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Chapter 3

It would be unfair to conclude this history of the Tiptree C.E. Primary School and the educational changes apparent in it, without making some assessment of the contribution made by the voluntary bodies, particularly the Church of England, to the provision of elementary education in this country.

Organised efforts to provide schooling of the poor did not begin until the end of the 17th Century when the Charity school movement began. In 1689, the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge was formed. Unfortunately, public opinion of that time was opposed to the provision of education for the poor in case they should become rebellious, hence for the next fifty years it was held that the poor should be taught only the need of humility, contentment with their lot, submission to their betters, industry and diligence. Letters to the clergy of that day urged them to persuade wealthy people to help set up schools for the poor where they may be taught the principles of Christian religion and fit them for employment. A growing liberalism began to make itself felt which believed the poor had a right to be educated and led to greater efforts among philanthropists to make increased provision.

Thus during the early part of the 19th century education depended almost entirely upon such people, supported by public subscription and effort. Societies were formed to provide religious instruction, practical instruction in certain crafts and the rudiments of reading and writing and arithmetic. Schools of industry were set up to help the poor to be self supporting and to reduce pauperism which at that time was a great problem to the state. It was the discovery of a cheap and effective method of teaching large numbers of children at once that gave the impetus necessary for a further development of popular education at this time. This was the monitorial system used by Andrew Bell and Joseph Lancaster in their respective schools at the turn of the century. This was the system which enabled a teacher, helped by several monitors, usually the older children, to instruct a large number of children. This system was so highly thought of that in 1807 a Bill was presented in Parliament to provide Parochial schools, but Parliament did not believe in popular education then so the Bill was rejected.

In 1811 the “National Society for the Promoting of Education of the poor in the Principles of the Established Church throughout England and Wales” was formed. The aims of this society are clearly expressed in its long title. In 1814 The “Royal Lancasterian Association” which was formed in 1808 changed its name to “The British and Foreign School Society” and established a school at Borough Road, London, as a model training school for teachers. The schools supplied with staff from this training school were to be open to children of all creeds, there being no distinctive religious teaching, but the children had to attend some place of worship on Sundays.

These two societies were to experience the keen rivalry which had already long been established between the Church of England and the Non-Conformists in this question of educational provision for the poor. Between them they created an extensive voluntary system of education long before the direct intervention of the State. State intervention was indeed slow. It began with legislation to ensure that young factory workers had a certain amount of instruction in reading and writing during their working day, which incidentally was not to exceed twelve hours. The Government's first positive step towards providing education was in 1833 when grants were authorised for the supply of school buildings, but the control of the schools was left in the hands of the voluntary bodies. Further grants were made for Salaries (1846); Books and Maps, Workshops and Gardens, (1847). These grants were paid over to the two Societies to help them build and maintain their schools. A Privy Council on Education was formed by the Government in 1839 for the consideration of all matters of an educational nature and its first recommendation was that schools receiving grant aid should be inspected. Thus from 1833 to 1862 when the Payments by Results scheme was brought in, the State was content to provide the means of education, leaving the voluntary bodies to educate. As may be imagined, these arrangements did not suit every-one and attempts were made to make changes as the years went by. Space does not allow this to be recounted here, but there were signs that fewer people held the opinion that the education of the poor was a dangerous thing and there were growing signs of reasonableness abroad and movements afoot which culminated in the Education Act of 1870, bringing about compulsory elementary education supported by local rates and under local control.

There can be no doubt that the contribution of the Church of England to the provision of elementary education was a major one and without it the process of establishing a system of elementary education may have been longer delayed. The energy with which the Church endeavoured to open schools where they were needed must be admired. It did of course, have a distinct advantage over the other voluntary bodies in so far that it had its representatives already well established in every community throughout the country; representatives who had a great deal of influence in their own spheres. These clergymen did not spare themselves in the task of rousing interest, raising funds and opening schools and maintaining their schools when they were opened. Here, I think, is one of the Church's finest educational endeavours. Before 1801 it had opened 709 schools; but by about 1851 the number had risen to more than 8,500 schools. The burden of opening, maintaining and controlling the schools was carried by the local priest. He was encouraged of course by his local Diocesan Board, but there was perhaps a degree of compulsion implied in that he may have been considered as failing in his duty to the community if he did not make a serious effort to open a school. The amount of financial help he could expect from the Diocese and from the National Society was indeed small as can be seen in the Tiptree Church School story; for example the first building cost £350 and grants from these two sources amounted to a mere £20 each; the balance of £310 had to be raised by local efforts. The worry and strain to which the local clergy was subjected in his efforts to establish and maintain a school can be imagined. It is to these individual clergymen of the past that the credit must go; theirs was the effort to build and sustain the schools.

When this aspect of the Church's contribution to mass education is considered it is easy to understand why the Church was loth to relinquish its hold upon the schools and fought bitterly to prevent the State taking control. Rivalry with the British and Foreign Society continued, but this Society too was equally anxious to have influence upon the educational pattern. It can be argued, perhaps, that if these two powerful bodies had been less self-sufficient and self-protective, more willing to hand over some responsibility to the State, public elementary education might have come about earlier. Public opinion, it must be remembered, was only very slowly formed and communicated and there was very little that the ordinary working people, even if interested, could do by themselves to influence affairs. Hence, without the leadership and encouragement of the Church and the other voluntary bodies, without the very rivalries and dissentions that arose among them, educational thought would have stagnated.

As far as Tiptree Church School is concerned, the rivalry that existed between the two major societies was evident in the clash between the Church and the Dissenters in the village. It is likely that the prospect of establishing a School Board in Tiptree prompted the closure of the British School attached to the Dissenters' Meeting House (The Congregational Church); the activities of the passive resisters against the paying of rates to maintain the Church School are indications of this rivalry. On the other hand the Church of England in Tiptree jealously guarded their interests in village education by making tremendous efforts to provide additional classroom space to house the children shut out from the British school in 1886, incidentally creating a problem of educational provision which was not solved by the opening of the Council school at Tiptree Heath in 1910. If the Rector of St Luke's in 1886 and the then Minister of the Dissenters' Meeting House could have seen fit to agree to the building of a Board School at that time, much of the difficulties of the subsequent years may have been eased.

The problem of over-crowding in the Church school still threatens as the village is growing rapidly, its very geographical position makes it a popular choice with residents, particularly as most of the development of the village appears to be confined to the school's environs. The Tiptree Heath School, opened to relieve pressure on the Church School in 1910, is sited on the outskirts of the village where development is at present slow. There can be no doubt that to satisfy the educational needs of this growing community a new and larger school will be needed, perhaps on the site of the present Church school, perpetuating the Church tradition in education. In fact if such a project could be initiated in this year of Grace, 1964, it would indeed be a fitting commemoration of the first hundred years of Tiptree Church of England Primary School.

St Luke's Church School, Tiptree, in 2003. Tiptree now has three primary schools, and St Luke's has been extended considerably. The building parallel to the road in this picture is the original "school-house" built in 1863; the gable-ended building to the right is an extension (in several phases) from the later C19th; and the building to the left is a late C20th addition to the school. As I write to update this site in 2008 a new extension of three classrooms is about to be built on the rear of the school.