Victorian School Manager

Peter Gordon

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781317845621
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

First published in 1974. Graham Balfour, in a lecture delivered in February 1921, first drew attention to the growing importance of the elementary school manager in the system of educational administration during the period with which this study is concerned: "Local administrators of education, other than trustees a hundred years ago, there were none. Indeed it is very curious how imperceptibly that important figure of the latter half of the nineteenth century, the School Manager, steals into existence. This volume is a study in the management of education from 1800 to 1902.

1

The Voluntary School Manager—I

THE COMPOSITION OF THE MANAGING BODY

MOTIVES FOR MANAGEMENT

The history of the management of voluntary schools during the nineteenth century centres round a number of issues: for instance, the extent of religious influence in the school committees (Management Clauses 1847-50), the relationship between managers and teachers (Revised Code 1862), the advent of the Education Department in laying down conditions for grant aid, the legal limitations placed upon some by the Charity and Endowed School Commissioners, and the effects of Parliamentary legislation on their organization (the Free Education Act 1891, the Voluntary Schools Act 1897 and later the 1902 Act). There was also, especially after 1870 when the school boards had begun to function, an increasing output of literature on the work of managers; many public figures were also involved directly or indirectly in management and their correspondence gives an idea of some of the attitudes then prevailing towards the management of schools.

A number of fundamental issues, especially that of the ultimate responsibility for control of management, religious or secular, were illustrated in the so-called “Management Clauses” controversy.¹ Four types of management were recommended by the Committee of Council, according to the population of an area. The election period varied between two and four years, and subscribers were to form the electorate.

The reason for the less than full acceptance of the Management Clauses has been given by a number of educational historians.² What was of importance henceforth was the increasing lay element in the management boards, or rather, as Kay-Shuttleworth had in mind in drafting the Clauses, to give due place to the three groups of interests in every school: the subscribers, the religious or educational Society with which the school was connected and the Committee of Council as the distributor of national funds.³

Kay-Shuttleworth, in offering liberal terms of state aid to voluntary schools, wanted to ensure that the money being given was not used exclusively for religious teaching and held that “the absence of a Committee of Managers is either a sign or a cause of an absence of interest in the school among the influential laity of the neighbourhood”. By the mid-nineteenth century the move towards administrative tidiness in legislation covering a whole range of social concerns from chimney sweeps to public health was under way;⁴ coupled with this was the motive to assert the claims of the civil power preached by Russell and the Liberals during their periods in office.⁵ The increasing lay interest in representation on the bodies which were established as a result of this legislation was clearly seen in the sphere of elementary education.

What was less easy to discern were the motives which induced individuals to take on the often arduous and seldom rewarding work, which could be both time-consuming and expensive. The Committee of Council, realizing this as early as 1853, wrote to Her Majesty’s Inspector, Rev. W. J. Kennedy:

“H.M. Inspectors cannot too carefully bear in mind that in the local Managers of schools they have to deal with persons who are voluntarily imposing upon themselves a great deal of trouble and expense for a public object. In communicating, therefore, with such persons it is the duty of public officers to be as courteous and considerate as possible.”⁶

For the lay manager, the motives were mixed: partly religious, but partly the chance to exercise authority, if on a limited scale. The work held its own rewards and would on occasions be gratifying. Henry Althans, a British and Foreign School visitor, recording a visit to Borough Road School in 1831 captures some of this flavour:

“On entering the spacious schoolroom for Boys, I was most cordially received by the Master who kindly promised me every assistance to facilitate the attainment of the object I had in view. On ascending the platform, I was highly gratified in beholding five hundred scholars present, who were all diligently employed in attending to various lessons and directly the Master called ‘Halt’ the most complete silence prevailed. ‘Order is heaven’s first law’. ... I looked with great admiration on the numerous scholars before me, who completely filled all the desks; and the whole of their eyes being directed towards the elevated spot where I was standing caused an indescribable sensation in my mind.”⁷

Similarly, the visitor’s book of the Plymouth Public Free School, one of the most notable and much visited elementary schools in England, records an entry for 15 November, 1843, by Charles Heare as follows:

“With real pleasure I congratulate myself on contributing to this truly valuable and excellent institution.”⁸

However desirable the presence of a secular interest in voluntary management much of the work in fact fell on the shoulders of the clergy. “What are the motives which induce landowners to maintain Denominational schools?”, wrote Hicks Beach to the Duke of Devonshire in 1902: “Perhaps a feeling that education ought to be associated with distinctive religion—but certainly a desire to retain the active help of the parson (who is at any rate an educated man)— in managing the school and because he will do it better and more cheaply than the illiterate School Board which is all that an ordinary country parish could produce.”⁹

The delicate balance of the social order which might be disturbed by crime and social revolt could, it was believed, be maintained by religious instruction and sound education.¹⁰ Certainly, from the viewpoint of the central authority, the presence of the clergyman was an essential feature of any system of educational administration by virtue of the unique position he held in the parish.

