An infant school is a type of school or school department for young children. Today, it is mainly used in England and Wales where it describes the education of children between four and seven years old. The first two years of school in Ireland are called infant classes.
The first infant school was founded in New Lanark, Scotland in 1816. It was followed by other philanthropic infant schools across the United Kingdom. Early childhood education was a new concept at the time and seen as a potential solution to social problems related to industrialisation. Numerous writers published works on the subject and a theory of how infant teaching should ideally be conducted developed this included moral education, physical exercise and an authoritative but friendly teacher. The movement quickly spread across the British empire. It was used by missionary groups in an effort to convert the empire's non-Christian subjects. The movement also spread to the United States but quickly disappeared after a backlash against young children being educated outside the home.
In England and Wales, infant schools began to be seen as a way to maximise the education children could receive before they left school to start work and were valued by parents as a form of childcare. State-funded schools were advised in 1840 to include infant departments within their grounds. A similar process took place in Ireland after the establishment of a state education system there in 1831. As it was integrated into the state system, infant education in England, Ireland and Wales came under pressure to achieve quick academic progress in children and shifted towards rote-learning. The new "kindergarten" methods of teaching young children had some limited influence on the curriculum in the late 19th century.
Beginning in 1905, infant education in England and Wales began to move towards more child-centred methods of teaching where education was meant to reflect the preferences of children. Many of the youngest children under five, who were considered ill-suited to school, were removed entirely, though some nursery classes were later attached to infant schools to cater to this age group. The child-centred approach reached its peak following a report in 1967. In 1988, a more centralised curriculum was introduced, but there have been moves away from that in Wales since devolution. Infant teaching in Ireland initially moved in a similar child-centred direction. Following Irish independence, a return was initially made to rote-learning with the aim of reviving the Irish language though this was reversed from 1948.
"Infant school" is a term used primarily in England and Wales[1] for the education of children between the ages of four and seven. It might refer to a separate school or a department within a larger school.[2]
In England, Reception, the first year at school attended by four and five year olds, is considered part of the Early Years Foundation Stage. The following two years, covering five to seven year olds, are known as Key Stage 1.[3] In Wales, the levels of attainment expected of school children are called progression steps. The first of these is expected to be reached at approximately five years and the second at around eight years.[4] In Ireland, the first two years of regular primary school are known as "junior infants" and "senior infants",[5] and infant or junior primary schools take in the two infant class years and sometimes also the following year, "first class", or even the year after, "second class".[6]
The concept of a school for very young children is a relatively modern phenomenon. According to David Salmon and Winifred Hindshaw, who were educationalists in the early 20th century, this is because the idea that formal education can be tailored to the specific needs of young children is relatively new. Previously, it was seen as best for the limited group of children who had access to schooling to start their education at home. There are some examples of infant school-like institutions in continental Western Europe dating from the later 18th century. Before the 19th century, children learnt the skills needed for work and home life from their families at an early age. It was reasonably common for children below the age of eight to attend the village or grammar schools. No particular accommodation would have been made for the younger children as these were single-room institutions that catered to a wide range of ages.
The agricultural and industrial revolutions had a disruptive effect on the lives of many children. New, more punitive, forms of child labour developed in factories. While factory labourers were typically (but not exclusively) older than eight, children as young as three years did contractual work at home or were employed as climbing boys climbing inside chimney's to clean them. Many young children with working mothers were left alone or in the care of older children. Dame schools provided a cheap childminding service, generally with low standards of care and education.
Interest developed in expanded access to education as this situation came to public attention. Reformers attempted to protect children from suffering, while instructing them in morality, religion and obedience. The British and Foreign School Society (founded 1808) and the National Society for Promoting Religious Education (founded 1811) were established to found new "voluntary schools". These schools were intended for children of "school age", which was understood to mean older than six or usually seven although children as young as four years were sometimes admitted. Joseph Lancaster (1778–1838), an influential educational theorist, believed that "initiatory" schools should be created to provide safety and education focused on personal character to children younger than seven years. However, the societies did not aim to cater for the younger age group and no initiatory schools were established.
The first infant school in Great Britain was established in 1816 for the children of mill workers in New Lanark, Renfrewshire in Scotland It was founded by Robert Owen who was manager of the cotton mills there. The school catered for children between one and six years old. Information about this infant school is quite limited, accounts often focus more on the uniqueness of the experiment rather than the activities that took place in the school. The children appear to have spent much of their time playing, but some formal education also took place. In 1819, children under the age of four were reported to be learning to recognise letters. Older children were organised into a different class and taught to read simple texts. Owen believed that every aspect of a child's personality was formed by the circumstances in which they grew up and saw the infant school as a way of minimising negative influences from the family home. He saw child labour as damaging and forbade children under the age of ten from working in his factory. Owen was sceptical of toys and the children largely did activities which did not require physical objects such as "singing, dancing, and marching".
In 1818, the first infant school in England was sponsored by Henry Brougham, and other political radicals, in Brewer's Green, Westminister, London. Brougham placed less value on early education than Owen though he believed that the first years of life were important to a child's development. He was primarily interesting in providing childcare and moral instruction. However, he employed, James Buchanan, a teacher who had previously worked at New Lanark and used similar methods to the first infant school. The families who lived in the slums around Brewer's Green were initially reluctant to send their children to the infant school. However, Brougham put significant effort into recruitment and numbers increased sharply over several months. Two further infant schools were established in London over the next six years. The London Infant School Society was active from 1824 to 1835. It had some success with founding new infant schools but less in training teachers. This was followed by other regional societies including in Leicester and Glasgow. Employers also established factory infant schools with the aim of preparing pupils to be better-behaved child labourers when they started work.
