Education
Introduction, Foundation of the parish, The church, The presbytery, The clergy, Parish, Congregation, Spiritual, Education, Social and economic, Some notable events, Acknowledgements
Except for a brief period in the 1950’s and 60’s when the nuns from St Peter’s ran an infants school in Gainford village, there has never been a Catholic school in the parish. Indeed, the only Catholic school there has ever been in the Local Authority area in which Gainford and most of the parish lies is St Mary’s Junior Mixed & Infants (formerly Elementary) School in Barnard Castle, founded at about the same time as St Mary’s Parish (1847).
If there had been a school associated with St Osmund’s, notes on the education of the children of the parish would have been relatively simple, being basically a brief history of that school. In practice, to follow the sequence of events requires some understanding of the general educational arrangements over the past 150 years. The author is no authority on these, but here are the results of a little ‘swotting up’ on his part, which may well be incomplete or even erroneous in some aspects. Of great assistance in this have been Miss Mildred M Cullen’s “Education in Darlington (1900-1974)” and the logbooks of St Mary’s School, Barnard Castle, from 1863 onwards to which the Headmistress has kindly given access. The latter would form a history of their own, but for the present purpose only those aspects relevant to this history have been noted.
Prior to the mid-19th century there were few educational facilities for the children of the bulk of the population – when the author’s great grandfather was married in 1835 neither he nor his bride could even write their name, but had to ‘make their mark’ in the marriage register. The more affluent people sent their children either to boarding school or to a private day school, both fee-paying and the latter usually small.
As the Industrial Revolution gathered pace, the need for more general education became apparent and ‘elementary’ schools started to be established, led by the churches of the various denominations and other charitable foundations. These were also fee-paying, but on a more modest level, usually ranging from a penny a week for infants up to fourpence a week for the top class. Attendance, though no doubt encouraged by the clergy and welcomed by the more farseeing parents, was not compulsory. Sometimes fees were reduced for the poorer people. An entry in the logbook of St Mary’s, Barnard Castle, of 1872 reads:- “Children whose parents are unable to pay these rates may be admitted on lower terms on making application to the Manager”. The Manager was the Parish Priest.
The Education Act of 1870 set up the mechanism for non-sectarian (National or Board) schools to be established from public funds and subsequent Acts made schooling compulsory, albeit subject to school fees. Parents who could not afford school fees were able to apply for civil “parish relief”. An entry in St Mary’s logbook for 1888 shows the fees of 23 children (over one third of the total) being paid via the Relieving Officer. The school leaving age was gradually increased from 8 to 13 by the end of the century. A rigid syllabus and timetable were laid down. Grants were available towards the running costs of independent schools (eg St Mary’s) provided that, among other things, they followed this syllabus and timetable, with Education Board Inspectors making periodic visits to check. Bearing in mind the scattered nature of St Osmund’s parish, the poverty of most of the parishioners and the fact that the only transport available to the Catholic school in Barnard Castle was the railway (the fares on which in any case also had to be paid for by the parents, with no eligibility for relief), the odds are that most children of parishioners went to the nearest village school. At some stage, perhaps as an outcome of the 1902 Education Act, fees at elementary schools were abolished but parents were still liable for travel costs. The parents of St Osmund’s children would have been encouraged to send them to St Mary’s but even as late as the 1940’s, less than 40% of children were so doing and of these, it is understood that in some cases Miss Edleston paid the travel fares.
In 1947, under the 1944 Education Act, Local Education Authorities began to provide free transport for those living more than three miles from the nearest school of the child’s denomination. The proportion of St Osmund’s children attending St Mary’s, Barnard Castle, rose to some 60%, but there were still significant numbers attending non-Catholic elementary schools. Some, of course, would stay at the school which they were already attending and, in a period when many people still expected work and school to be within walking distance, there was also probably reluctance for parents to submit new starters to the journey to Barnard Castle at the tender age of 5, and having begun at the local school they tended to stay there.
In February 1955 two of the nuns from St Peter’s, Sisters Agatha and Winifride, opened a small infants school for 5 to 7 year-olds in Gainford, in the premises in High Green (then called South Terrace), which are now the doctors’ surgery. They named the school St Colette’s, and it looks as though all the Catholic infants of the area immediately switched from the village school, since the numbers attending non-Catholic schools reduced significantly. There was then a knock-on effect, with them automatically moving to St Mary’s, Barnard Castle, at the appropriate age, so that by the early 60’s there were virtually no Catholic children of primary school age attending non-Catholic schools.
