Manchester City Council Education Department: Schools' Records
1850s-2002
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This collection consists of records of schools in the City of Manchester, which were run by the Manchester School Board and (from 1903) the Local Education Authority, Manchester.
The main series of records that survive for most schools are:
Log Books:
The keeping of a school log book or diary was first instituted in 1862. The log book was to be kept by the Headmaster or mistress of the school and was to contain details of events at the school especially those worthy of permanent record in the life of a school. What is recorded in a log book and the amount of detail given is very much dependent on the particular head teacher at the time. In general the log book normally records the appointment and absences of teachers, visits made to the school by such people as the HMI inspectors, student teachers etc, school trips and outings, changes in curriculum, school building or school name etc. It is very rare that individual children are mentioned by name. Where children are mentioned it is generally because a child has either excelled, won an award or scholarship etc or they have been sent to the head for discipline matters, those who have ended up in court for juvenile offences etc.
Admission Registers:
Admission registers are compiled at the time of a child's admission to a school. They record a pupils name, date of birth, address, date of admission and leaving often also included is a parents name and standard reached before leaving. The majority of admission registers have an index at the front of the volume which makes them easy to search. In the M66 collection the dates given for the admission register are the dates of children's admission to the school not their birth dates. Admission registers for technical institutes often include much more information on individual pupils but often are not indexed. Attendance registers have only been kept where admission registers have not survived.
Admission registers c.1870-c.1916 are available on Findmypast.
Registers of Summaries:
Registers of summaries give statistical summaries of numbers in attendance at the school on a weekly basis and a yearly overview of the figures. They do not mention individual pupils by name.
Punishment Books:
Corporal punishment was banned by parliament in state schools in 1987. Therefore since this date there has been no creation of punishment books. The punishment book records the date, name of offender, their offence, date of punishment, details of what the punishment was, the teachers signature and any other remarks. As these items contain sensitive information about individuals they are access restricted for 100 years. Please ask the archivist for details. Occasionally certificate books have survived in which it is recorded which teachers have been given authority to administer corporal punishment.
Individual Pupil Records & Examination Results:
Unfortunately, we do not hold such records here. You will need to contact the relevant examination boards who you sat the exams with in order to check whether or not they can provide you with copies of your certificates. (Please note that there may be a charge for this service).
As you may already know, several of the examination boards for GCSE/A-Level qualifications have merged to form new boards in recent years and so you need to be aware of this when tracing your certificates. The current examination boards for England and Wales are as follows:
AQA (Assessment and Qualifications Alliance), formerly AEB, SEG and NEAB.Stag Hill House, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 7XJ, tel. 01483 506506, e-mail:
mailbox@aqa.org.uk, website http://web.aqa.org.uk/admin/p_records.php
AQA Manchester: Results and Records
T: 0161 953 7578 F: 0161 953 7591
AQA Devas Street, Manchester M15 6EX
[Locally held records at AQA in Manchester include:
Victoria University Matriculation from 1881.
JMB School Certificate/O-Levels/A-Levels from 1908
AEB O-Levels/A-Levels from 1952
5 CSE boards covering the North of England and 2 CSE boards covering the South West and some of the South East dating from 1965-1987.
This then merged into the NEAB for the North and AEB/SEG in the South in 1988 until 2000 when we became the AQA.]
OCR (Oxford, Cambridge and RSA), formerly UCLES and RSA. OCR InformationBureau, General Qualifications, tel. 01223 553998, e-mail:
helpdesk@ocr.org.uk, website http://www.ocr.org.uk.
EDEXCEL formerly ULEAC and BTEC. Head Office, Stewart House, 32 Russell Square, London, WC1B 5DN, tel. 0870 240 9800, e-mail:
enquiries@edexcel.org.uk, website http://www.edexcel.org.uk/.
WJEC / CBAC (Welsh Joint Education Committee). 245 Western Avenue,Cardiff, CF5 2YX, tel. 01222 265000, e-mail for past certificates:
certificates@wjec.co.uk, website http://www.wjec.co.uk.