Samuel Wilderspin was a major advocate of infant schools across England. The philosophy he promulgated had more emphasis on formal instruction than Owen's, though he tried to adapt the instruction to the abilities of young children. Nanette Whitbread suggests that Wilderspin had some understanding of young children but lacked a "unifying pedagogical theory". In Glasgow, David Stow was a major promoter of infant schools who remained truer to Owen's aims even with an increased focus on class teaching. Various other figures also established infant schools and wrote books about the subject. David Turner, an academic, wrote that the pedagogy of the various early iterations of infant schools were heavily influenced by Owen's ideas. He commented;
By the mid 1830's the schools had sometimes become training grounds for the lower classes, to accustom them to good habits and industry and to prepare them for National [Society for Promoting Religious Education] or British [and Foreign School Society] schools. There was an increasing emphasis on religion, yet the essentials of the system remained: the acceptance of very young children; learning through play; a variety of short lessons; exercise in the playground, and the cultivation of kindly feelings. Some of the methods sometimes deteriorated into mere rote-learning and marching displays, and some schools were too dominated by religion, but the system had at least permeated the country, and had survived through the pioneering efforts of enthusiastic individuals and the financial support of enlightened philanthropists.The ideals of infant schools were somewhat contradictory. They were supposed to be both an ordered environment and give children freedom. Children were seen in a generally positive light and as likely to cooperate if well managed. They would ideally develop an affectionate relationship with the teacher which would motivate them to learn. These ideas had little connection to a philosophy about child development or education. Some links existed to the ideas of Emanuel Swedenborg, a Swedish philosopher. There were also connections between the infant school movement and phrenology, a pseudoscientific theory about how human thought works which was popular at the time. But the focus of those promoting infant schools was on the practical issue of finding cheap and effective ways to educate large groups of young children.
Promoters of infant schools were interested in reducing petty crime and protecting property. The years after 1811 saw a sharp increase in birth rates. Juvenile crime rates increased as young children were often left alone while their parents and older siblings worked. Historian H. Silver argues that people associated the threat posed to their property by crime with the perceived threat posed to their property by politics (i.e. a revolution in the style of the French Revolution). Alasdair F.B Roberts suggests that the decline in financial support given to infant school societies in the late 1820s, as revolutionary activity declined, might be evidence of this. There were also a variety of motivations for supporters of various ideological views. In England, the focus was usually on child welfare along with inculcating moral virtues, discipline and practical skills. In Scotland, where the concept of mass schooling was more established, there was greater interest in adapting education for young children. Some figures opposed the infant schools, worrying about Owen's socialist political views or seeing them as a form of interference in family life.
Overall in Britain, the early infant school movement was strongest in London and Glasgow. T.B. Stephens is sceptical of the movement suggesting that infant schools gradually lost most of their distinctiveness and failed to become the preferred childcare option for working-class parents. Teachers, who were largely untrained and under pressure from the lack of time children had to attend school, often focused on introducing children to discipline and formal instruction. Infant schools frequently evolved into institutions focused on preparing children for the voluntary schools, neglecting more play-based aspects of the curriculum. Whitbread argues that this did not reflect the priorities of parents, who were often quite happy to send their children to infant schools that offered some entertainment, in preference to dame schools. In contrast, Roberts argues that early infant schools had limited appeal because working-class parents did not see the value of schools where children appeared to spend their time playing — and resented what they saw as a middle-class attempt to influence their children. He gives examples of infant schools that closed in the 1830s. Whitbread comments that the early infant schools offered safety and a degree of compassion to young children living in a difficult environment with few other options. By 1836, there were 3,000 infant schools in England alone, attended by 90,000 children.
Infant schools were quickly founded across Europe, the British Empire and the United States in the decades after the first establishments in Great Britain. In various countries, the number of infant schools expanded quickly for a period before enthusiasm declined and expansion slowed down. Historians have attributed the international appeal of infant schools to multiple factors; an ambition to expand Christian faith, greater interest in the development of young children, a desire to improve the moral character of society as a whole and the working classes especially. Infant schools were also a way of offering some education at a time when access to schooling was often limited. (asylum rooms) were institutions for young children which were established in France beginning in 1826. They were inspired by and had similar motivations to infant schools. Overtime they were adopted into the state education system and renamed (nursery school); remaining part of the French education system today. Colonial governments also imported British practices into their territories. For instance, in 1855, the government of Victoria, in modern Australia, wrote to the central education authority in England and Wales requesting two trained teachers to run a model example of an Infant School.
Some planation owners in the British West Indies established infant schools for enslaved children before they were put to work on the plantations. They hoped this would prepare children to be more effective workers in the future while they were too young to be useful. Plantation owners and colonial officials in the West Indies usually opposed missionary infant schools. They feared that schools of that kind would reduce the power of owners over the slaves. More plantation infant schools were established following the end of slavery in 1833; to encourage the freed workers to remain working there and spread Christianity among their children.
