Until the Education Act of 1870 started the process of providing state schools for all children education was primarily restricted to children whose parents could afford the fees charged by private schools. There were a few charitable schools but they were few and far between. Even if there was a charity school in the area most families need their children to work and contribute to the household income . They could not afford to lose the small income that their child brought to the family budget. The main education available to children came from Sunday Schools that were operated by Church Members often in church property. The numbers of Sunday Schools and children attending rose from their beginnings in the late 1600's to nearly 2/3 of the child population of the UK by the mid 19th century. Inspired by the growing strength of Sunday schools the National Society was founded on 16 October 1811 to provide a church day school in every parish  to provide education to  poor children in a similar manner to the successful Sunday schools. The founding  statement was "That the National Religion should be made the foundation of National Education, and should be the first and chief thing taught to the poor, according to the excellent Liturgy and Catechism provided by our Church." The Society attracted funds from many sources including wealthy patrons and businessmen which allowed it to train teachers, buy books, slates etc and proper classrooms. The existing church structure was used as a base for activity and boards formed in each area with responsibility for education. Essex was divided into Eastern and Western Essex and then further sub divided into Deaconry areas. Eastern Essex was contained in the Rochford Deaconry area. Progress was amazing with Schools at Burnham on Crouch, Southminster and Steeple up and running within a year of the formation of the National Society with 177 children receiving a daily education for the first time and 104 children attending Sunday School. These schools which came to be called National Schools for the first time provided children of our predominantly rural area to gain an education that would allow them to break out of the spiral of each generation following on to work in agriculture or poorly paid employment for people who could not read or write. By 1880 most areas had schools and a law was passed making schooling compulsory for ages 5 to 10 yrs. Schooling form under 14 year olds was not made compulsory until 1918 Schools ran from 9am to 12 noon and from 2 pm to 5pm. Most children would go home to lunch unless it was too far to walk. The day would start with Education concentrated on the three R's Reading, Writing and Arithmetic.
	a classroom frozen in time from 1890 paper and pens were in short supply as well as impracticable and so students used slates and chalk. Classes were large sometimes as many as 80 children of varying ages. Teachers imposed strict discipline with the aid of senior pupils called monitors. Corporal punishment was often imposed , sometime for comparatively trivial offences. Pupils who had messy work or made mistakes ran the risk of being humiliated in front of the class by being made to sit in the corner and/ or wear a dunces cap. This was exemplified in the popular nursery rhyme  about a head teacher called  Dr Faustus Doctor Faustus was a good man He whipped his scholars now and then When he whipped them, he made them dance Out of Scotland into France Out of France into Spain And then he whipped them back again. Taken from Favourite rhymes for the nursery 1898 Playtime was engaged in energetic games like hide and seek, chase or blind mans bluff or playing with spinning tops or hoops Our sister site has details of the schools in Eastern Essex and some information about the pupils and events at the schools. To visit the site please click on the link