SCHOOLS

INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS

At first these schools were run on a voluntary basis. In 1857 the Industrial Schools Act was passed. This gave magistrates the power to sentence children between the ages of 7 and 14 to a spell in one of these institutions.

The act dealt with those children who were brought before the courts for vagrancy – in other words - they were homeless. In 1861 a further act was passed and different categories of children were included:

• Any child under the age of 14 found begging or receiving alms
  
• Any child under the age of 14 found wandering and not having any home or visible means of support, or in company of reputed thieves
  
• Any child under the age of 12 who having committed an offence punishable by imprisonment or less
  
• Any child under the age of 14 whose parents declare him to be out of control

Industrial schools had two main objects, to instil in the children the habit of working and to develop the latent potential of the destitute child. One of the earliest attempts to start an Industrial Feeding School, as they were at first called, was in Aberdeen in 1846.

What was their purpose?

Industrial Schools were intended to help those children who were destitute but who had not as yet committed any serious crime. The idea was to remove the child from bad influences, give them an education and teach them a trade. It was felt that although the ragged schools were fulfilling a need the provision they provided did not go far enough. The children needed to be removed from the environment in which they had been living. Depending on the circumstances of the child they during the day there were set times for schooling, learning trades, housework religion in the form of family worship, meal times and there was also a short time for play three times a day. The boys learned trades such as gardening, tailoring and shoemaking; the girls learned knitting, sewing, housework and washing.

Due to the expansion of these schools and costs thereof; magistrates tended to send children to these places rather than prison and the schools became the responsibility of the Committee of Education.