The concept of infant schools entered American public debate in the mid-1820s. Professor John Griscom established a school with a class inspired by New Lanark Infant school in 1825, Robert Owen toured the United States from 1825 to 1826 and educationalist William Russell promoted the movement through the American Journal of Education established in 1826. American opinion was open to the idea; the United States was experiencing similar economic changes to Britain at a slower pace and a more sentimental view of childhood was beginning to develop. An Infant School Society was established in New York City in 1826 which was soon followed by societies in other American cities. Within a few years, infant schools had become common in urban areas. For example, the New York Infant Society was operating nine infant schools in 1831; two of which were for non-white children. Infant schools were established by a diverse range of groups and appealed to families of various economic backgrounds, though they were primarily for the poor. Some state governments gave public funding to them.
The first advice book about infant education published in the United States Infant Education or Remarks on the Importance of Educating the Infant Poor from the Age of Eighteen Months to Seven Years was released in 1827. It was heavily influenced by British texts on infant schools. No formal training was available for infant teachers in the United States, who were often inexperienced young women, so they tended to rely on books of this nature. Americans such as Ephraim Bacon and Bronson Alcott developed their own theories about infant education. Some infant schools emphasised play while others focused on academic study; parents often wanted their children to be strictly disciplined and taught how to read. Bacon wrote a short guide to infant education which was published in a collection of texts on the subject the American version of Essay on Infant Cultivation by James Brown in 1828. May, Kaur and Prochner describe the chapters it was organised into:
... (1) the Opening of the School with hymns and prayers; (2) Arithmetic utilizing a Numeral Frame, and Geography, taught with children in the gallery and the teacher using pasteboard shapes and figures; and (3) Natural History using pictures and an analytical system (‘What is this? A cow’; ‘Is the cow a useful animal?’; ‘Yes, every part of the cow is useful’). The book ended with a list of ‘Rules and Regulations’ from Samuel Wilderspin and an extract from David Goyder’s Treatise on the Management of Infant Schools on discipline..., along with a selection of Mrs. Gilbert’s Hymns for Infant Schools.Financial support for infant schools was declining by the middle of the 1830s. Competition for philanthropy from the developing public school system and personal disputes contributed to the infant schools decline. Academic Alan R. Pence argued that broader developments negatively affected infant schools. Economic changes meant that more women were able to stay at home as housewives rather than seeking employment. Mainstream opinion increasingly held that the best place for a young child was at home with their mother. In some places, infant schools were integrated into the public school system; shifting away from teaching the youngest children and losing their distinctive identity. By 1840, the infant school movement had ended in the United States. It had been common for young children to attend school for instance 40% of three year olds in Massachusetts were in school in 1840 but became much less usual in the years after. The American infant school movement was largely forgotten, rarely mentioned in literature from the middle decades of the 19th century. Writing in 1986, Pence argued that a worry that young children being cared for outside the home might undermine the family continued to be theme in American public debate throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.
A Protestant missionary movement developed in Britain from the 1790s. The movement emphasised the importance of educating children in order to spread Christianity a text published by the Church Missionary Society in 1799 noted that "The instruction of children facilitates access to their parents, secures their friendship and conveys information to them through unsuspected channels. The minds of children are more susceptible and less under the influence of habit and prejudice than those of their parent." Missionaries saw similarities between the working-class people in the United Kingdom which the domestic infant school movement was attempting to reform and the "heathen", indigenous people around the British Empire. Infant schools were seen as a way to make missionary activity more effective by influencing children at earlier ages. According to historians Helen May, Baljit Kaur and Larry Prochner, the intention of these schools, like their counterparts in Britain, was to provide an "ordered and industrious environment set apart from the perceived disorder of the child’s home environment". It was hoped this would introduce indigenous children "to Christianity and European modes of civilization". Evidence of missionary infant schools of this nature exists in various parts of the world.
The first infant school in the British-controlled territories of India was established in Calcutta in 1830. The school was founded and personally funded by John Mathias Turner, the Bishop of Calcutta. It closed soon after his death in 1831. Daniel Wilson, Turner's replacement, organised the establishment of the Calcutta Infant School Society in 1833. Accounts of infant schools were usually positive, but little detailed information exists. They appear to have been relatively common in the middle of the 19th century. Missionaries and colonial officials often believed that Indians would be reluctant to send their children to these schools. In fact, they were often quite well-attended, with parents seeing them as prestigious and considering it advantageous for their children to learn English. They were often bilingual, teaching English through the local language.
The missionary infant schools were not, as far as is known, sex-segregated but boys were more likely to attend than girls. The children who attended were often from quite well-off backgrounds but there were exceptions. The movement to establish infant education was closely linked to the movement to establish female education and many of the pupils who attended girls missionary schools grew up to work as infant teachers. The missionaries lobbied the British authorities in India to support infant schools. There was some apathy and scepticism but the government agreed to endorse a privately endowed boys' infant school in 1839. By the mid-1840s, infant classes attached to schools for older children were beginning to appear. In 1854, the British authorities established a state funded education system in India which did not formally include infant education. Missionary infant schools continued to exist, used largely by Europeans, Christian Indians and mixed-race Indians.
See also: Native schools and History of education in New Zealand.
