The British and Foreign School Society ( BFSS ) was founded in the early 19th century to support free and non-denominational British Schools in England and Wales. These schools competed with the National schools run by the National Society for Promoting Religious Education , which had the support of the established Church of England, the local parishes, and Oxford and Cambridge universities. Both institutions promoted the monitorial system , whereby few paid teachers supervised the senior students who in turn taught the younger students. After the state assumed responsibility for elementary education in 1870, British schools were transferred to local school boards .
35-992: (Redirected from British School ) British school may refer to Schools in the United Kingdom Schools established in the 19th century by the British and Foreign School Society British Schools Museum in Hitchin, a surviving British and Foreign School Society school Schools elsewhere Member schools of the British Schools Foundation Member schools of National Association of British Schools in Spain The British School - Al Khubairat British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem , now known as
70-634: A BFSS master, Charles Pickton trained by Lancaster, for the New York school, leaving no place for Lancaster himself. Lancaster helped to start the first model school in Philadelphia to train teachers to implement his system. He also started a school in Baltimore , but it was not financially viable. A Lancasterian school was set up in New Haven in 1822, with the help of Timothy Dwight IV , and
105-779: A bankrupt, resented the new name. He still travelled the United Kingdom, lecturing and creating local organisations. In 1818, backed by the mill owner David Holt and other friends, Lancaster and his family sailed to the United States. He had significant American supporters: Roberts Vaux and Robert Ralston in Philadelphia , and DeWitt Clinton in New York. Clinton had founded a Lancasterian school in 1806, prompted by Thomas Eddy , who knew of Lancaster's work via Patrick Colquhoun in London. Eddy had recently recruited
140-619: A dissenter may teach only what he calls "the leading and uncontroverted principles of Christianity," is it not to be feared that the disregard shown to all religious systems and creeds, may so confound the distinctions between right and wrong, that it may eventually occasion the rejection of Christianity altogether?" After initial successes, the Lancasterian schools were criticized for poor standards and harsh discipline. Lancaster had rejected corporal punishment , but misbehaving children might find themselves tied up in sacks, or hoisted above
175-579: A free school using a variant of the monitorial system . Lancaster's ideas were developed simultaneously with those of Andrew Bell in Madras whose system was referred to as the " Madras system of education ". Without wishing to "detract from he praise so justly due" to Lancaster, Elizabeth Hamilton noted they had been also "anticipated" some forty years before by the Belfast schoolmaster David Manson (1718-1792). The method of instruction and delivery
210-731: A question of economy. Lancaster described a "mechanical system of education" whereby "above one thousand children may be governed by one master only, at an expense reduced to five shillings per annum". He did, however, make a stipulation, critical in the Ulster context, that pupils should never be asked whether they belonged to "Church, Meeting, or Chapel". A year in advance of his visit in 1811, two schools on his model had already been established in Ulster: in Belfast, and in Lisburn . The merits of
245-420: A street accident. At the time of his death, between 1,200 and 1,500 schools were said to use his principles. The BFSS was widely successful in the early part of the 19th century, but the waning popularity of monitorial methods during the 1820s and 1830s meant that it became a more conventional school society. There is just one remaining Lancasterian schoolroom, built to the specifications of Lancaster himself. It
280-506: A unique Lancasterian Schoolroom (1837), a Galleried Classroom 1853 and other buildings from 1857 and 1905. The Hitchin British Schools Trust runs the museum for public visitors and for classes of visiting children to sample education in the 19th century. Joseph Lancaster Joseph Lancaster (25 November 1778 – 23 October 1838) was an English Quaker and public education innovator. He developed, and propagated on
315-578: A version of the monitorial system, for which he gave both Bell and Lancaster credit, but moved from Lancaster's non-sectarian religious stance to a secularism hostile to Anglicanism . The year 1808 saw the creation of "The Society for Promoting the Lancasterian System for the Education of the Poor". A major figure in it was William Allen , another Quaker, who acted as treasurer. It went by
350-781: Is at the British Schools Museum , in Hitchin , Hertfordshire , England. Lancaster married: On 20 April 1824, Betsy married Richard Madox Jones in Philadelphia: he had crossed the Atlantic with the Lancasters, and formed part of the household. This wedding took place shortly before the family moved to Caracas. Jones was trained in the System at Borough Road in 1812, and had then taught at Godalming , followed by
385-672: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages British and Foreign School Society The society continued to support teacher training until the 1970s. Today it offers charitable aid to educational projects in the UK and around the world by funding schools, other charities and educational bodies. In 2024 the society changed its name to Educational Opportunity Foundation to reflect its current objectives. Joseph Lancaster 's School in Borough Road , Southwark , London , established in 1798,
