children took a test called the 11-plus to determine what kibd of secondary shool they were assigned to. It took several years to implement this new system and expnd the secodary system. Currently primary schools generally are for children from about 6 to 11 years of age. There are infants school which just teach the younger children. The children moved on to secondary schools at about age 12 years. . Gradually the 11-plus was phased out and the children now mostly attend comprehensives beginning at age 11-12.
Here we have an English school. We have no information about it, but it looks to us like a state primary school. Barton Mills is in Suffolk, (near the American airbases of Mildenhall and Lakenheath). The village name may mean "the corn farm by the mill". However, the village of Barton Mills was once called "Little Barton". It is said that many of the maps of the 18th century did not show the small village of Little Barton. The school was constructefd in 1845. It was a typical small village school. There was one large classroom and another small one. There were entrances on both side. One was for the boys and one for the girls. I'm not sure why two entrances were needed because the boys were taught together in the school. The school operated until 1939 when it was closed. The Army used it during World War II for accomodations. After the War it was converted into a home. [Pomsford] The group here looks to be the infants class (figure 1). The school portrait here is from the 1900s, either 1904 or 09. The writing on the board is not very destinct. The girls all wear dresses protected with white pinafores. We assume that means that the school required it. The boys wear a variety of suits, including sailor suits. They are almost all wearing knee pants. One boy looks to be wearing knickers and and another very long knee pants. The board with the children reads "A31" and "2". I'm not sure wht A31 means, but the 2 may mean the second year class.
I have little information about this school. I do know it was Carrow School. The photograph was probably taken about 1900. I believe it is an elementary school and the children pictures are the infant's department of the school. It clearly owes a lot to the kndegarten movement which had begun affecting England in the 1880s. The smaller children have a Noah's Ark to play with and seem to feel quite propriertory about their animals as they are holding on to them so tightly. The older boys are occupied with different crafts, including backet weaving and modeling. Many of the children have rolled up their sleeves and all wear protecive approns, similar to pinafores. Some of the children are very yoing, the little boy in the front row (third from left), still wears a dress.
Hre we have a class portrait from the Grange First School. We know nothing about the school. The name suggested to us that it may be a private school, but now it seems more likeva state primary. It looks to be a primary school. Just what the age range was at the school we are not sure. The photograph here shows a class in 1974. The school had a uniform. The girls mostly wear green dresses. The boys wear mostly grey shirts, although some boys wear white shirts. Ties seem to have been optional. They all wear shorts, presumably grey shorts. The girls wear white kneesocks. The boys wear grey kneesocks. An English reader writes, "There is an independent school in Hartford, Northwich, Cheshire, which is named The Grange; this school has both primary and senior departments. The younger school section has girls uniforms looking like the green dresses in this picture. The boys clothes also seem to match. This is an independent school. There is another independent school in Monmouth named The Grange, but this is for pre-adolescent boys only.
We have found a class photograph from Hexham School. We have no asdditional information, but we acn date thev portrait to thev 1960s, probably the mid- to late-60s. Hexham grew as a market town Northumberland along the south bank of the River Tyne. It is close to Hadrian's Wall. Hexham Abbey originated as a monastery founded by St. Wilfrid (674). As far as we can tell, this was a fairly standard primary scchool. It seems to have been a primary school that rquired a basic uniform. Primary schools until after World War II did not require a uniform. Anglican and Catholic schools seem to have been an exception. We see some pirmary schools adopting iniforms in thev 1960s. This appears to have been one of them, at least for the boys. The girls seem to be able to wear what they wanted, except white knee socks were standard. That is rather unusual. Most schools if they adopt a uniform, do so for both the boys and girls. Thev boys wore white shirts and ties. We are not surevabout the pants. One boys wears grey short pants and knee socks. We are also not sure about the rest of the boys. The group look like two class (form) groups photographed together and the two teachers with them. They look like a 4th year class, maning children about 10 years old.
English primary schools in villages generally went by the name of the village. City schools were different. They tended to take on the name of the street or road. This worked in England because the cities were not laid out on the grid pattern, thus streets and roads tended to be shorter than in America. The school here is the Holton Road Boys School. Village schools tended to be coeducational because there werre not enough children for two separate schools. In towns and cities, single gender schools were the standard, but this had begun to change even before World War II. The school here is the Holton Road Boys School, a primary in Hartlepoolis a seaside and port town in the northern county of Durham, datig back to the early medieval era. The town grew up around a monastary. It was a large cabinet card. School photography was still mostly cabinet cards, mostly the new style mounts. We do not yet see individual portrais. The cabinet cards were done in muted colors with ruling. We see a standard 1A class, meaning boys about 6 years old. The portrait was taken in 1924. The boys are not wearing suits which was common in the 1910s, but mostly jerseys (sweaters). Some of the boys are wearing sailor suits. The class is notable for all the boys wearing longish-cut short pants, most with knee socks and high-top shoes.
Kirkby Thore School was located in Kirkby Thore, a small village and hill in Cumbria (northern England). It is close to the Lake District and the Cumbrian Pennines. The Pennine Chain or Pennine Hills, are a scenic range of mountains and hills in England separating Northwest England from Yorkshire and Northeast England. They are commonly described as the 'backbone of England'. The market town of Appleby-in-Westmorland is about 5 miles from Kirby Thorne. The larger town of Penrith is about 8 miles away. We have no information on the school other than a single 1921 portrait. We can see a substantial, well-lit (notice the large windows) stone building. It was a small coed school. There are 35 children. So the whole scjool was about 70 children. Schools at the time were mostly single gender schools, but small villages often single gender as there were not enough students for two chools or separate gender classes. It looks to us like an 8-year state primary. The children look to be the older children at the school, we think about 10-13 years of age. The girls wear a range of dresses and sweaters. Several of the girls wear pinfores. The boys mostly wear suits. One boy wears a sailor suit. Most wear knickers, but some wear short pants and knee socks which would become standard by the end of the decade.
We are not sure this is the name of the school, but English schools were often known by the name of the street they were on. (Streets in England tend to be shorter than in America.) A HBC reader writes, "My father was born in 1913 and was educated at an elementary school off of the New Kings Road, Fulham, London. Such schools were often divided into three parts – the youngest boys and girls mixed together and then the older boys and girls educated in separate classes. This usually entailed a three-floored building with the infants on the ground floor, the girls in the middle and the boys on the top floor and separate playgrounds. The photograph shows my father’s class when he was aged 12 in 1925 so leads me to suspect that it was taken in early autumn as his birthday was late August. There was no formal uniform but pupils were expected to “dress up” as my recently deceased aunt described it. A study of the photo shows that this would mean different things to different families according to social and economic background particularly with so many war orphans at the time. Even the school tie is not in use by all of the boys. Short trousers were universal at that age and remained so for decades to come as I know myself. Otherwise it appears to be everything ranging from three-piece suits to rough shorts and working pullovers. The boy expected to cause most problems during the exposure has been kept under gentle control at the rear left but in the fourth row one boy has manage to blur his face by looking around." Botice how popular the horizontal stripe ties were. We are guessing that these boys all had school caps, but atr not wearing them for the portrait. Also notice all the badges the boys are wearing in their lapels. These would mostly be awards won at the school for various academic achievements or service like helping at the library. Perhaps our British readers will know more about such badges.
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