The first missionary infant school in New Zealand was established in 1832. Many Māori people were interested in Christianity, literacy and western technology. Various positive accounts of infant schools exist and Māori children were often described as keen to learn. Infant schools became common in missionary settlements within a few years. Unlike schools for older children, they were often attended by both Māori children and the children of missionaries. Infant schools were conducted in the Māori language. Māori women taught in them and the first missionary infant school was founded in part to educate the women who helped to run it. Overtime, this would be a source of apathy among Māori parents who wanted their children to be taught English. One account of a later missionary infant school suggests children were being taught in both languages.
The missionary infant schools in New Zealand were influenced by the same figures as the early infant school movement in Britain. One unusually detailed account of an infant school timetable suggested they were teaching a similar curriculum to their British counterparts. A source of tension between Māori people and missionaries was that this curriculum focused on good behaviour and basic academic skills was different from the abilities Māori children needed to participate in the community of their birth. It was also uncertain if a western education would allow Māori people to be accepted into settler society. Missionaries saw Māori children as badly-behaved and undisciplined in comparison to their own. In general, Māori people do not appear to have used corporal punishment on their children. Infant schooling was seen as a way of instilling better behaviour into Māori children. There were sometimes tensions between what the two groups viewed as suitable child discipline.
By the 1840s, missionaries seemed to be becoming more negative about the infant schools. The latest known record of a missionary infant school in New Zealand dates from 1851. The 1867 Native Schools Act established a system of state-funded, English-medium schools in Māori villages following the New Zealand Land Wars. The authorities in New Zealand argued that this would "make education part of the Runanga [<nowiki/>[[Rūnanga]], meeting place] of the marae [meeting house]... scattering the seed [of European ideas] instead of confining it to a few hot-beds" These schools included non-compulsory infant classes for five to seven year olds.
Infant methods were introduced into missionary schools near the Bay of Quinte in Upper Canada by Methodists from the United States. This group established temporary missionary settlements with the aim of completely surrounding converts with a new way of life, education was considered important for reinforcing this. Betsey Stockton, an American teacher, travelled to the Grape Island missionary settlement in 1829 and introduced infant school methods into the school. These methods were therefore influenced by the American Infant school movement. They were also later introduced into schools in other missionary settlements.
Younger children were not separated from older children in the Grape Island school, though "ABC's and spelling" was listed as a subject taught specifically to the "smaller ones". Instead infant methods were used for teaching children and young people of all ages for part of the day. The infant system, with its emphasis on images, was considered useful for teaching Aboriginal children who did not speak English as their first language. Missionary schools appear to have been teaching in a mixture of English and the children's native language. An account of a later missionary school indicated instruction was being conducted almost exclusively in English. The infant system's quick effect on younger children was considered useful as children were usually not expected to remain at school for long. The Methodist missionary schools where infant methods were adopted were short-lived but many of the boys who had studied in them grew up to establish their own missionary schools. An emphasis on the needs of younger children was not repeated in education programmes for Aboriginal children in Canada with the exception of experiments using the kindergarten method in the 1890s until towards the end of the 20th century.
Interest developed in the educational theories of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi after the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. He believed that lessons should be conducted in a way that, though still guided by a teacher, gave the child more autonomy to think for themselves. For instance, the pupil might be allowed to examine an object before being told what it was. He was not primarily interested in teaching young children, but in Britain, it was infant schools where he had the most influence. The Home and Colonial Infants School Society was founded in 1836 to train infant teachers and promote Pestalozzi's technique. By the 1840s, school inspectors preferred infant schools which used teachers trained by the society. The Home and Colonial Infant School Society was the largest training college for infant teachers and was considered to be of a high standard. It also supplied equipment and teaching materials to infant schools. The college was an Anglican institution but also taught Nonconformists; infant schools had a religious element to their teaching but tended to be quite non-sectarian by the standards of the time. Meanwhile, the monitorial system which allowed a single teacher to educate a larger class by using a number of older children as intermediaries was being used in some infant schools with children up to 9 years old being employed to act as assistant teachers.
In 1840, guidance issued for newly introduced school inspectors in England and Wales mentioned specific questions for them to ask in infant schools. For instance, "What amusements have the children?" and "‘Are the children trained in walking, marching, and physical exercises, methodically?". Roberts suggests that some of the questions indicate to desire to avoid rote-learning and maintain the original spirit of the system for example "Are the replies of the children made intelligently or mechanically or by rote? Do they appear to have confidence in their master or mistress [teacher] and to regard them with affection?". One school inspector, HMI Fletcher, wrote in 1845 about the infant system "in the course of improvement in which it appears to be embarked, its preparatory labours will constantly increase in value as they become wider in scope and less ambitious in their immediate aim... an education at once physical, intellectual, industrial, moral and religious." The school inspectorate usually supported the infant system but there was some opposition, especially from those who wanted an early start to academic education.
