Elementary Education Act 1870
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1870 c. 75 |
| Year | 1870 |
Elementary Education Act, 1870
(33 & 34 Vict.) CHAP. 75.
An Act to provide for public Elementary Education in England and Wales.
[9th August 1870]
B E it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows; (that is to say,)
Preliminary.
1 Short title.
1. This Act may be cited as ‘TheElementary Education Act, 1870.’
2 Extent of Act.
2. This Act shall not extend to Scotland or Ireland.
3 Definition of terms.
3. In this Act—
The term ‘metropolis’ means the places for the time being within the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Board of Works under the Metropolis Management Act, 1855:
The term ‘borough’ means any place for the time being subject to the Act of the session of the fifth and sixth years of the reign of King William the Fourth, chapter seventy-six, intituled, ‘An Act to provide for the regulation of municipal corporations in England and Wales,’ and the Acts amending the same:
The term ‘parish’ means a place for which for the time being a separate poor rate is or can be made:
The term ‘person’ includes a body corporate:
The term ‘Education Department’ means ‘the Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council on Education:’
The term ‘Her Majesty's inspectors’ means the inspectors of schools appointed by Her Majesty on the recommendation of the Education Department:
The term ‘managers’ includes all persons who have the management of any elementary school, whether the legal interest in the schoolhouse is or is not vested in them:
The term ‘teacher’ includes assistant teacher, pupil teacher, sewing mistress, and every person who forms part of the educational staff of a school:
The term ‘parent’ includes guardian and every person who is liable to maintain or has the actual custody of any child:
The term ‘elementary school’ means a school or department of a school at which elementary education is the principal part of the education there given, and does not include any school or department of a school at which the ordinary payments in respect of the instruction, from each scholar, exceed ninepence a week:
The term ‘schoolhouse’ includes the teacher's dwelling house, and the playground (if any) and the offices and all premises belonging to or required for a school:
The term ‘vestry’ means the ratepayers of a parish meeting in vestry according to law:
The term ‘ratepayer’ includes every person who, under the provisions of the Poor Rate Assessment and Collection Act, 1869, is deemed to be duly rated:
The term ‘parliamentary grant’ means a grant made in aid of an elementary school, either annually or otherwise, out of moneys provided by Parliament for the civil service, intituled 'For public education in Great Britain.'
(I.) Local Provision for Schools.
(I.) Local Provision for Schools.
4 School districts, &c. in schedule.
4. For the purposes of this Act the respective districts, boards, rates and funds, and authorities described in the first schedule to this Act shall be the school district, the school board, the local rate, and the rating authority.
Supply of Schools.
5 School district to have sufficient public schools.
5. There shall be provided for every school district a sufficient amount of accommodation in public elementary schools (as herein-after defined) available for all the children resident in such district for whose elementary education efficient and suitable provision is not otherwise made, and where there is an insufficient amount of such accommodation, in this Act referred to as ‘public school accommodation,’ the deficiency shall be supplied in manner provided by this Act.
6 Supply of schools in case of deficiency.
6. Where the Education Department, in the manner provided by this Act, are satisfied and have given public notice that there is an insufficient amount of public school accommodation for any school district, and the deficiency is not supplied as herein-after required, a school board shall be formed for such district and shall supply such deficiency, and in case of default by the school board the Education Department shall cause the duty of such board to be performed in manner provided by this Act.
7 Regulations for conduct of public elementary school.
7. Every elementary school which is conducted in accordance with the following regulations shall be a public elementary school within the meaning of this Act; an every public elementary school shall be conducted in accordance with the following regulations (a copy of which regulations shall be conspicuously put up in every such school); namely,
(1) (1.) It shall not be required, as a condition of any child being admitted into or continuing in the school, that he shall attend or abstain from attending any Sunday school, or any place of religious worship, or that he shall attend any religious observance or any instruction in religious subjects in the school or elsewhere, from which observance or instruction he may be withdrawn by his parent, or that he shall, if withdrawn by his parent, attend the school on any day exclusively set apart for religious observance by the religious body to which his parent belongs:
(2) (2.) The time or times during which any religious observance is practise or instruction in religious subjects is given at any meeting of the school shall be either at the beginning or at the end or at the beginning and the end of such meeting, and shall be inserted in a time table to be approved by the Education Department, and to be kept permanently and conspicuously affixed in every schoolroom; and any scholar may be withdrawn by his parent from such observance or instruction without forfeiting any of the other benefits of the school:
(3) (3.) The school shall be open at all times to the inspection of any of Her Majesty's inspectors, so, however, that it shall be no part of the duties of such inspector to inquire into any instruction in religious subjects given at such school, or to examine any scholar therein in religious knowledge or in any religious subject or book:
(4) (4.) The school shall be conducted in accordance with the conditions required to be fulfilled by an elementary school in order to obtain an annual parliamentary grant.
Proceedings for Supply of Schools.
8 Determination by Education Department of deficiencyof public school accommodation.
8. For the purpose of determining with respect to every school district the amount of public school accommodation, if any, required for such district, the Education Department shall, immediately after the passing of this Act, cause such returns to be made as in this Act mentioned, and on receiving those returns, and after such inquiry, if any, as they think necessary, shall consider whether any and what public school accommodation is required for such district, and in so doing the shall take into consideration every school, whether public elementary or not, and whether actually situated in the school district or not, which in their opinion gives, or will when completed give, efficient elementary education to, and is, or will when completed be, suitable for the children of such district.
9 Notice by Education Department of public schoolaccommodation required.
9. The Education Department shall publish a notice of their decision as to the public school accommodation for any school district, setting forth with respect to such district the description thereof, the number, size, and description of the schools (if any) available for such district, which the Education Department have taken into consideration as above mentioned, and the amount and description of the public school accommodation, if any, which appears to them to be required for the district, and any other particulars which the Education Department think expedient.
If any persons being either—
(1) (1.) Ratepayers of the district, not less than ten, or if less than ten being rated to the poor rate upon a rateable value of not less than one third of the whole rateable value of the district, or,
(2) (2.) The managers of any elementary school in the district,
feel aggrieved by such decision, such persons may, within one month after the publication of the notice, apply in writing to the Education Department for and the Education Department shall direct the holding of a public inquiry in manner provided by this Act.
At any time after the expiration of such month, if no public inquiry is directed, or after the receipt of the report made after such inquiry, as the case may be, the Education Department may, if they think that the amount of public school accommodation for the district is insufficient, publish a final notice stating the same particulars as were contained in the former notice, with such modifications (if any) as they think fit to make, and directing that the public school accommodation therein mentioned as required be supplied.
10 Formation of school board and requisition to provide schools.
10. If after the expiration of a time, not exceeding six months, to be limited by the final notice, the Education Department are satisfied that all the public school accommodation required by the final notice to be supplied has not been so supplied, nor is in course of being supplied with due despatch, the Education Department shall...
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