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The Ecclesiastic Parish of Tiptree Heath had been formed from the outlying portions of several other parishes, but was not to become a civil parish until 1934. The administration of the district known as Tiptree Heath was the responsibility of the the civil parishes from which it had been formed. Under the terms of the 1834 Poor Law Act, these parishes had been grouped into Unions centred on the nearest suitable town. Thus the Maldon Union, the Witham Union, and the Lexden and Winstree Union had a share in the administration of the Tiptree Heath Ecclesiastic Parish. The Act introduced by Lord Sandon in 1876 to improve school attendance demanded among other things, that where there was no School Board established in an area, the administrators of that area were to form School Attendance Committees empowered to enforce school attendance. The three Unions of the parishes quoted above formed their Attendance Committees and appointed Attendance Officers to visit schools in their areas. Tiptree Heath C.E. School was accordingly visited by three Attendance Officers for some time.

It is interesting to read from the log entries which show the attitude these these Attendance Committees had towards the problem of poor attendance at school. The headmaster records the result of a deputation of headteachers to the Attendance Committee of the Maldon Union in 1894, who pleaded for a firmer course of action. In May of the same year he attended a meeting of the Lexden and Winstree Attendance Committee for the same purpose and was told that his repeated complaints to them were resented, that it was his job to ascertain the reason for children's absence, not the Attendance Officer's and that it was cruel to insist that five year old children should attend school when they live more than a mile away. If such children attended half time it should be sufficient. The Committee indicated that they thought that 75% attendance was enough in the case of most children, it was the duty of the School Managers and the teachers to procure evidence of illegal employment of children, not theirs.

Entries in the log at this time also show something of the curriculum and methods of teaching. Samples of manufactured goods were being received from the makers and used as teaching aids. Among these was soap from Messrs Cook and Son; matches from Bryant & May; maps from the Canadian Pacific Railway Company; tobacco from Lambert and Butlers and rope from the Belfast Ropeworks Ltd. Each of these was presented in such a way as to illustrate its manufacture or use. The older children were now studying the works of William Shakespeare as part of the Literature Course. In History the syllabus is stated as follows:-

In the infant school at that time there were “kindergarten activities” which included “Games with Music”, paper folding, setting tables, guessing games and drawing.

H.M.I. reports at this time were concerned mainly with the state of the building and the equipment available, this was judged to be unsatisfactory. Among other things the playground and paths needed attention.

It becomes possible now to relate entries in the school log with the minutes of the Managers' Meetings which are available from 1892. There are no traces of earlier minutes of these meetings, but it can be assumed that a record had been made. The frequent changes of Rector of the parish may account for the absence of such records. An intriguing point about this particular minute book is that it had been previously used as a school log book, which after some ninety pages had been used, presumably for school log purposes, had been adopted for Managers' Meetings Minutes; the first ninety pages being torn out. Throughout the years 1864 to 1892 the method of electing Managers was that laid down by the Trust Deed and was to continue until the introduction of the 1902 Education Act. Through these Minutes it is possible to see the school's problems from another point of view. That the Managers in 1892 were anxious to rectify the deficiencies apparent in the school premises cannot be questioned, but the problem of raising the necessary money was yet to be solved. Fortunately, because of the good work of the efficient staff under Mr and Mrs George, the school was entitled to a larger grant, a fact to which the Managers paid tribute. However, the type and the amount of grant immediately needed prompted the Managers to appeal to both the National Society and the Diocesan Board for help. Several small sums were eventually received from these sources. The task of bringing the premises into better order was entrusted to Mr Thorne, a local builder, who was also one of the Managers and was usually able to offer better terms than his competitors because of his interest in the welfare of the school. To ensure that the work was finished in the agreed time, the Managers inserted a clause in the contract with the builder that for every week over the promised completion date the builder would forfeit a guinea of the agreed price for the work.

The Minutes gives an insight into the salaries paid to the school staff at this time. Mr and Mrs George as Master and Mistress, received £100 jointly, later raised to £110 per annum, plus free furnished house and a coal allowance of one shilling per week. In addition to their school duties they were expected to assist in the Sunday school and play the Church harmonium.

An Assistant Mistress's salary commenced at £38 rising to £40 per annum. A Pupil-teacher received £15 rising to £18 per annum, a Monitress commenced at one shilling a week. The school cleaner, who received about 6/. per week sought a rise in wages about this time, but the Managers thought she was paid enough. Four weeks later, however they thought it advisable to raise her rate by 6d per week.

Apparently the Managers at this time, were finding the conditions laid down in the Trust Deed a hindrance to their efforts to raise money for the school. It was not possible to extend the privilege of election to Management to a wider public and so produce an increased income. Thus the Managers in July, 1894, gave this matter serious thought and decided to call a meeting of the parents of the children attending the school and the Subscribers to the School funds and read to them the Report of the Inspector as soon as possible after his next inspection of the school. By this means it was hoped to rouse greater interest and perhaps increase the flow of money into the fund. The first meeting brought in £15, but the parents who attended the Dissenters' Meeting House for worship and whose children attended the Church school, took advantage of the meeting to demand a voice in the Management Committee, but with no success. The Church was not prepared to accede to this request because there was still some strong feeling and suspicion that the Dissenters were anxious to form a School Board in the area.

