British & Foreign School

I spent my lunch hour walking the back streets of St. Peter Port. I came across this building which I'd not noticed before. I did a bit of research about it when I got home.

The British & Foreign School Society was one of the two most important voluntary organisations in the development of elementary schooling for all classes in the 19th century. It was formed originally in 1808 as The Society for Promoting the Lancasterian System for the Education of the Poor, or The Royal Lancasterian Society, and was supported by a number of prominent evangelical and non-conformist Christians.

The above-named Society aimed to carry on the work of Joseph Lancaster, a Quaker who had set up a school for poor children in Southwark in 1798. He was a progressive educator but always ended in financial trouble. He had developed a method of schooling which relied on the use of monitors - older children who had been taught or 'drilled' by the school master, and who then passed on their knowledge to younger pupils.

The above-named Society became the British and Foreign School Society (BFSS) in 1814. Its purported aim was to set up schools and teacher training institutions on non-sectarian, non-denominational grounds. In reality, most British Schools were founded by non-conformists and had a link to a local non-conformist denomination. In many communities the founders of British Schools came into conflict with the National School Society, which was set up in opposition in 1811 to found Church of England Schools. British and National Schools appeared in competition all over the country - with the National School Society by far the larger of the two organisations. Local committees - many of their members being local non-conformist tradesmen and manufacturers - raised subscriptions, set up simple school buildings, and obtained teachers and equipment supplies from the London headquarters of the Society. The Society also established schools overseas and provided staff and support. From 1833, the government provided grants to build new British Schools as long as the local supporters of the British and Foreign School Society raised matching funds, and records of these grants and building projects for some schools are found in the Public Record Office.

The 'Monitorial system' was an economical system developed by Lancaster for schools where pupils could not all afford to pay fees, and where there was therefore a shortage of teachers. It enabled many poor children to have at least a small amount of education without great expense, and this monitorial system of teaching dominated popular education for over 50 years. It was practised in large and small schools, in National Schools as well, and it even spread to the lower (elementary) classes of endowed schools, grammar schools and public schools like Charterhouse.

School was conducted in single large classrooms, in which the schoolmaster could keep the whole school under scrutiny. Groups of about ten children were instructed by their monitors, often using cards hung on the wall, and there were rows of benches at which all pupils could sit for writing drill on slates. General monitors supervised the overall work in the different subjects, as well as the general discipline. In a well-organised school, monitors might be 10 or 11 years old, and were taught out of hours by the master. Their role was to teach the subject matter, to recommend pupils for promotion and to keep order. The schoolwork consisted of reading, writing and arithmetic in the boys' schools and also needlework in the girls' schools. Reading was from the Bible or from other religious texts. The whole process was regulated by a series of rewards - money, books, merit tickets and medals - and punishments - forfeit of rewards, wearing a dunce's cap, confinement in a closet, and was seen as a course of moral training.

The main criticism of the system was that monitors who were often too young, as well as untrained and unqualified, were set to teach children not much younger than themselves under only nominal supervision by one master. There was no formal teacher-training available at the time.

Eventually, the Society founded and sponsored teacher-training colleges. After the government took over the main responsibility for schools from 1870, The BFSS continued its teacher-training role. These institutions have now merged with other colleges or have closed. The Borough Road Teacher Training College at Southwark (now known as Isleworth) existed in the early 1840s. It merged with the West London Institute of Higher Education in 1976, and this in turn became part of Brunel University in 1995. This is where the British and Foreign School Society Archives Centre is found.

As can be seen on the building front, the Guernsey branch was built in 1842. Its final year as a school was 1903. It was then used by various organisations and principally the scouts until 1955 when the British & Foreign School Guernsey trust was wound up and the building sold.