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Other factors were probably playing a part in the change of attitude to attendance also. “Payments by Results” had been abolished in 1897, so for the first time teachers were free of the restriction that this system enforced. The work of Mr William Paine, Headmaster at Tiptree Church School 1898-1916, with his enlightened approach is perhaps indicative of this release. So gone was the need of the attendance officer to take his pony and trap to round up the children for the annual inspection by Her Majesty's Inspector; in his place came a much sterner character, armed with power, who may have developed into something of a bogey in the minds of the children of those days. In one area the school attendance officer was always called the “Whipper-in”, pronounced locally as “The Whippereen”, because he was armed with a cane and whipped into school the boys he caught playing truant. This was the practice at the turn of the century. Although the cane has disappeared the name remains and the School Attendance Officer in that area is still treated with considerable respect by the school children. It is interesting to note that in Essex at least, this officer is now known as the School Enquiry Officer and as such performs several other duties in addition to fostering good attendance at school.

As far as Tiptree Church School was concerned the main problem remaining once parents were educated to the importance of regular attendance, was the widely scattered nature of the village. The incidence of public transport and the provision of the school 'buses eventually reduced this problem.

The most startling change over the past 100 years of the school's life which has influenced attendance is the change in relationships between teacher and child. The most rapid development in this respect was noticeable from the 1930's onward, gaining momentum after the war so that the child of today seldom “creeps unwillingly to school”, indeed he often cries bitterly if kept at home through sickness or other cause. The work of the pioneers in education, Pestalozzi, Froebel, McMillan together with investigators like Piaget and Susan Isaacs, have contributed to the better understanding of children's needs and their methods of learning. Teachers, making use of the freedom they enjoy, have not been slow in experimenting with the knowledge available and have brought about happy relationships between themselves and the children they teach. Parents, who are probably more enlightened than were their parents, have been ready to co-operate with the teachers to achieve and maintain these conditions.

Another important change to be noticed is in the qualifications of the staff of the school. Although the name of the first teacher is not known, the qualifications of the first recorded teacher were slight even by the standards of that time. “Miss Frances Mary Noble, of good character, unqualified, untrained, not having served an apprenticeship, aged only nineteen.” Certificated teachers were employed at the school only after grant aid was accepted.

The story of teacher training shows trends of improvement in both the training and the quality of those to be trained. The Pupil Teacher system enabled the bright children in the school to follow the teaching profession if desired. The Universities began to play an important part from 1890, first through day training colleges and later through residential colleges and the provision of a third year of training for selected students. The 1902 Education Act, introducing Higher Education, brought in better qualified entrants to the pupil teacher system, but it was not until 1923 that the first moves to recruit all entrants to the profession through the Secondary schools were made; the Pupil Teacher Training Centres were still operating as late as 1938. Municipal Teacher Training Colleges introduced in 1904 helped to widen the curriculum and improve methods of teaching and training. Until 1930 the examinations for Teachers' Certificates had been conducted by the Board of Education. In that year modifications took place which enabled some training colleges to be grouped and associated with the University or University College of their areas. The McNair Report of 1944 proposed a Central Training Council for England and Wales; this was later established. Area Training Organisations *** under Institutes of Education, responsible for the co-ordination of teacher training, the provision of facilities for advanced study and research in the educational field, were formed at this time.

The effects of the 1939-1945 war on the supply of teachers is apparent in the school's story as a number of entrants to the Emergency Training Scheme for Teachers spent a period of pre-college training at the school. In due course the teachers trained at the Emergency Training Colleges were employed at the school and received high praise for their work from the Headmaster of this time, Mr L.P. Coates. It is interesting to note that this scheme was particularly successful in satisfying the needs of the schools after the war years and the quality of some of the entrants was such that they have become Headteachers, Deputy Headteachers or are holding posts of special responsibility in their schools.

There has been a strong attempt by the teachers themselves to raise the status of their profession through the years and one of the remarkable changes that may be noticed is in the teachers' social condition. In the early years of the school's story, the teacher employed there was largely under the control of the incumbent. Her position may not have been a very happy one when it is realised how much she depended upon the Rector and the Government Inspector. As teacher training improved and the quality of the teachers improved this degree of subservience diminished. Further, as the Church handed over more and more of its autonomy to the L.E.A., so the independence of the teacher increased.

No consideration of changes in the life of a school would be complete without reference being made to the tremendous differences apparent in changes in curriculum and method of teaching. Unfortunately these are not stated explicitly in the available records, rather the brief note in a log book of a new subject to be taught; a comment by an inspector, the introduction of a new piece of apparatus and the entries relating to the qualifications of a new member of staff are the clues which draw attention to the new developments. In the main these new ideas appear to have resulted from visits of the Inspectorate, though one suspects that some may have come from Pupil teachers who were attending the pupil teacher training centre in Colchester; some will have been imparted by new certificated members of staff. It is possible that the influence of the educational press was also partly responsible for change in the school's teaching methods as advertisements for new staff were placed in “The Schoolmaster”, first published in 1872, cuttings of these are available in the school's records.

There is no record of the school's activities when it was first opened in 1864, but it is likely that the subjects taught were Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Hymn singing, Scripture, the Catechism and Church procedure and sewing for girls. As there was only one teacher, probably assisted by a monitress, only one school-room and seventy-six children from the ages of five to ten years, it is likely that the monitorial system of instruction was used.

