Hello all you knowledgeable people ! This is a general question that I am hoping someone can help me with. Does anyone know how a person in the mid to late 1850's would obtain certification as a National Schoolmaster/Mistress? Also how they obtained their "postings" to the various schools in which they taught. I have a husband and wife who were born and schooled in Gloucestershire and Wiltshire respectively. Their first joint posting was to Burton Latimer, Northants. The next to Sowerby, West Riding, Yorkshire amd lastly to Middleton in Lancashire. It would appear that there was some central body directing these teachers around the country and/or taking applications for transfers, apart from the original certifications. Has anyone come across a website on the subject ? Any direction to some kind of information would be much appreciated. Gill Smith

With regard to training school teachers, I acquired the following information on the Internet (but, I have misplaced the website). "In 1846 the British Government took on most of the costs of training school teachers, although the training colleges remained denominational. A pupil-teacher system was adopted whereby, in schools approved by an inspector, children aged thirteen years could be apprenticed to a teacher for five years and, after passing an examination, could attend a training college for three years. During the day the pupil teacher acted as an assistant teacher, and after school he received special instruction from the schoolmaster, following a set syllabus. Pupil-teachers had to undergo annual examinations by H.M. Inspectors of Schools, and were paid £10 during the first year with an additional £2-10s for each subsequent year. The intention was for pupil-teachers to progress to teacher training college where they would receive specific training aimed at certifying them to a set standard." My 2xs great grandfather, Henry King, was noted as a pupil teacher at Steeple Claydon, Bucks, on the 1851 census, when he was 16 years old. Family notes state that he later went to London to a teacher training college - possibly the Borough Road College, but I don't have access to records to confirm this possibility. I assume that Henry applied for a teaching position at one or more schools as he neared the completion of his teacher training. But, again I have no documentation to back up my assumption. Henry King was married at Steeple Claydon in 1858, and was later noted as a schoolmaster on the 1861 and 1871 census of Kimbolten, Hunts. Sharon Starkey, nee King ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gill Smith" <geneagill@i-zoom.net> To: <bucks@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, May 01, 2009 8:00 AM Subject: [BKM] Off topic - Schoolteachers > Hello all you knowledgeable people ! > > This is a general question that I am hoping someone can help me with. > Does anyone know how a person in the mid to late 1850's would obtain > certification as a National Schoolmaster/Mistress? Also how they obtained > their "postings" to the various schools in which they taught. > > I have a husband and wife who were born and schooled in > Gloucestershire and Wiltshire respectively. Their first joint posting was > to Burton Latimer, Northants. The next to Sowerby, West Riding, Yorkshire > amd lastly to Middleton in Lancashire. > > It would appear that there was some central body directing these > teachers around the country and/or taking applications for transfers, > apart from the original certifications. > > Has anyone come across a website on the subject ? > > Any direction to some kind of information would be much appreciated. > > Gill Smith > *************************************** > > BGS Website: http://www.bucksgs.org.uk/ > BFHS Website: http://www.bucksfhs.org.uk/ > Bucks Genuki Website: http://met.open.ac.uk/genuki/big/eng/BKM/ > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > BUCKS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message