City and Guilds, Customer Services Enquiries Unit, 1 Giltspur Street, London, EC1A 9DD, tel. 0207 294 2800, e-mail: enquiry@city-and-guilds.co.uk
website http://www.city-and-guilds.co.uk (includes link for certificate replacement enquiries in departmental contacts section).
Accident Books:
Both staff and pupils used accident books. They record the date, name of person involved in the accident, name of person making the entry, date of accident, nature of accident and any injuries sustained. As these items contain sensitive information about individuals they are access restricted for 100 years. Please ask the archivist for details.
Staff Registers/Staff Books:
Staff registers contain details of staff employed at individual school. The registers give name and address of the teacher, date of birth, type of teaching qualification, name of institution awarding qualification, date of qualification, date on which engaged at the school, last school employed, at where they were formally pupil teachers, date of leaving the school. The dates given in the M66 list are the dates at which the teachers were employment at the school.
HMI Reports:
Inspection was made a condition of grant-aid in 1839. In their report Inspectors wrote their impressions of school visits. Often these reports were copied and later pasted into the log book.
Therefore if you are particularly interested in one school but no loose HMI reports are listed then consult the log book. Inspectors could, and did, comment on a wide range of aspects concerning education: school attendance, the curriculum followed, the quality of teaching, whether pupils turned up regularly or not and any problems with the school building etc.
Appraisal of records was carried out in accordance with School Records: their Management and Retention, (Society of Archivists 1995.)
Related Material:For further details of the history and structure of Manchester School Board and Manchester Education Committee, see Records of Manchester School Board [M65] and Minutes of the Education Committee and its Sub-Committees [Chief Executives Bookroom]. Triennial Reports for the School Board and Annual Reports for the Education Committee are available from Manchester Local Studies at 379.1.M1-M3.
See also M428 for the Appointment and resignations of teachers: municipal schools 1919-1949.
Some records of Manchester Roman Catholic schools are held at Lancashire Record Office.
The Information Governance Team (Directorate for Children and Families) hold pupil records for secondary and secondary special schools which either have closed or converted to academies, including:
Ducie High School
Brookway High School
Plant Hill High School
North Manchester High School for Boys
North Manchester High School for Girls
Parklands High School
Roundwood
Medlock Valley
Cedar Mount
Pupil records are held until the individual reaches the age of 25.
Place:/Manchester/Manchester/Lancashire/England
/Ardwick/Manchester/Lancashire/England
/Cheetham/Manchester/Lancashire/England
/Crumpsall/Manchester/Lancashire/England
/Hulme/Manchester/Lancashire/England
/Moss Side/Manchester/Lancashire/England
/Bradford/Manchester/Lancashire/England
/Chorlton upon Medlock/Manchester/Lancashire/England
/Newton/Manchester/Lancashire/England
/Didsbury/Manchester/Lancashire/England
/Ancoats/Manchester/Manchester/Lancashire/England
/Openshaw/Manchester/Lancashire/England
/Gorton/Manchester/Lancashire/England
/Clayton/Droylsden/Manchester/Lancashire/England
Title:
Manchester City Council Education Department: Schools' Records
Date of work:
1850s-2002
Reference number:
GB127.M66
Level of description:
Fonds
Includes:
Custodial history:
The Manchester School Board was established under the 1870 Education Act to ensure that there was sufficient school provision for all children in Manchester. The large number of voluntary schools that existed in Manchester in 1870 were largely pronounced efficient by HMIs and it was not until 1875 that the School Board took over its first two schools - Sharp Street Ragged School and St. Matthew's School, Byrom Street [M66/14]. The School Board's first new school was built on Every Street in 1876 [M66/29]. By the end of 1902 the School Board had built 40 new schools, taken over a further 26 and supervised 89 non-provided schools.
Under its first chariman, Herbert Birley, the School Board was also involved in the provision of education over and above elementary level. By 1903 there were 6 Higher Grade and Science Schools with the largest and most esteemed being the Central School, which opened in Deansgate in 1884.
The School Board began an exhibition fund in 1875 to enable poorer children to attend Higher Grade Schools and in 1891 it was decided that any child passing standadr VI would be eligable for support.
Further education provision was made for working people to study in the evenings with Evening Continuation Schools, Science and Art Evening Schools and Commercial Evening Schools. The cause of Women's education was also espoused and eight Evening Institutions for Women and Girls were built between 1891 and 1902.
