How teachers teach
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Teaching – past and present
Much has changed since the days of the Victorian
schoolroom, but many things are still familiar in our
state schools
Poplar Prints
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Schooling for all began 135 years ago with the Education Act of 1870. For the first time children had to go to school. Local 'school boards' could insist on the attendance of every child up to the age of 13.
Since then, education has gone through huge changes. Children no longer sit crammed on benches, 50 or 60 to a classroom. There is no longer any physical punishment for misdemeanours. We understand more about teaching and learning.
Even so, our Victorian forbears might recognise a few similarities in today's classrooms.
From 1870, children started school at the age of five – earlier than everywhere else in Europe.
Today's children still start compulsory all-day schooling at five, and we are still the 'earliest starters' in Europe. In other countries, statutory school doesn't begin until six or seven.
Victorian children often used slates – small boards which they wrote on with chalk.
Today, a growing number of primary schools give their pupils a small whiteboard – the hi-tech equivalent to slate. It's especially useful in maths. The teacher sets a problem, then the children write down their answer and hold up their board. The teacher can see quickly who has the correct answer.
Right from the start, 'board schools' (what we'd term 'state schools') had to keep records of attendance, examinations, punishments and truancy. Board inspectors and Her Majesty's Inspectors (HMIs) would oversee school records and make inspections of teaching.
Inspection has never ceased, but it has undergone reorganisation. Since 1992, Ofsted (the Office of Standards in Education) has inspected all English schools, and other agencies do the same in the rest of the UK.
Until the end of the 19th century, teachers' salaries were adjusted according to how many of their pupils succeeded in achieving basic standards.
'Performance-related pay' for teachers in the 21st century is controversial. But extra payments for 'advanced skills teachers', in place since 1998, have proved popular, and the government wants to make more awards for 'excellent teachers' who have proved themselves in the classroom.
Brightly coloured classrooms and Standard Assessment
Tasks are now regular features of modern education
Sally & Richard Greenhill
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In Victorian times, children in elementary schools (what we'd term 'primary schools') were tested annually in the 'three Rs' – reading, writing and arithmetic.
Modern children face national tests called Standard Assessment Tasks (SATs) at Key Stage 1 (age 7), Key Stage 2 (age 11) and Key Stage 3 (age 14) in Maths, English and Science.
Younger children were thought to have less need for formal education. Schools in the late 19th century often had infants departments with a greater emphasis on play, creativity and experience in small groups. This contrasted with the more rigid, formal learning usual for older children at the time.
We'd call this 'child-centred education' today. Early years education – beginning at around the age of three and continuing until seven or eight – is a separate specialism for teachers. Many educationists feel strongly that younger children's different educational and psychological needs are worth defending – and they believe that this approach should persist beyond infant school age too.
