H SCHOOL

A fascinating insight into the educational practice and social conditions of a Yorkshire village school from 1863 to 1872 (in Outwood a mining and agricultural community two miles north of Wakefield).
The Master (as the Headmaster was then called) John Parker Clearly had no easy task, A picture emerges of a compassionate man "bedevilled by problems, most of which will never have been dreamt of, let alone experienced, by anyone in the teaching profession today.
First there was the problem of his Pupils, the report of H M. Inspector for 1870 states that "there is very little intelligence to be found in any of the children"
Then there was the problem of his staff the 1862 Code of Regulations stated that the Inspector, on his annual visit, will enter in the log-book the full name and standing of all certificated teachers, pupil-teachers and assistant teachers of the school establishment.
Each year there is only one entry "John Henry Parker, Certificated Teacher of the 2nd Degree, 3rd- Division, Master", and this poor'Master had to command a school of up to 90 pupils with only the assistance of teaching aides who were not even qualified enough to be entered in the Inspector's Report as assistant teachers or pupil-teachers.
The Master's third problem was that of absenteeism, there are many entries stating that children were absent for what we might term agricultural reasons "Being the fruit season, many of the children having gone to market with their parents","Charles Ledger returned, to school after an absence of 7 weeks; during which time he had been gathering fruit", Many children are still employed in the harvest field "gleaning", "setting potatoes'' and "potato picking". Family poverty also caused entries such as this "Geoffrey Bastow re-admitted after an absence of 4 months during which time he had. been working in the brickyard.".
Finance was his fourth problem, the school was maintained by a quarterly grant of about £30 from the Government, and by School Pence paid by the pupils for each morning and afternoon attendance.
His fifth problem was that of inadequate equipment, even for those days, the Inspectors Report stating that unsuitable books led to the failures in reading.
His final problem was that of the school building, a modern schoolboy would describe it as ‘a right crummy place’, and it was this together with the problem of finance, that led to its eventual downfall.
The curriculum appears, basically, to have been Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Scripture, Object Lessons and Sewing, In addition to these basic subjects, they had the occasional lesson on the Geography of England.
Writing, slates were, of course, in common use, though reference is made to “Paper Standards" in connection with dictation.
The fact that both parents had to work, the mother perhaps on night-shift, is seen in this entry, "Only 5 children were there at 9 am, 45 were later than 9.15 am because they had to get breakfast at 9 am, but this is the fault of the parents".
In October 1871 we read that "a great many children are still absent from a dread of the Small Pox, their parents being afraid to send them past infected houses", while 3 months later it was stated that "at the present time no part of the village is free from it". Strangely enough it accounted for no deaths amongst the schoolchildren, which is more than can be said for Scarlet Fevers "Isabella Wilkinson died this morning (23rd July 1867) She was at school on Friday afternoon". Four days later "Fernetta "Wilkinson died on Saturday morning and was interred on Sunday", and two months later "Tom Walker died this dinner time of Scarlet Fever". (he was at school last Friday).
There are no entries between 22nd January and 17th June 1872, perhaps "because the Master foresaw what was coming "and finally lost heart. In March 1871 the Inspector wrote My Lords have felt great hesitation in allowing any grant at all this year, considering the great defects in the buildings which appear still unimproved after several warnings.
Finally in 1872 the school had to close due to lack of money to repair it to government standards.
After the closure of Outwood School the children were probably (according to the present Records Officer of the National Society) absorbed into the Stanley and Wrenthorpe National Schools until the Outwood Board School in Ledger Lane was opened, in 1879 ( under the auspices of the Outwood School Board set up in 1870 as a result of Forster's Education Act of that year)
Private subscription was able to pay for all but £334 of the £2,180 needed to erect Outwood Parish Church in 1857. Surely enough money could have been found 15 years later to prevent its closing, seeing that it cost only £600 to erect the new Sunday Schools in 1877. Perhaps it was the 1870 Education Act with its promise of larger funds to create larger buildings that, understandably, sounded the death knell of small buildings with comparatively amateurish instruction.
The old school built in 1840 still stands in 2006 and is now a private house.

From “School Was Thin” by J. W. Latham