During this period there was some ambiguity over the purpose of infant education. School inspectors believed that an infant stage of education was beneficial even if it "did nothing but contribute to their [the children's] health and cheerfulness" but also said children should be taught "To read an easy little narrative lesson, have the first notions of numbers, and be able to write on a slate". The Glasgow Herald reported on a local infant school in 1835, "They seldom sit on their seats more than fifteen minutes at a time without exercise. All is joyous activity—only pictures and objects are in use, and one-third of their time is spent in amusements in the playground." Research, by a Royal Commission in 1861, indicated that older schoolchildren who had attended an infant school tended to be significantly ahead of those who had not. Nanette Whitbread commented on infant schools in this period:
Infant schools in England and Scotland by mid-century had certain characteristic features. The schoolroom was a large hall complete with gallery for simultaneous instruction, and the walls were lined with black boarding for the children to draw and write on. A playground, equipped with such apparatus as swings and see-saws, was required in any new infant school applying for grant. The curriculum included drawing, music, physical exercises, sewing, knitting, gardening, at least the preliminary steps towards reading and sometimes writing, and Pestalozzian ‘object lessons’ on natural objects and domestic utensils.Playgrounds were a new concept in the 19th century which had an important role in infant schools. Walled-in, in theory supervised, play areas were seen as a way to control children and thereby teach them to accept adult authority. Teachers were advised to allow accidents and minor incidents of bad behaviour; these could be used later as a negative example in a lesson about correct conduct. Play could take place indoors, but ideally an outdoor playground would be available which was designed to recreate the natural world. Children were provided with various equipment — such as building blocks, vaulting ropes and rotating swings — designed to develop the practical skills and physical strength needed for manual work. Play was often conducted in a disciplined, structured manner. For instance children were expected to tidy away the blocks and wait in line while others used the swings. Some of the equipment was potentially dangerous requiring significant skill and adult guidance to use correctly. For instance, Wilderspin's advice book on infant teaching included a chapter of playground safely; which largely focused on swings. Tiered galleries were structures in which children were seated in progressively higher rows — they would be used when the whole class was being lectured by a teacher. Galleries were intended to restrict the movement of older children placed at the back, while giving them a clear view of the teacher as a reminder that they were being watched. It was hoped this would encourage self-control. The routine of entering and leaving the gallery reinforced the power hierarchy within the infant school.
The number of infant schools was growing rapidly by the middle of the 19th century. A second wave of industrialisation related to steam-power and Irish immigration due to the Great Famine had led to the British population increasing. In 1851 around a quarter of people in Britain were children younger than 10 years. Conditions worsened in the industrial slums and dame schools as the youthful population became more urbanised. This meant that infant schools increased in appeal and were often outstripped by demand. Infant schools relatively low fees became more affordable as skilled workers' wages began to gradually increase after about 1842.
The number of children under seven in schools for older children increased. The first effective restrictions on the labour of children under the age of about 9 or 10 years were being introduced in some industries and technological advancement was reducing the usefulness of child labour. This meant that the number of seven to ten year old children available to attend school increased. Parents often relied on older children to provide childcare for younger children so they sent their three to six year old children to school with their older siblings. 19.8% of three to six year olds were attending schools for older children in 1861. School inspectors felt that large numbers of children younger than seven in schools for older children were disruptive to teaching. They did not want to entirely exclude these younger children to avoid older children being kept home to provide childcare. It also seemed sensible to start teaching at an early age as children did not tend to stay at school for long. A parliamentary committee in 1838 concluded that education should be made available to working-class children from the age of three years. In 1840 the Council on Education in England and Wales;
...directed that a collateral series of plans of school-houses should be drawn, in which an infant school and playground are added to the schoolroom for children above six years of age, in the hope that these plans may promote the adoption of arrangements … for the combination of an infant school with the [older] boys’ and girls’ school.The payment by results system of funding schools was introduced in 1862. Children under six were exempt from individual examinations and the exemption was expanded to children under seven a decade later. The system encouraged more emphasis on teaching the three r's (reading, writing and arithmetic) at the infant stage to prepare for examinations in later years. The focus of teaching in infant schools moved towards rote learning. The 1870 Education Act made 5 years the minimum age at which school boards could make education compulsory. This was somewhat controversial, with some people believing it was too young. However, it was believed young children could be taught moral lessons at an early age, were safer in school and children who started school sooner could be released to start work sooner. The 1880 Education Act made 5 years the start of compulsory schooling across England and Wales. Britain was unusual in the Western World in having that early a start to mandatory education. Many children as young as 2 or 3 years were also enrolled at school. The proportion of children between 3 and 5 years at school increased throughout the remainder of the 19th century from 24.2% in 1870 to 43.1% in 1900. The relatively small number of children under 3 years in school increased in the early 1870s but fell thereafter. The skilled working classes, whose wages were broadly going up throughout this period, made use of infant schools as childcare for their preschool children. Many more of the less financially secure working classes sent their children to school before the age of five when fees were abolished at state schools in 1891. This largely brought about the end of dame schools.
An investigation into infant schools, conducted in 1870, found that they were typically broken into two classes. In the "babies class", for the under 5's, children were taught "to speak clearly, to understand pictures, to recite the alphabet and to march to music". The "infants class" for the 5 to 7 year olds taught "a curriculum based on the three Rs, simple manual tasks and sewing." Babies' classes were somewhat inadequate for the youngest children; often overcrowded, using pens to keep children in their seats and led by adolescent or unqualified teachers. New infant schools were required to include a playground from 1871, fourteen years before a similar obligation was introduced for other new schools. Regulations also required separation between infant children and their older peers. School boards frequently put specific expectations on infant schools. For instance, Bradford School Board's infant schools were instructed to emphasise singing lessons and "and such physical exercises as are practised in infant school". Roberts states that many infant schools which reflected the ideas of the early movement continued to exist. He argues that this sometimes created a "new humane and enjoyable approach to teaching" which was often supported by school inspectors.