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#1732765808874420-559: Is recursive. As one student learns the material he or she is rewarded for successfully passing on that information to the next pupil. This method is now commonly known as peer tutoring . The use of monitors was prompted partly by a need to avoid the cost of assistant teachers. Lancaster wrote Improvements in Education as it Respects the Industrious Classes of the Community in 1803. It brought him positive publicity, and
455-550: Is situated close to Brunel University 's Uxbridge campus. This holds school and college records, together with artefacts and curriculum materials with relevance to modern education. The British Schools Museum is set in a cluster of school buildings on a site in Hitchin , Hertfordshire, dating from 1810, when a Lancasterian School was founded. The Lancasterian Schools were taken over by the British and Foreign School Society. The British Schools buildings remaining in Hitchin include
490-486: The Elementary Education Act 1870 ( 33 & 34 Vict. c. 75), the British schools became locally administered board schools . The BFSS continued its role by supporting teacher training institutions for the next century, but these institutions have now closed or merged with other colleges. In particular, Borough Road College , having moved from Borough Road to Isleworth in west London , merged with
525-688: The Topo Valley settlers , an unsuccessful project in which Scots were brought to Venezuela in 1825 by John Diston Powles and associates. Bolívar and Lancaster fell out over non-payment of the promised sum to support the educational work. Lancaster left Caracas covertly in April 1827, sailing first to Saint Thomas and Saint Croix , and arriving in New Haven in June. He left his wife Mary and her children to make their own way back to Philadelphia. There
560-536: The West London Institute of Higher Education in 1976. This in turn became part of Brunel University in 1995. As its teacher training colleges have closed and the Society has gathered more capital, it has used its funds to provide grants for educational projects around the world. Details of its activities can be found in its Annual Reports and the rest of its website. The Society's Archive Centre
595-484: The 19th century, based on non-sectarian principles, the Society started a number of "British Schools" and teacher training institutions, which in many places maintained an active rivalry with the " National Schools " of the Established Church. It also established schools overseas, helping with the provision of staff and other support. When the government assumed responsibility for elementary education with
630-709: The Borough Road school numerous visitors. The Borough Road school called itself the Royal Free School, and Lancaster was granted an audience with George III in 1805, at Weymouth . This apogee of recognition built on the support of John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford , and involved two royal dukes, Kent and Strathearn and Sussex . Lancaster's supporters have been defined as "influential Nonconformists, utilitarian liberals and radicals." They included Edward Wakefield and James Mill . In his education book Chrestomathia (1816), Jeremy Bentham supported
665-1430: The Kenyon Institute British School of Amsterdam The British School in the Netherlands British School at Athens British School of Bahrain British School of Barcelona British School of Brussels The British School, Caracas The British School of Guangzhou The British School, Panchkula The British School, Kathmandu The British School of Lomé, Togo The British Schools of Montevideo British School - Muscat The British School, New Delhi British School in Rome The British School in Tokyo British Schools of America British American School of Charlotte British School of Boston British School of Chicago British School of Houston British School of Washington British College Doha British School See also [ edit ] British International Schools (disambiguation) All pages with titles beginning with British school All pages with titles containing British school [REDACTED] Topics referred to by
700-533: The Lancasterian System for the Education of the Poor was formed in 1808 to continue Lancaster's lead. The Society was founded by Joseph Fox , William Allen and Samuel Whitbread . It was supported by several evangelical and non-conformist Christians , including William Wilberforce . In 1814, the Society was renamed the British and Foreign School Society for the Education of the Labouring and Manufacturing Classes of Society of Every Religious Persuasion . During
735-480: The classroom in cages. Robert Southey was an opponent of corporal punishment, also: but he wrote in 1812, after giving examples of shaming punishments listed in Lancaster's writings: However objectionable the rod may be [...] it becomes a wise and humane engine of punishment when compared to the yokes and shackles, the cords, and fetters, and cages of Mr. Lancaster. After Lancaster's initial royal recognition,
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#1732765808874770-593: The evangelical Hannah More . Sarah Trimmer , involved in the London area in both Sunday school and charity school work, and concerned for the evangelical Anglican parent, attacked Lancaster's use of pupil monitors in A Comparative View of the New Plan of Education Promulgated by Mr. Joseph Lancaster (1805). "A Churchman", writing to the British Critic in October 1805, commented that Granting [...] that