The appointment of the first certificated Mistress in 1872 brought new ideas demonstrated by the demand for new books and bibles; desks for the pupils and the gallery for the infants. Over the next thirty years the school log records additions to the curriculum as follows:-

Class teaching was used from 1872 and the impact of the Pupil Teacher system was felt immediately when Jane Sibley was so employed, providing additional help to the Mistress, but adding to her responsibilities as the Mistress was expected to prepare the pupil-teacher for her examinations.

An important change of attitude is suggested by the comment added to the list of Object Lessons approved by the visiting Inspector for the year 1897. To the bottom of this list the inspector added “These and others”, which, when it is considered that the list of approved object lessons had been so strictly adhered to that Infants were “given three object lessons a week now so that we may be enabled to get through the course of lessons set down for the quarter”. This suggests evidence of a new freedom for the teachers following the ending of the “Payments by Results” scheme. This freedom was accepted by the Headmaster of that time, bringing a more enlightened approach to his work with increased interest for the children. By special permission of the H.M.I. elementary science took the place of history in 1900 and the method of teaching was designed to bring the children into direct contact with the objects of study. Observation lessons, Hand and Eye Training, Citizenship were added during the next decade. Gardening (1915) and free expression in Geography are recorded in the log for 1916.

The school records of this time give no details of the syllabus of the method of teaching, but it is likely that the changes made in the pattern of education throughout the country were felt at the Tiptree Church of England School and put into practice keeping it abreast of prevailing trends. In some respects one may dare to suggest that under the inspired leadership of Mr Sidney Woolf, Headmaster from 1920 to his retirement in 1942, the school may well have been a little in advance of its contemporaries, offering itself as an example of the benefits to be gained from progressive change.

Any study of education over the past forty years will show that from being a tool mainly concerned with producing minimum literacy, a means of inculcating minimum knowledge it was now considered to be the means of developing abilities and character, of building individual interests and of maturing adaptability in the face of rapid changes both in industry and society generally. Individual differences were high-lighted and the need to teach the child as well as the subject was emphasised. Elementary education could no longer be treated as a thing separate in itself. It now had to be treated as only one of two or three stages in education, the primary to end at eleven was to be followed by a “post-primary” stage where all children – not a few selected ones – would be able to follow a variety of types of secondary education suited to their capacities and bent of mind. Education was to be based on a three phased system; Nursery and Infants; Junior and Secondary schools. It is important to remember that the Primary stage was a vital period in itself: not merely a preparatory step for the secondary stage. It was to provide an education “based on the children's natural instincts, its curriculum to be thought of in terms of activity and experience rather than knowledge to be acquired and facts to be stored”. (Hadow Report, 1931).

The War (1939-1945) provided a stimulus for further constructive thinking, particularly about those things which were likely to lead to a better, safer, happier world once peace was restored. Education and its reconstruction was to receive a fair share of this kind of thinking resulting in the passing of the 1944 Education Act. This, among other things, abolished the term “Public Elementary school”making statutory a three stage system of education Primary, Secondary and Further. Primary education was to begin generally at five years and was destined to end about twelve years. The break at this age had come about gradually, but had received official recommendation in the Report of the Education of the Adolescent (1926) as a really suitable age for transfer to the secondary stage.

A recent report issued by the Ministry of Education states that one salient feature of primary education today is the ever increasing concern with children as children which shows itself particularly in the awareness of their needs and in the appreciation of the wide range of aptitudes, abilities and temperaments which any class of children presents. Another feature is the increasing attention of teachers given to the worth of what is being taught and the quality of the child's learning. Public opinion has now accepted the principle that education is concerned with the all-round development of the child according to his age, aptitude and ability. (Primary Education, 1960)

The remarkable thing about the present day curriculum in the primary schools is the similarity of content and method that exists throughout the country, despite the fact that within broad limits, teachers have freedom to teach what they please. Tradition dies hard. Teachers as a class are recruited from people who are generally cautious and conservative; further, means of communication today are such that ideas used in one part of the country are spread through the work of the inspectorate, local and central, the educational press, broadcasts, conferences, courses and the like. Hence this tendency towards a common approach. There are slight variations from school to school and different names may be given to various subjects, but in all primary schools the following will be found to be taught today:-

The curriculum of the primary school is never really static, it is constantly being modified or improved by changes of emphasis, by the widening of a subject, by pressures and demands made by the changing needs of the society it serves. Hence there is currently a strong move towards the introduction of French, German or Russian into the curriculum of the Primary school. What is not yet clear is which subjects will be reduced in importance to provide the time for this further activity in an already overcrowded time-table.

The consideration of changes in the curriculum must of necessity lead on to the consideration of related changes. The increasing availability of books, both for information and for pleasure, their variety and colour, their attractiveness have improved greatly over the years. Aids to teaching are becoming more plentiful and varied: Broadcast lessons, sound and televised, record players, film strip projectors and film projectors, tape recorders are common place in our schools today.

School journeys to places of interest or related to some special study are arranged by most schools, some even arrange to take their older children abroad. The increasing study of foreign languages will undoubtedly motivate more foreign travel for the primary school child.

Thus briefly is indicated something of the changes that have taken place in the schools over the years, space will not permit further comment; it being emphasised that the change continues...