Council Reports “That education … would teach them to despise their lot in life, instead of making them good servants in agriculture and other laborious employments to which their rank in society had destined them.” There was also opposition from parents because their children would not be working. This school would have come about as a result of the Church, in 1811, setting up “national” schools, with the aim of providing a school in every parish to educate the working classes. Figures show about only half of children (5-11 year olds) attended school, often for only two hours a day. Nationally, the average duration of school attendance was just one year. Sunday school was better attended, as the children would not be working and the Church wanted them to learn to read the Bible, but writing and arithmetic were not taught. Often children were taught by their older sisters and teachers were only one step ahead of their pupils—in the Mile End census for 1841 there was just one person whose occupation is given as “schoolmistress” and she is aged 13. The school had failed by 1844 when, because the population was increasing rapidly, Strong invited subscriptions for a new school which was soon established in premises opposite the rectory. It is thought the cottages, or perhaps parts of them, were used for that purpose and later reverted back to cottages. They existed on the west side of Mile End Road south of the footpath through to Hugh Dickson Road. By 1851, the national average duration of school attendance had risen to two years. In 1846, the school had 35 children with 15 more attending on Sundays and by 1861 the day school had c. 100 children. In 1871, a purpose-built school for 137 pupils was constructed with materials from the Rectory Close church. This was today’s Church Halls. (The cottages originally used were demolished in 1927 according to an old photograph from the Laver Collection.) The school received a 9
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