This was a period when the ideas of Frederick Froebel were being imported into Britain through "kindergartens" aimed at the middle classes. He had developed a number of "gifts" and "occupations" which were designed to improve young children's understanding of the physical world. He put an emphasis on the value of play and felt that children should not be formally educated until they were motivated to learn. A mixture of practical considerations and class prejudice meant that his ideas were broadly considered unsuitable for infant schools. The government wanted to quickly establish basic literacy and numeracy among children who would leave school at an early age. Theories about what it meant to give children a broader education were somewhat irrelevant to this goal. Froebel ideas were hard to implement in large classes of children whose parents could usually give them little support at home. Whitbread comments that officials "were not concerned with the development of rational human beings but with ensuring a literate proletariat". However attempts were made to introduce some of Froebel's methods into infant schools, often turning them into whole-class activities that lost much of their original value.Infant classes in the early 1900s were almost always separated from the older children in all but the smallest village schools. They were generally large with fifty or sixty children seated in rows. The culture of the payment-by-results system remained even though the system had formally ended. Instruction focused on the three R's taught, to a large extent, through rote learning. There was an emphasis on discipline and conformity across the curriculum. For instance, pupils were forced to write with their right hand, art lessons consisted of exactly copying an image provided by the teacher and physical education took the form of drills along with marching on occasion to martial music. Some schools were starting to take a more informal approach to teaching babies' classes for those under 5. For instance, using moveable furniture and in a few of the more liberal-minded schools allowing periods of free play with toys. Though, class instruction in the three R's was a major part of the teaching of even this youngest group.
High levels of military recruit rejection on health grounds, during the Second Boer War, drew the government's attention to the poor living conditions experienced by much of the British population. The Inter-Departmental Committee on Physical Deterioration was established and released its report on public health in 1904. Witnesses spoken to by the inquiry believed that schools were damaging the health of children who were sent early by working mothers. Young pupils were reportedly being prevented from moving around and made to do tasks they were not yet developmentally ready for. Some witnesses said that nurseries rather than schools were needed for children between three and five years. Female school inspectors were asked to do a further report on children under the age of five attending school. This report, released in 1905, was very critical commenting "that the children between the ages of three and five get practically no intellectual advantage from school instruction... the evidence is very strong against attempts at formal instruction for any children under five". The report said that children from the poorest households gained a health benefit from being removed from the home, but that nurseries were preferable to schools.
From the government's point of view, there were a variety of economic and practical reasons for excluding children under five from school and new guidance issued to local education authorities in 1905 allowed them to do that. All children under 3 had been removed from infant school by 1904. The proportion of three and four year olds in England and Wales at school fell to 22.7% in 1910 and 13.1% in 1930. While there were some efforts to create nurseries aimed at the working classes, except for a brief expansion during the First World War to free up mothers to work in the ammunition factories, it would be some time before a significant number were created. Mothers often used childminders if school was not available.
The 1905 code for elementary schools encouraged infant schools and classes to move away from a focus on reaching a particular standard of attainment in the three R's. They would instead emphasise "the more general aim of encouraging mental and physical growth and of developing good habits". Lessons for five to seven year olds were to be a maximum of fifteen minutes long. Children of this age would be "trained to listen carefully, to speak clearly, to recite easy pieces, to reproduce simple stories and narratives, to do simple things with their hands, to begin to draw, to begin to read and write, to observe, to acquire an elementary knowledge of number". A year later the ideas of John Dewey came to British attention after the publication of a collection of his essays. He argued that lessons for young children should reflect the spirit of Froebel's ideas rather than using the specific "gifts" and "occupations" Froedel suggested. Dewey felt this meant using the kind of activities children were naturally interested in as a basis for teaching. A new attitude developed in infant education which was more open-minded about teaching methods and placed greater emphasis on child development. A senior school inspector Edmond Holmes wrote in 1911 that "the atmosphere of the good infant schools is … freer, more recreative, and truly educative than that of the upper schools of equivalent merit".
Ivan G. Grimshaw and Maude Morgan Thomas were two immigrants to the United States who wrote children's books about their childhoods during this period. Both of the authors discussed their first years at school; Grimshaw noted "I was enrolled in the Infant School, which was the equivalent of the American kindergarten", while, Morgan Thomas just uses the American term "kindergarten". They both remark on the age of starting school; Grimshaw commented "I was only three years of age... as it was customary to begin the work very early", while, Morgan Thomas mentioned, "Welsh children usually began school at a very early age, many of them as young as three years". They both described doing craftwork in lessons; "After folding circular pieces of paper many times, we puffed them out by blowing on them. A great many of these were fastened together to make bright-colored balls which we hung in our homes for decoration." and "...we modeled in plasticine, making birds’ nests and filling them with eggs, and rolling endless snakes." Morgan Thomas summarised that her early years at school were "very pleasant" and mentioned being rewarded for achievements. Grimshaw described his infant teacher warmly.
