The Post-War State School Film (1945–70)

Abstract

For the 95 per cent of the British population not sent to public school, the Elementary Education Act of 1870 first made provision for educating all children aged five to 13, though it took an 1880 Act to make it compulsory and 1891 before early years education became free of charge. Arthur Balfour’s Education Act of 1902 set a clear division in education systems at the age of 11 and led to a rapid expansion in the building of secondary schools. So, by the early years of the new century and the early years of cinema, Britain finally had a coherent national educational system, though one still class-riven and ‘largely confined to the provision of a minimum standard’ (Williams 1961: 137)—and lengthily devoid of fiction film representation. The 1944 Education Act’s extension of a full and free education had quickly become a ‘bipartite system’ given the reluctance of LEAs to invest in expensive technical colleges and was thus adjudged as perpetuating the nineteenth century’s class-bound system of education: the grammar school with its promise of a university place and professional career became the goal for the aspirational middle class; the secondary modern became the ‘sink’ for the restricted working class.