805-461: The grounds both of economy and efficacy, a monitorial system of primary education. In the first decades of the 19th century his ideas found application in new schools established in growing industrial centres. He was born in Southwark , south London , on 25 November 1778, into a large family, the son of Richard Lancaster who had been a soldier and made cane sieves , and his wife Sarah Faulkes who
840-500: The monarchy turned away in the 1810s, and the Church of England sustained its hostility. Lancaster fell out with the Society over a number of issues. There was poor financial management, and he was imprisoned in a sponging house for debt. According to Francis Place , a committee member from 1812, they had information that Lancaster had been privately beating a number of the boys. Critics accused him of deism and homosexuality . He
875-501: The name Royal Lancasterian Society. According to Henry Dunn , writing in 1848, the others on the initial committee were William Corston, Joseph Foster (of Bromley), Joseph Fox , John Jackson and Thomas Sturge . This group, without Sturge, raised £5600 for Lancaster's school. Lancaster, himself, travelled the British Isles to advise on his methods. Addressing a school committee in Belfast he appeared to reduce these to
910-483: The same term This disambiguation page lists articles about schools, colleges, or other educational institutions which are associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=British_school&oldid=1135210920 " Category : Educational institution disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
945-582: The system was debated at length in the pages of the Belfast Monthly Magazine. The editor, the former United Irishman and founder of the Royal Belfast Academical Institution , William Drennan , prefaced the discussion with the observation that "notwithstanding the public benefit from making man a machine, we cannot help thinking that the personal enjoyment gained by knowledge of reading, and figures, with
980-626: The territory of present-day Venezuela to which Lancaster and family travelled, arriving at the port of La Guaira in May 1824. His daughter Betsy and her husband moved on to Mexico in February 1825, and did not return, while Lancaster stayed to 1827 in Caracas . He married there for the second time, with Bolívar presiding over the wedding. Much of the population in Caracas was illiterate and there
1015-525: The uses to which such knowledge may in future be applied, is in itself a value worth a great deal of cloth, a great many scissors, and a great many pins". The context in England for the Lancasterian school was the array of elementary dame schools (typically fee-paying), charity schools , Sunday schools (such as those set up by Robert Raikes around Gloucester) and the Mendip Hills schools run by
1050-444: Was a need for the expansion of primary education. Affairs at Caracas went badly for Lancaster, however, with his lack of Spanish impeding his work. He had poor relations with Roman Catholic educators. Nor did he gain much benefit from British investments which came into Venezuela in this period. He clashed with Robert Ker Porter , the British consul from the end of 1825, who regarded him as an imposter. Lancaster involved himself with
1085-547: Was a shopkeeper. He was interested as a teenager in missionary work in Jamaica. He is said to have run away from home, and to have been returned through naval connections of the minister Thomas Urwick . Lancaster joined the Society of Friends , with the intention of becoming a teacher. In 1798, Lancaster founded a free elementary school , with support from his father. He went on in 1801 to start in Borough Road , Southwark
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1120-454: Was an important development in the provision of universal free education for children. A teacher training institution , Borough Road College , was added soon afterwards in 1801. The Lancasterian system (or monitorial system ) used older children who had already been given some education to teach the younger children. It was designed to provide a cheap basic education with limited resources and numbers of teachers. The Society for Promoting
1155-811: Was at least one school in Venezuela that retained Lancaster's name in the longer term. The Rev. Thaddeus Osgood had set up schools using Lancaster's system in Lower Canada , one in Quebec in 1814, another in Kingston, Ontario . Lancaster was there in 1829, and opened a school in Montreal , but his attempts to obtain funding floundered and he moved back to the United States. Lancaster died on 23 October 1838 in New York City from injuries sustained in
1190-582: Was ousted from the Society in 1814. A group of young teachers had come up through the Lancasterian System: Thomas Harrod, James George Penney, John Pickton, John Veevers, John Thomas Crossley. It was Pickton who replaced Lancaster at Borough Road. The Society renamed itself the British and Foreign School Society (BFSS), a contrast with the Anglican National School System. Lancaster, by then
1225-547: Was run successfully by John Lowell, an American disciple. Simón Bolívar had visited the Borough Road School in 1810. Two young men were then sent from South America to study the system. In 1823, Lancaster encountered in Baltimore Brooke Young, a soldier with Bolívar's Irish Legion , and Young took a letter for him to Bolívar who was now president of Gran Colombia . Gran Colombia included
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