This book shows why the study of schooling matters to the history of twentieth-century Britain, integrating the history of education within the wider concerns of modern social history. Drawing on a rich array of archival and autobiographical sources, it captures in vivid detail the individual moments that made up the minutiae of classroom life. It focuses on elementary education in interwar London, arguing that schools were grounded in their local communities as lynchpins of social life and drivers of change. Exploring crucial questions around identity and belonging, poverty and aspiration, class and culture, behaviour and citizenship, it provides vital context for twenty-first century debates about education and society, showing how the same concerns were framed a century ago.

Reviews

'Hester Barron puts the school back where it belongs, as the heart of communities, in the period when the primary school became the most significant and most appreciated state institution in most people's lives, a harbinger of later prized welfare-state institutions. The result is a vivid and eloquent social history of interwar London viewed through its children, their parents and their teachers.'
Peter Mandler, Professor of Modern Cultural History, University of Cambridge

This fascinating study demonstrates just how many answers there can be to the question 'what are schools for?' and will be valuable to anyone with an interest in the history of childhood and education as well as those working on interwar Britain more broadly.
The Journal of the Social History Society

Map of Inner London

Introduction

Part I School and community
1 The school as a community
2 The school in the community

Part II What were schools for?
3 Preparing for the future
4 Fighting poverty
5 Brightening lives
6 Making citizens
7 Teaching morals
8 A sense of place
Conclusion

Bibliography
Index