Institute of Education London

Featured collection – School Histories

The School Histories Collection tells the stories of individual schools and their communities across Britain.

Scope
The collection includes around 1,500 books and pamphlets, dating from the early twentieth century up to the present day. (Older materials, mainly from the nineteenth century, are held in the History of Education Collection.) Schools range from local village schools, to secondary modern, grammar, comprehensive and public schools. In some cases the schools are traced from medieval or Elizabethan days to modern times; others give more detail of recent changes and developments.

Themes
Written by current and former pupils, parents, local researchers, architects, educationalists and academics, these books provide a wealth of information about all aspects of school life, including:

• Local management of education
• Social background of pupils and their families
• Impact of World Wars on schools
• School life: uniforms, dinners, rules, discipline
• Histories of girls'/boys' education
• School buildings
• Changes in the curriculum

Size: c.1,500 items
Type/format: Books and pamphlets
Dates: c1919 -
Accrual policy: Open

Access
Reference only.

Searching
The collection is listed in the library catalogue.

The School Histories Project
The development of this collection is part of a Heritage Lottery funded project. In addition to cataloguing and conservation, the project has enabled us to produce supporting materials for teachers and local historians, and a travelling exhibition.