The voluntary schools largely represented Christian denominations but there were insufficient school places for the increasing Jewish population. A Jewish school was opened by the School Board at Southall Street, Strangeways [M66/82] and as the community increased a second school was built at Waterloo Road, Cheetham [M66/91].
Two schools were established for children with special educational needs at Embden Street [M66/28] and Hauge Street, Newton Heath [M66/122] through the influence of Mary Deny who had been elected to the School Board in 1896. In later years these specialist departments were set up else where and were often known as ESN [Educationally Sub-Normal] Schools or later special schools.
The quality of teaching in Manchester schools was improved by the creation of Pupil-teacher Centers. It is common in log books to find references to the visit and placement of student/pupil teachers.
Manchester City Council has been a Local Education Authority since 1903, when under the 1902 Education Act it became responsible for the provision of elementary education in the City. The Act also charged local authorities with the development of education other than elementary. The Education Committee, appointed by the City Council and composed of council members and co-opted persons, assumed the functions of the existing School Board and the Council's existing Technical Instruction Committee on the 1 July 1903. It was to supervise the running of the Board School, and to a lesser extent, the running of the existing voluntary schools.
The transition from School Board to education Committee was smooth. The Education committee took over the ethos of the School Board, particularly in the provision of secondary schooling with Lady Sheena Simon, Director of the Education Committee as one of the cheif advocates of free secondary education in the 1930s. In addition the Education Committee continued to provide for a variety of educational needs. Delicate or sick children were often catered for in schools outside the City, for example Mobberley Open Air School [M66/46] and Abergele Sanitorium School [M66/2].
The Education Committee presided over various reorganistions of schools in Manchester. Breaks in the series of records are found in 1910, when Higher Elementary Schools were reorganised as Central Schools and again when schools were reorganised following the publication of the Hadow Report in 1926. Whereas previously children had often received their compulsory education between the ages of 5
Source:
Deposited by the City of Manchester Chief Education Officer. The bulk of these records were transferred in September 1967 with additional records being transferred in subsequent years
Access restrictions:
UnrestrictedThe following types of school records are on 'restricted access':
- Log books: only when they contain personal data of named individuals. As most log books do not specifically name children, they have been left open.
- Admission and discharge registers: 30 years or 100 years when they contain sensitive personal information.
- Staff files and registers which contain sensitive personal information
- All punishment books
- Accident books
- Contagious diseases registers
These items are subject to a 100 years restricted access period for those relating to children and 75 years for those relating to adults. In addition all admission and discharge registers are on resticted access for 30 years. This is in accordance with Section 40 of the Freedom of Information Act, 2005.
As restrictions are placed only on certain items in this collection please see the individual school catalogues for details. Please contact an Archivist to discuss access to any 'access restricted' items.City Council collection. These records are subject to FOIA and can be accessed through the relevant FOIA/DP procedures. M66/84 permission required from Social Services.
For more recent school records please refer users to csfeedback@manchester.gov.uk or telephone 0161 234 7109.
Use restrictions:
Unrestricted
General notes:
Arrangement:Each school's records are arranged to reflect, as nearly as possible, the changes which the school's structure underwent. Most schools consisted of several 'departments' who kept their own administrative records. The most usual departments were Infants, Girls, Boys, Mixed; Junior Boys, Girls and Mixed; and Senior Boys, Girls or Mixed. Some schools also had specialised departments such as Handicraft Centres, which were used by several schools. Most schools were, at some time, reorganised with some departments closing and new ones opening.
Schools are normally named after the streets in which they were situated. Exceptions are:
· voluntary schools, listed under the name of the church or institution to which they belong.
· schools which have never been known by any other name than that of district.
Where a school has changed premises or name but the records are continuous, it is listed under its latest address or name of the school. All schools are indexed under all names by which they were known.
Where a schools records were deposited in several accessions these have been brought together and where possible this has been recorded in the catalogue. Where items were previously catalogued and have been re-numbered in the new catalogue a record has been made of the previous reference number.
Topics:
Record types:
COLLECTION
Language:
English
Record number:
7188483