Around the time of the First World War, a substantial education reform movement grew out of various groups with grievances towards the education system. This led to the development of a new type of child-centred infant education in the interwar period. This new philosophy drew on various sources including the work of Susan Isaacs and ideas from America. The main principle of this method was that activities were based on the preferences of the child. Good infant schools of this era used a variety of methods to encourage the children to expand their interests. For instance, pupils would be exposed to writing in the classroom to encourage a desire to learn to read. This was especially important to those from the poorest households who might have almost illiterate parents with no books. Subjects such as "nature study, pre-history, and craft-work" were introduced, based on the idea that children recreated humanity's intellectual development throughout history in their play. Subjects such as drama and music, along with speech and language activities were also included. Project work played a major role in the teaching of older infants, especially. A class might also keep a pet. There were flaws in this system; some teachers failed to teach reading to poorer pupils, with no reason to develop an interest in the subject outside of school. Large classes in older schools were often ill-suited to the new methods, while new infant schools were more suitable but frequently inadequate.The new teaching methods were not universal and some schools used a significant amount of formal instruction in the older style. While school inspectors generally supported the new ethos there was some opposition. For instance, an employee of the Board of Education, Lord Eustace Percy later wrote in his memoirs: "Educational philosophy had become dangerously romantic since the [First World] war ... It aimed at civilizing children rather than instructing them". In many schools, the new methods were slow to be adopted; frequently time was divided between both methods. However, the Hadow reports of 1931 and 1933 broadly encouraged the child-centred approach. The second report recommended that children in the final year of infant school should receive some instruction in the three R's and younger children could begin learning to read when they were interested. However, it was felt the bulk of time should be spent on other activities. Infant schools had a positive reputation across the western world in the 1930s.
Meanwhile, in the 1930s, efforts to expand nursery provision were starting to have some effect. Several new nursery classes were added to infant schools and the proportion of three and four year olds at school increased marginally after multiple decades of decline. Nurseries tended to have an attached playground and beds for naptime. Nanette Whitbread comments on nurseries that;
Class activities included singing nursery rhymes, eurhythmic dancing, percussion and story-time. There was a regular routine to the day, with time allowed for free play. Toys and apparatus were carefully chosen for their educational value and children were encouraged to experiment with building, painting and other activities that promoted muscular control, sensory perception and healthy physical development. They were taught to wash, dress, use the lavatory and keep the classroom tidy.During the Second World War, the government established multiple childcare schemes for preschool children. Education was a secondary aim of these schemes; they were intended primarily to free up mothers for war work and maintain children's health. However, exposure to nursery methods encouraged infant schools in some areas to include more emphasise on play in their own teaching. More middle-class mothers sent their children to infant schools or enrolled them in the childcare schemes for practical reasons during the war years, making middle-class children attending infant schools more socially acceptable.
The 1944 Education Act placed the infant stage in primary education. Local education authorities often found it practical to build combined primary schools in new housing estates created by the post-war housing programme. The proportion of infant schools and departments that were separate schools fell from more than 70% before the Second World War to 56% in 1965. More middle-class parents sent their children to state schools, at least initially, than in pre-war times. The child-centred approach became increasingly dominant in infant schools. Though more focus was placed on teaching the three R's. Studies had suggested that delayed teaching of reading could lead to a child's abilities in the subject being permanently stunted. The portion of three and four year olds at school declined during the post-war baby boom. The priority of the authorities was on catering to children of compulsory school age. Historians Gareth Elwyn Jones and Gordon Wynne Roderick give the following description of 1950s infant school teaching:
In the first year, the 'reception class', children were usually occupied with activities similar to those in a nursery school, but were also taught to acquire the rudiments of reading and number, learned to draw and paint and to measure and weigh, while music, dance and movement also played an important part. Teaching methods with the older children varied: some teachers relied on formal instruction, others on informal individual and group activities.The Plowden Report in 1967 endorsed the child-centred approach and gave additional autonomy to teachers. Some infant schools responded to this by organising children into mixed age classes and giving them much more autonomy over their choice of activities. In this type of system, a child had the same teacher throughout their time at infant school. The seven year olds would leave at the end of each school year and the almost five year olds would join at various points during the year. The classroom was divided into different areas where different skills were worked on; children could move between them when they liked. A few mandatory whole class activities also took place. A 1970 academic report argued that structuring teaching in this manner made lessons more effective and comfortable for both the children and the teacher.
The 1988 Education Reform Act introduced far more centralised control over state schools with a standardised curriculum and testing being introduced. The primary curriculum consisted of "three 'core subjects' (mathematics, English and science); six foundation subjects (history, geography, technology, music, art and physical education)". Teachers of 5 to 7 year olds were sceptical of these changes and remained close to previous child-centred practises. A 2004 study examined infant classes in England and compared them to the teaching of children of the same age in France. It found that the English schools tended to treat children in a more personalised way; giving them different work based on ability and considering how much effort a child had put into their work when marking it.
Children who had been less well prepared for school at home were given more time to play; in order to develop the skills they had been lacking. The English teachers rarely directly told children if there was a problem with their work, out of concern about their happiness. For instance if a child had answered a mathematical problem incorrectly the teacher would vaguely allude to the issue ("I think you need to check this one") or emphasise the positives ("good try, actually it's less than that"). Creatively was emphasised in written work; spelling and grammar was considered less of a priority when children were first beginning to write. Children progressed from drawing pictures, to writing only the sounds they recognised and eventually began to write unknown words phonetically.
The creation of the National Assembly for Wales in 1999 began an era of greater divergence in education policy between Wales and England.[7] The Foundation Phase, a new play-based curriculum, was introduced in Wales for children of three to seven years from 2008 onwards.[8] In 2022, primary schools in Wales switched to a new curriculum which gave more autonomy to teachers.