On Sunday 7th July 1968, Fr Duffy made the following announcement at Mass: -
“Although Sister Agatha retired as a teacher 14 years ago, she has been teaching at St Colette’s all that time without pay. She IS St Colette’s. Her Rev Mother wishes her to retire when term ends in 2 weeks. She has given grounding in Faith and Education to all the young children of Gainford in that time. A Marathon of Endurance: a Marathon of Charity. St Osmund’s owes a great debt to her.”
He then announced that the school would close at the end of term, but that there after the local authority would provide transport to take the children to St Mary’s, Barnard Castle.
Many parishioners still look back on St Colette’s with feelings of affection and nostalgia, but it would not have been practical to continue it without the voluntary help of the nuns. However, in its relatively short period of existence it made a much more fundamental contribution to the Catholic education of children of the parish than just having given a good initial educational and religious grounding to the infants of that period. When it closed, the small children transferred en bloc to St Mary’s and the pattern of children starting school there was established. Ever since then it has been the exception for a St Osmund’s child to start at or later transfer to a non-Catholic primary school.
In larger towns such as Darlington, elementary schools tended to be single sex, and from the 1920’s (by which time the school leaving age had been raised to 14) to have separate junior and senior schools. St Mary’s, however, a rural school, has always been co-educational and until 1960 catered for the full age range of elementary education. In the autumn of that year, in the run-up to comprehensive education, all the older children were transferred to the newly established Catholic bi-lateral schools in Darlington. St Mary’s, Barnard Castle became, as it still is, a Junior Mixed & Infants School.
Secondary
Until well into this century the only secondary schools were fee-paying Grammar schools, beyond the financial means of most people. Furthermore, there has never been a Catholic secondary school in Teesdale. In the late 19th century Local Education Authorities started to award a limited number of scholarships, gained by competitive examination at the age of 11, whereby they paid the fees at the nearest denominational Grammar School but the parents had to bear the cost of uniforms, extra-curricular activities and, until 1947, the travel costs. There is a rather sad comment in St Mary’s logbook one year that one of the five children who had gained a scholarship could not take it up because his parents could not afford the fares to Darlington.
The two Catholic Grammar Schools in this area were both in Darlington, namely the Immaculate Conception Convent School for girls founded in about 1904 and St Mary’s Grammar School for boys, founded in 1925, to which children who had gained the scholarship went. There was also a convent school in Richmond to which one or two St Osmund’s parents sent their daughters privately. These Grammar Schools provided education up to the age of 18, with pupils able to sit the School Certificate examination at 16 and the Higher School Certificate at 18. Satisfactory results (the Matriculation) in these examinations were required for acceptance into most Universities but these were fee-paying. A limited number of much prized Local Education Authority University Scholarships were available for those who did exceptionally well, which was the only way that children whose parents had limited means could afford to go to University. Children whose education had been restricted to Elementary Schools had little opportunity of gaining formal educational qualifications or of proceeding to University, although the author knew one man born at about the turn of the century who, having left elementary school in Birmingham to take up an engineering apprenticeship, studied at night school for the Ordinary and Higher National Certificates in Mechanical Engineering, then continued at night school to gain a London University External Degree, and finally became Head of one of the Technical Colleges in Liverpool.
In 1922 two Catholic senior elementary schools had been opened in Darlington, Beechwood for boys and Larchfield for girls, to which the older children of the two Darlington Catholic elementary schools (St Augustine’s and St William’s) transferred. In 1960, as part of the move to comprehensive education, Beechwood merged with St Mary’s Grammar School and Larchfield with the Immaculate Conception Convent to form bi-lateral schools for boys and girls respectively, and to which, as already noted, the older children of St Mary’s, Barnard Castle, transferred. Whether a child went into the Grammar or Secondary Modern stream was determined by examination (the 11-plus). Those in the Grammar stream went on to the age of 16 and possibly 18, usually taking various subjects in the General Certificate of Education examination (GCE ‘O’ levels, which had replaced the School Certificate) at 16 and the Advanced Certificate (‘A’ levels) at 18. Those in the Secondary Modern stream left at the statutory leaving age (then 15), having taken one or more subjects in a newly introduced Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE) examination. It is understood, however, that there was a mechanism for children to switch between Secondary Modern and Grammar streams at about the age of 13, depending on progress.
In 1972 the minimum school leaving age was raised to 16 and the comprehensive system of education in this area started to come to fruition. In 1974 the two single-sex Catholic bi-lateral secondary schools in Darlington merged to form Carmel Co-educational Comprehensive School to which all children from Catholic primary schools within a wide radius go at the age of 11. At 16 they all sit examinations in those subjects to which their abilities suit them, until recently either the GCE or CSE, which have now been combined into the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE). Those who stay on until 18 normally take subjects in the Advanced Certificate of Education and, depending on results, may move on to University or College of Further Education on Local Education Authority grants.