Henry Hobhouse, writing as an Endowed School Commissioner, demonstrated the wide range of the clergyman’s activities.

“He is the principal parish officer; he is Chairman of the vestry; he is owner of a freehold property; he is bound by law to be upon the spot; he is either by himself or with others, keeper of the parish records; he is the legal representative of the Church and its appurtenances; and in these respects he is bound to perform, and does perform, duties for all the parishioners, whether they attend his ordinary ministrations or not. By the combined law and practice of the Church, he (often alone in the parish) must have attained a certain amount of intellectual culture, evidenced by a university degree or some like credentials. .. .”¹¹

From time to time, during the latter half of the century, the supremacy enjoyed by the clergy, especially in rural districts, was subject to challenge. This came from unexpected quarters: for example, Lord Lyttelton, a fervent churchman and an activist in the Church Reform Association, which wished to effect not change in doctrine but reforms in administration. Lord Sandon, within seven years to be Vice-President for Education, was congratulated by a Burslem working man for a recent public speech at Wolverhampton in which Sandon had said that he hoped the time was not too distant when “the congregation might have the power of choosing from amongst themselves a body of men who should be the Clergyman’s advisers and without whose consent great changes in the mode of conducting worship, the management of the schools and the administration of the parish funds should be out of the question”.¹²

Montagu Butler, then Headmaster of Harrow, writing to Archbishop Tait upon the introduction of a Bill for Church Reform in 1882, affirmed: “Some right must ere long be given to congregations to have a voice in the election of Incumbents; the position of Incumbent, while it must be guarded against caprice or tyranny, ought to fall short of freehold; and that, generally, the congregation who worship in a church ought to have more voice than they have now in the regulation of worship.”¹³

In practice, however, congregations showed little enthusiasm for schemes in which they were drawn into active participation of church and school affairs. A Warwickshire vicar wrote in 1893: “The plan of such a scheme of representation was drawn up and sent to the Bishop, and except in one unimportant particular, met with his Lordship’s full concurrence and sanction. But when I bruited it in the parish I found that the inhabitants had much rather leave everything in the Vicar’s hands and I had no reason to think that they were brought to this conclusion by the suspicion that they would lose by acceptance the Englishman’s right of grumbling.”¹⁴

The balance between the various interests represents the theme for the rest of this section. The effects of legislative changes and administrative instructions from the Privy Council will highlight the changes in these relationships; but basically, it is a study of the functions of managing bodies and the factors governing or limiting their operations. This will necessarily include a consideration of, for instance, the teaching staff, trustees, the subscribers and inspectors.

TRUSTEES AND MANAGERS

Much confusion was caused during this time by difficulties in defining the relationship between trustees and managers. Before 1839, the constitution of voluntary schools was determined in most cases by the wishes of the founders. In February of that year, the National Society adopted a clause which had to be inserted in the trust deeds of schools wishing to be in union with the Society relating to the government of the school, the selection, appointment and dismissal of teachers and the election of managers by subscribers. Later the other denominations followed, setting out model schemes for insertion in school trusts.

Trustees appointed by the deed were usually the principal officiating minister for the time being of the parish or ecclesiastic district, and the churchwardens. “It is the duty of Trustees,” stated a nineteenth-century law manual, “to get in and protect the property entrusted to their charge”.¹⁵ This deed of trust contained a conveyance of land with directions as to how the trustees were to be replaced, i.e. in whom the power of appointment of new trustees was vested.

However, it was optional with the promoters whether or not it was to be connected with the Church, and also the choosing of trustees was not necessarily limited to the parish. The filling up of vacancies presented problems. Charles Hunt, a rural dean in Nottinghamshire, set out his position in reply to an invitation to accept a trusteeship of a school.

“I am sadly weighted with Trusteeships already and my Trusteeship of another school involved me in filing a brief in Chancery. However, it all ended well for we were all right in as soon as our opponents saw we were in real earnest they collapsed.”

“In this case will the Trustees be simply the legal holders of the property or be also Managers? At Dunham the school is vested in Trustees and there is also a Board of Managers....If the Trustees are to be Managers, why have outsiders—they would naturally wish to be sleeping partners in the concern and I hope ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 THE VOLUNTARY SCHOOL MANAGER—I
• 2 THE VOLUNTARY SCHOOL MANAGER—II
• 3 SCHOOL BOARD ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT
• 4 THE OPERATION OF LOCAL MANAGEMENT UNDER THE SCHOOL BOARDS
• 5 ISSUES AFFECTING THE APPOINTMENT OF SCHOOL MANAGERS
• 6 INNOVATION IN ADMINISTRATION: THE VOLUNTARY SCHOOLS ASSOCIATIONS
• 7 THE 1902 ACT AND THE RECASTING OF MANAGEMENT
• 8 CONCLUSION
• Appendix: Associations formed under the Voluntary Schools Act, 1897
• Bibliography
• Index