THREE DOZEN YEARS

CHAPTER ONE - THE DEVELOPMENT OF CENTRAL SCHOOLS AND THEIR PLACE IN THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

The Elementary Education Act of 1870 set up School Boards to provide elementary education for all children between the ages of five and thirteen. At first, attendance was not compulsory but the Boards had the power to frame by-laws making it so. By two further Acts of 1876 and 1891 elementary education was made compulsory and free.

The only provision for what we today call secondary education was at the Public School or the Grammar School. The syllabus was academic, with great stress on the classics, and the number of free places, by way of scholarships, was small. There was practically no opportunity for education beyond the elementary stage for the children of those enfranchised by the Parliamentary Reform Acts of 1867 and 1884.

When the School Boards had solved the problem of accommodating all children up to thirteen years of age, a demand arose in many urban areas for the provision of higher elementary education beyond the age of thirteen, or Standard VII, as the highest class in the elementary school was called, and the Boards turned their attention to this problem. In many districts all the children whose parents wished them to remain beyond Standard VII were gathered together in one central school known as a Higher Grade School. In Edmonton there was one such school, which still bears this name. In Tottenham, the Bruce Grove School of Science, which was housed in the Sperling Road building and whose Headmaster became the first Director of Education for Tottenham, was another. Here the curriculum included Latin, French, chemistry and physics, algebra and geometry, and the author has been informed by an old scholar of this school that, on gaining a scholarship to a Grammar School at the age of thirteen, he was able to take his place in the fifth form without difficulty. In 1900 a ruling of the High Court made these schools illegal, because the School Boards were not empowered to use rates for this purpose, but an emergency Act of Parliament rectified the position.

The Education Act of 1902 abolished the School Boards and handed over their duties to the County Councils, who were empowered to delegate their powers in respect of elementary education to the Councils of Urban and Rural Districts of a certain size. Tottenham became one of these Part III Authorities, as they were called. This Act also established state secondary schools to be administered by the County Councils, usually known as County Schools, which grew up side by side with, and acquired status comparable with, the older independent foundations known as Grammar Schools, High Schools, etc. It is necessary here to adopt a convention, and these schools, County and independent Secondary Schools alike, will be referred to hereafter as Secondary (Grammar) Schools to distinguish them from the Secondary Schools created by the Education Act of 1944.

One of the results of the 1902 Act was the decline of the Higher Grade School because:

1. The new Secondary (Grammar) Schools drew off children who would have gone to the Higher Grade Schools.
2. Some of the Higher Grade Schools became Secondary (Grammar) Schools, and
3. The Board of Education Regulations of 1900 prescribed a predominantly scientific curriculum for Higher Elementary or Higher Grade Schools which few such schools were able to adopt.

But although the new schools established by the Act of 1902 widened the field of secondary education, they did not fill the gap formerly occupied by the Higher Grade Schools. Pupils were not accepted in Secondary (Grammar) Schools unless they were going to remain until the age of sixteen and there was no provision for the many children who would enter business or industry at fifteen. Moreover, the fees were not inconsiderable and there were many children who, while unable to reach scholarship standard, would have gained admittance if their parents had been able to afford them. In 1905 the Regulations were relaxed so as to enable Local Authorities to frame a curriculum for Higher Grade Schools provided that certain subjects were included.

In April, 1911, the London County Council introduced the Central School system. The Central Schools were intended to give advanced elementary education and, as the name implies, they served an area, the children coming from other schools at the age of eleven plus and following a four-year course. The curriculum was to have an industrial or commercial bias. London's example was followed by Manchester and a few other large authorities.

So matters remained until the Education Act of 1918 which, in Section 2 (1), provided that,

"It shall be the duty of a Local Education Authority so to exercise their power under Part III of the Education Act of 1902 as to make or otherwise to secure adequate and suitable provision by means of central schools, central or special classes or otherwise

(1) for including in the curriculum of public elementary schools, at appropriate stages, practical instruction suitable to the ages, abilities, and requirements of the children; and

(2) for organising in public elementary schools courses of advanced instruction for the older or more intelligent children in attendance at such schools, including children who stay at such schools beyond the age of fourteen."

It was as a direct result of this Act that the Tottenham Education Committee opened three Selective Central Schools on 1 October, 1919, namely Downhills, Down Lane and Risley Avenue. The detailed story is related in the pages that follow. These Central Schools continued, until 1944, to provide an advanced education for many who, today, receive instruction in the Grammar Schools but who, in those days, could not obtain one of the limited number of free places.

The Education Act of 1944 established three types of secondary education - grammar, modern, and technical - all free. Once again there seemed to be a threat to the existence of that small category of schools which has, at various times, been called Higher Grade, Higher Elementary, or Central. Indeed, there is, today, no official classification "Central School." But just as, in the years after 1902, the provision of secondary schools was found to be insufficient and the curriculum not entirely suitable for all categories, so, in the years since the end of the war in 1945, the tripartite division of grammar, modern, and technical envisaged by those who framed the Act of 1944 has been found, in practice, to be too rigid. The Central Schools have filled a place between the academic approach of the Grammar Schools and the practical approach of the Modern Schools. Indeed, in many districts Modern Schools have been built which are "Central" in all but name, drawing selected children from a wide area who will pursue advanced courses beyond the age of fifteen. That these Schools have filled a gap in the educational system in the past and have a function to fulfil in the future it is one of the objects of this History of Downhills Selective Central School to show.

Reference is often made to the Educational Ladder, but perhaps a tree is a better analogy. Sown in 1833, the seed germinated and the young sapling grew slowly until 1870. In the next 30 years it sent out many branches. In 1900 it was clumsily cut back and, in 1902, subjected to a further pruning, but the roots were then well established, the sap was rising and new shoots appeared where the branches had been pruned. In 1918 fertiliser was applied and growth was quickened but, during the twenties and thirties, was erratic. In 1944 a further careful pruning was carried out, the object of which was to direct the energy of the tree to a few main branches. But a tree is a living thing and will often, in defiance of the gardener, develop healthy shoots which, if allowed to grow, will produce fruit of fine quality.