Child Okeford National School
Child Okeford in the newspapers. A series of stories about a previous generation of villagers as related in the newspapers of the time.
March 1875
“This school was examined on March 11th by the Rev. W T Tregarthen…and the following is his report:- The school has passed a very creditable examination. The progress made during the past year is more than ordinary and reflects great credit on the teacher. The specimens of plain needlework were very carefully done and deserve special mention. The Number [of scholars] presented 50; number of passes in reading 50; ditto in writing, 48; ditto in arithmetic, 48. The master has received his parchment certificate [2nd class] on which is written..’G.C.Fleming gave a most interesting and instructive lesson in a quiet attractive manner which secured the interest of his class. He is personally exceedingly well qualified for the office of an Elementary Schoolmaster”.
Should the children of the poor be educated? This was a controversial question at the beginning of the 19th century. On the one hand it might give them ideas above their station, on the other, as long as learning was focused on the scriptures, it would help them accept their place in society. To this end Sunday schools often taught children to read, but rarely to write. It was feared that poor children who could write might improve their position in society or, more likely, express their dissatisfaction with the social order.[Which, to be fair, many of them did!]
In 1807 the House of Lord’s thought on balance that they shouldn’t be educated and rejected a bill that would have introduced schools in each parish. The state turned it’s back on general education for another 63 years but fortunately the void was filled by a group of High Church Anglicans. It was not the state that introduced [nearly] universal education in this country but the Church of England. In 1811 a group of churchmen established the “National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church in England and Wales”. They were wildly successful in their aims and over the next one hundred and thirty three years would finance, build and run over 12,000 ‘National Schools’ across the country. Although these schools were founded on Anglican principles their teaching was not restricted to a religious curriculum -nor were they free; parents in 1875 parents paid 1d a week [0.005p] for infants and 2d [0.01p] for older children to attend.
The National School in Child Okeford was not built until 1846 on land donated by Henry Ker Seymer [HKS] the MP for Dorset and lord of one of the Manors of Child Okeford.
It would appear that from the first the villagers of Child Okeford embraced education enthusiastically. Two years after it’s opening some 150 village children attended it and by the time of the 1851 census, with just two exceptions, no village child under twelve was recorded as working. These two were 11 yr old boys who were working as agricultural labourers. In an agrarian society girls were often better educated than the boys who were sent out to work early, sometimes as young as 6 yr’s. By 1874 the number of pupils had increased further and the school had to be enlarged and, until the building of the current village hall in 1909, the National Schoolroom was host to many public meetings during the late 19th century.
The importance of the National Schools cannot be overemphasised, Barbara Kerr has this to say of the period “In the 1870’s village children were awaking after a long night of apathy and undernourishment. In the earlier decades of the century their spirits and limbs had been cramped by drudgery, rusty black clothes, ill fitting boots and the weight of minor ailments that were never quite cured. A more lively education and varied diet, white pinafores and Sunday School outings helped to encourage boys and girls to live more hopefully.”1
The first headmistress was Mrs Theodora Crane a local girl, born in the village, who served as headmistress for over 25 years. In the 1871 census she and her husband are found living in Pear Tree Cottage. The couple had no children of her own and she died in 1878. G. C Fleming is a mystery man he is referred to in the Post Office directory for 1875 simply as ‘G.C. Fleming master & organist’. I cannot even find his first name. Despite his excellent qualities as a teacher his tenure did not last long and by the time of the 1881 census he had left the village.
In 1870 the Forster Education Act allowed the establishment of non denominational ‘Board’ Schools, run by elected school boards and Board and National schools co-existed until 1944 when the Butler Education act transferred ownership and control of the remaining National Schools to the state. Their link to their past survived this change though and today there are some 4,632 Church of England aided schools. A heritage of which the Church is justly proud.
The school continued in it’s site in the high street until 1978 when, after nearly a decade of planning, a new school was opened in it’s current site in Station Road. A note from the Parish Council minutes in May 1978 indicates it was to be opened by the local Bishop on St Nicholas Day, 6th December 1978. At that time, after 132 years being known as the National School or just ‘the School’ the new school was officially named St Nicholas, Church of England, Voluntary Aided, School.
Can anyone remember the opening or do you have any pictures of the occasion? It would be great to have some for the village archive if they have.
1Barbara Kerr Bound to the Soil – A Social history of Dorset.
Author’s Note
The original newspaper article has been digitised by British Newspaper Archive in association with the British Library. The transcription is the author’s own work from images downloaded as a part of a paid subscription to the BNA.