Catalogue description Board of Education: Religious Instruction, Local Education Authority Files

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Details of ED 106
Reference: ED 106
Title: Board of Education: Religious Instruction, Local Education Authority Files
Description:

Board of Education files comprising minutes and memoranda, H.M. Inspectors' reports and correspondence relating to the conduct of religious instruction in public elementary schools and provisions for withdrawal from schools during periods of religious instruction in accordance with the provisions of s 27 of the Education Act 1921, and of relevant sections of the Education Act 1936 and of the Education Act, 1944.

Of the files relating to Wales only the file for Denbighshire has survived.
Date: 1919-1944
Arrangement:

By county order for England and Wales.
Separated material:

The files for Wales suffered loss in the flooding of the Welsh Department office at Cardiff in 1960.
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Physical description: 45 file(s)
Access conditions: Subject to 30 year closure
Administrative / biographical background:

Local Education Authorities were advised by the Board of Education to avoid contentious issues by the adoption of the "Anson proviso" or "Anson byelaw" which provided for the withdrawal of children, in deference to parents' wishes, not only from religious instruction but from the school premises when alternative provision for their religious instruction was made.

Local Education Authorities were required under s 27 of the Education Act 1921 and the duty imposed under sub-section 2 to report to the Board of Education to report any infraction, and any complaint received of infraction, of those provisions.

Not all Local Education Authorities had occasion to report to the Board of Education or seek concurrence to local arrangements.

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