In March of 1895, the Georges resigned their charge of the school, nut such was the importance of the annual inspection still, they were persuaded to remain at the school until after the inspection was completed. With their departure another difficult period, full of staffing problems, commenced.

In response to an advertisement in “The Schoolmaster” a Mr and Mrs Brown applied for the posts and were in due course appointed as Headmaster and Mistress. Unfortunately, the fact that Mrs Brown was uncertificated was overlooked and within a month of the engagement they were given notice as a certificated Mistress was considered essential, while the prospect of employing only the Master would have created some difficulties. A new advertisement was inserted in “The Schoolmaster” offering the post at £140 p.a., the replies to be sent to the Rector, Tiptree Rectory, Kelvedon; but there were few replies and no applicant was prepared to do the work for £140 p.a. Because the salary had proved unattractive, the Managers decided to repeat the advertisement, raising the salary to £150. In order to prevent possible applicants suspecting their difficulties, the replies to this new advertisement were to be sent to the Rector, Tolleshunt Knights, who was a member of the Committee. This innocent subterfuge apparently worked, because in August that year, Mr K.M. Coates, his wife and daughter came to the school. Because the school dwelling was too small to accommodate them, they took residence in the village and were paid a joint salary of £160 per annum.

Among the small changes recorded in the log books of this period is the introduction of an afternoon break of ten minutes for the children in accordance with the Code of 1895.

The Coates family did not report as fully in the log books as did their predecessors; entries made relate chiefly to attendance.

Efforts to raise money for the school fund now took the form of entertainments by the school children themselves and some of the money so earned was spent in providing rewards of oranges and sweets for the children who attended regularly.

The new Master found the gallery an obstacle and wished it could be moved and replaced by desks, so in March 1896, the old gallery, which in 1872 Miss Neville had found such an improvement, despite its lack of back rests, was taken out and ten new desks to take 76 children were installed in its place.

Listed as lessons approved by H.M.I. is now an item called “Conversational lessons” for the babies (three year olds). These were entitled, “A picture of a horse”; “Picture of a Cat”; A Picture of a Dolly's bed”; “Wool”; “Biscuits”. Object lessons for the older infants continued and were listed in the log for each term. Among these were “The Sun”; “A Camel”; “Boots and Shoes”; “A Letter”.

One of the major problems confronting the Managers at this time was the supply of water to the school premises. A well had been dug on the glebe land, but there was doubt as to the purity of the water from it. The water at the pump in the Master's garden was also suspect and the Medical Officer of the Essex County Council, (formed 1888) had been unable to certify that the water was clean enough for drinking. Children attending the school had been allowed to drink at the pump at “Heath House” nearby, but because of the damage done there and their misbehaviour generally, the pump had been put out of bounds.

The control of the school was very much in the hands of the Management Committee. Movement of staff from one class to another evidently had to be agreed in Committee before the Master could effect the moves; among the documents available is a long list of such suggestions from the Master and there is the appropriate entry of the decisions in the Minutes of the Managers' Meeting.

During his visit to the school in 1897, H.M.I. suggested that further accommodation was necessary to relieve the overcrowded state of the infant classroom. Efforts were made to raise funds for this purpose and grants again requested from the National Society. A room 20 feet by 18 feet by 14 feet was planned and approved by the Education Department, the cost estimated at £146. A grant of only £14 was received from the National Society, the rest being raised by local voluntary effort. This new room was opened in December, 1897, and became known as the “Babies' Room.” It was fitted with a gallery, presumably the one which had been removed from the school room in March the previous year.

A small but significant entry is to be seen under the annual list of approved object lessons for the year 1898. Under the Inspector's is added “These and others”. Is this suggestive of a desire to give a little freedom to the teacher's initiative?

An important and significant entry in October, 1898, relates to the withdrawal of children from Religious instruction at the school:-

“The following children have been withdrawn from religious instruction and will receive secular instruction in a room by themselves.” (Here follow the names of twenty-four children, some from each class in the school.) Although children of parents worshiping at the Dissenters' Meeting House had been attending the Church school since January 1886, this is the first indication that parents were concerned about the type of religious teaching their children were receiving. The Conscience Clause was inserted into the Education Act, 1870. This declared that no religious instruction which was distinctive of any particular denomination was to be given in the new Board schools, that any religious instruction given should be time-tabled at either the beginning or end of the day so that parents who wished to withdraw their children from this instruction could do so without loss of any benefits of the school. This time-table conscience clause was enforced on all grant aided voluntary schools also. These conditions had applied to The Church School Tiptree Heath since 1872 when it first received state aid, but it is likely that the Dissenters were only now being concerned in this respect as it was another way of indicating their general dissatisfaction and wish to see a Board school established in the village.