12 March 1900 -
27 Jan 1888 -
10 Feb 1888 -
13 Feb 1888 -
16 March 1888 -
Some viruses were more virulent leading to tragedy:
6 Oct 1899 -
9 March 1900 -
Illnesses
Aside from coughs and colds, epidemics swept through the school, sometimes resulting in its closure. For example, in 1875, there was an contagious outbreak of measles:
23 Feb 1875 -
26 Feb 1875 -
29 March 1875 -
Whooping cough invaded the village periodically:
19 Oct 1874 -
13 Oct 1896 -
There were cases of scarlet fever (April 1884, Nov 1894) and chicken or blister pox (Nov 1900). Skin problems also sometimes appeared:
23 Mar -
20 July 1897 -
22 July 1897 -
10 March 1896 -
It is noticeable from the log book how often the attendance was poor on Tuesday afternoons when there was a plait market at Hitchin. Then, the children either accompanied their mothers to Hitchin or cared for their siblings when their mothers went to market.
Many of the examples of absenteeism noted above were from spring through to autumn.
Winter provided its own reasons for non-
25 Jan 1895 -
18 Mar 1896 -
14 Feb 1900 -
It wasn’t only snow and rain that cut the attendance, good weather also had an effect:
5 Mar 1996 -
Often, pupils were needed at home to care for their younger siblings. My grand mother, Emily Wray kept her older daughter at home. Alice Wray (11) was ‘frequently kept at home to mind babies and is backward in consequence’ (there were then three children aged 3 or less in the household). Carrie Wray left school at an early age ‘ to help her mother’. This was a common comment made about older girls.
There were also rival attractions to divert the children:
28 Oct 1885 -
The headmistress sometimes locked horns with local farmers over the issue of employment of her pupils:
5 July 1898 -
The problem was that although school attendance was compulsory and fines could be and were levied by the court following a report by the attendance officer, the fines were small (perhaps 2/6d), the magistrates were lax and it was relatively expensive to bring cases to court. Parents and employers preferred to chance possible prosecution in order to add to the household income and complete the necessary tasks.
Another reason to miss school was that at busy times in the agricultural year children took their parents’ meals to them in the fields:
14 July 1899 -
Many children earned income as straw plaiters and could be kept home to work in this cottage industry:
23 April 1897 -
16 March 1900 -
There were several seasons when children turned to other pressing activities:
21 Sept 1996 -
18 Sept 1896 -
15 Sept 1873 -
26 Oct 1899 -
It is stating the obvious that for education to be effective, pupils must attend
school. However, in nineteenth century Preston, there were considerable and varied
pressures to keep children away from classes. Besides the desire to teach her pupils,
there was also a financial incentive for the schoolmistresses to maintain a high
attendance. The school received a grant which was dependent on pupils passing their
standard examinations and their regular attendance. In 1874 the annual grant was
6 shillings per student. In 1900, the grant had risen to 18 shillings. Little wonder
that there are dozens of entries in the log book relating that monitors had been
sent after absentees -
The main reason for pupils’ absence from school was that they could otherwise be at work, supplementing their family’s meagre income. There was also the necessity of completing tasks like hay making and harvesting when haste was vital. At these busy periods, the log book tells the same tale year after year:
5 July 1875 -
1-
10 July 1896 -
Plentiful’.
21 Sept 1994 -
29 Oct 1900 -
Source -