An infant school society was established in 1820s Dublin. The organisation promoted infant schools to address social problems like its counterparts in Britain. The British government established a system of state funded schooling in Ireland in 1831. This was an experiment as a similar system did not exist in England at the time. It was intended to assimilate Irish children into British society and reduce poverty in Ireland. The new "national schools" included infant classes. A number of infant schools were also established with the intention of serving as examples to others and providing training facilities for male student teachers. There was ambiguity about what age range was covered by infant classes and schools; children were often admitted at two years.
The Teacher’s Manual for Infant Schools and Preparatory Classes was written by Thomas Urry Young and published in 1852. Young drew heavily on Wilderspin's ideas about infant education. The manual was the first of its type to be published in Ireland and 30,000 copies were sold within a decade of its release. Academic Maura O'Connor argues that at a time when infant teachers in Ireland were largely untrained, the manual could be a significant source of guidance for them. The Powis Commission, an inquiry into schools in Ireland at the end of the 1860s, found that teaching in infant classes was generally poor. In response to this, a payment-by-results system was introduced with the intention of raising academic standards.
The age range of infant classes in Ireland was defined in 1884 as being three to seven years old. Schooling became compulsory for children over six in 1892; though attendance was much lower than in England. Attempts were made to introduce kindergarten methods into infant classes during the 1880s and 1890s. The method was treated as a separate subject within an academically focused curriculum. It was seen as a form of physical training, preparing children for practical lessons in later years and eventually working life. Activities could be quite limited but accounts suggest that they were valued for instance Dr Bateman, a school inspector, wrote in 1896 that "the poor mothers of Limerick bless the man who invented the Kindergarten system". Inspectors continued to view infant teaching as quite poor.
The Revised Programme of Instruction in National Schools was introduced in Ireland in 1900. It was intended to be a more child-centred curriculum under which children would "find out things for themselves... instead of being merely told about things". A wider curriculum would be taught in infant classes in a manner which would be informed by Froebel's ideas. There were various practical difficulties related to introducing the new curriculum, but inspectors felt that progress was made over time. Wider society was sceptical of the changes. The curriculum was amended in 1904 and 1913. The 1913 version for infant classes was influenced by Dewey's ideas. It prioritised socialising children in a homelike environment over teaching academic information, recommending that no formal instruction should be given before the age of six. The children would be given more autonomy and encouraged to pursue their interests. The following suggestions were given for how teaching might work:
Suppose, for example, Hans Andersen’s ‘Ugly Duckling’ is the story of the week, the outcome of this tale would naturally be object lessons on the duck and the swan. The children could draw the duck’s egg; with their bricks they could build the old woman’s cottage, the table, chairs, fire-place, etc. In their geography lesson, with sand and clay, they could model the lake in which the swan lived. They could paper-fold a boat to sail on the lake – in fact by the exercise of a little thought on the part of the teacher, any gift or occupation [terms related to Froebel theories] the children are taking can easily be connected with the story.A dispute took place during the early 1900s related to the teaching of infant boys. It was widely believed at the time that female teachers were better equipped to teach young children and concern developed among officials that younger boys at boys schools were being neglected by male teachers. In 1905, boys schools were required to either employ a female assistant or stop admitting infants, unless it was impossible for them to be accommodated elsewhere. This decision provoked a great deal of hostility from schools and the press the popular perception was that this was an attempt by the British government to reduce costs by forcing a move towards mixed-sex education. The Catholic Church objected on moral grounds and male teachers feared a lower attendance in their schools would have a negative effect on their careers. A slight compromise was introduced in 1907 with the cut-off age being lowered from eight to seven. The employment of an assistant did allow more focus to be given to the teaching of infants.
A Gaelic revival movement developed in Ireland at the end of the 19th century. In the early 1900s, a partially Irish language school curriculum was introduced in areas with a large number of Irish speakers. Following Irish independence from the United Kingdom, teaching in infant classes in the Irish Free State was made solely Irish-medium. The focus of instruction therefore shifted to introducing children to a language with which most of them were unfamiliar, largely using rote learning. Dr Timothy Corcoran was an academic who had great influence on this decision; he felt the main priority of the post-independence education system should be making Ireland an Irish-speaking country. Corcoran had a conservative view of education and disliked the child-centred method of teaching. He felt that early childhood was the best time to introduce a new language and formal instruction was the most effective way of teaching it. He tended to ignore research that did not support his theories. The minimum age for starting school was raised to four years in 1934.
An infant curriculum, which was similar to the child-centred approach attempted at the start of the 20th century, was introduced in 1948. Teachers were advised that effective education for infant classes "...must be based on the young child’s urge to play, to talk, to imitate, to manipulate materials, to make and do things." They were encouraged to use everyday occurrences "when a child falls … coughs, sneezes or cries" and the activities in lessons to introduce Irish vocabulary. A small amount of teaching in English could also be included each day if the school wished. The obligatory Irish-medium system was unpopular with teachers and parents, infant classes largely switched to English-medium when they were given the option in the 1960s. New child-centred infant curricula were introduced in the Republic of Ireland in 1971 and 1999. The terms "junior infants" and "senior infants" continue to be used there for school classes today.