** Ulster Northern Ireland schools education







Ulster Schools


Figure 1.--The children at this unidentified Belfast school are smartly uniformed. The photograph is undated, but was probably taken in the 1960s. Until after World War II, uniforms were mostly worn at private schools and state scondary schools which adopted the styles of the private schools. This began to change after the War, beginning n the 1950s. We see quite a few state primaries in Britain adopting basic uniforms like this school. The boys wear white shirts, ties, and short pants. The girls wore white shirts and ties, but with gym slips, sometimes clled pinafore dresses. There were school knee socks, but they were not required. Footwear was not specified, but were either leather sandals or shoes.

Ulster is northern Ireland and part of the United Kingdom. We have listed the various U.K. countries separately, primarily because of differences between England and Scotland. We know very little about Ulster schools at this time. It is a relatively small country and our srchive at this time is still very limited. There are significant differences between the educational systems in Scotland and England, but not between Wales and England. We are not entirely sure about Ulster. As far as we know, the education system in Northern Ireland is very similar to the English system with some rather minor differencs. One is that the age of a child on July 1 decides when they begin school while in England it is September 1. The schools follow the Northern Ireland Curriculum, which is based on the National Curriculum used in England and Wales. This became mandated by law at all key stages (2009/2010 academic year). The primary difference is the culturl/religious divide between Catholics and Protestants. Catholic and Protestant students mostly attend different schools. In the United Kingdom, both systems are supported by the state. Here we see a class school portrait, probably from the 1960s (figure 1). The school is unidentified other than it is a Belfast school, but it is clearly a primary chool. The children look like 3rd year students. The boys wear white dshirts, tiues, and grey short pants. The girls also wear white blouses, ties, and gymslips, called jumpers in America. We also have a 19th century portrait, a small unidentified school. We think it is a small private school, probably an 1890s portrait. All we know for sure is that the school was located in Armagh in southeastern Ulster. The county is part of the historic province of Ulster. A reader writes, "I see that there is little information about Northern Ireland in HBC. This is a shame as it is interesting. Being 'very British' and a fairly conservative place it has preserved until recently many of the uniform styles that were more common in England a couple of generations ago." Our reader has provided an account of his personal experiences at a grammar (selective secondary) school.







Careful, clicking on these will exit you from the Boys' Historical Clothing web site, but several are highly recommended

  • Boys' Preparatory Schools: Apertures Press has published a 125-page hard cover book depicting every-day life at British preparatory schools. The book includes about 250 never before published black and white and color photographs illustrating school life during the 1980s. There are also many older photographs to illustrate a brief historical essay providing background information on these splendid little schools. Accompanying the photographs are poems, essays, and quips by the children Preparatory schools in Britain prepare elementary-age children for the country's elite public (private) secondary schools. themselves describing their school experiences. Most of the photographs were taken in England and Scotland, but British preparatory schools in Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, and Ulster are also shown.
  • Apertures Press New Zealand E-book: Aperures Press has publish its New Zealand school E-books. T this will permit readers to follow our process by viewing draft pages and pages in progress as we create them. Besides giving readers the opportunity to follow progress on the book as it develops, it gives our Quiwi friends the opportunity to review and comment on the various pages--allowing HBC to incorporate a much wider range of ideas and experiences than would otherwise have been possible.
  • British Preparatory Schools: These photographic books depict life at British preparatory schools during the 1980s. The schools are English and Scottish. The pictures depict the chool life and uniforms worn at many different schools.






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    Created: 5:52 PM 11/17/2018
    Last updated: 12:10 AM 6/5/2021