Catalogue description Ministry of Education and Department of Education and Science: Inspectorate: Reports on Independent Schools

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Details of ED 172
Reference: ED 172
Title: Ministry of Education and Department of Education and Science: Inspectorate: Reports on Independent Schools
Description:

Ministry of Education and Department of Education and Science Inspector's reports on independent schools.
Date: 1938-1989
Arrangement:

By county and county borough order within each transfer.
Related material:

Later reports produced by HM Inspectorate on independent schools in Wales are in BD 72
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Creator:

Board of Education, Inspectorate (England), 1923-1944

Board of Education, Inspectorate (Wales), 1923-1944

Department of Education and Science, HM Inspectorate (England), 1964-1973

Department of Education and Science, HM Inspectorate (Wales), 1964-1973

Department of Education and Science, HM Inspectorate of Schools (England), 1973-1992

Department of Education and Science, HM Inspectorate of Schools (Wales), 1973-1992

Ministry of Education, Inspectorate (England), 1944-1964

Ministry of Education, Inspectorate (Wales), 1944-1964
Physical description: 613 files and volumes
Access conditions: Subject to 30 year closure
Unpublished finding aids:

An index to counties and county boroughs is available. Please speak to staff at the enquiry desk for the precise location.

Administrative / biographical background:

The 1943 White Paper, 'Educational Reconstruction', announced the Government's intention to introduce a system of compulsory inspection and registration of all independent schools, with provision to require the closure of any school found deficient unless the defects complained of were remedied.

Subsequently, part III of the Education Act 1944 required the minister to maintain a register of all independent schools and their proprietors to furnish certain information and to make their schools available for inspection at all reasonable times.

Although these provisions were not made fully effective until part III came into operation in 1957, a programme of inspections of all independent schools which provided full-time education for five or more pupils of compulsory school age was commenced in 1949. This was announced in Circular 196, published in January of that year.

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