Schools Attended by London Life Characters

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The English school system differs from the American one in that there is no graduation from school - that's reserved for people attaining their degrees at university. In the Regency era there was no minimum age to leave school; it was possible for a young man in his teens to hold a commission in the Army or to be at sea with the Royal Navy, and of course that meant that they would not be at school in full time education. Most, if not all, public schools (schools that were paid for by members of the public) were exclusively boarding schools - some, such as Winchester, still are to this day.


There were also grammar schools which did not have the same cachet as the more expensive public schools, so would be more affordable for those characters of the gentry and middling sort. See List of the oldest schools in the United Kingdom for a list of schools that were around in 1811.


It was common to have a tutor from a young age, and some boys never went to school at all but remained at home and took all their schooling from private tutors. Schools catered for boys aged between eight and 18, although very few boys remained at school until they were eighteen, and not everyone went to school from the age of eight. There was no legal requirement to continue schooling to the age of sixteen or eighteen; boys could leave school to enter the adult world of employment at almost any age, and there were only certain professions that required a university degree. A boy did not have to be eighteen in order to go to university; if he could matriculate (pass the entrance exam), he could become a university scholar.


Subjects taught included Latin, mathematics, history, geography, English, French, possibly a little drawing.


Please note: This is a time when corporal punishment was in use, although it would have been the birch rather than the cane which was brought in during the Victorian period (as were a lot of things...)


Ladies would be privately educated at home under a governess, and might be sent to a ladies' seminary later on. They would not learn the same sort of things as the boys would, but would learn basic mathematics, French, dancing, deportment... some ladies' schools even trained their students how to get in and out of a carriage gracefully.

Public Schools

Charterhouse

Eton

(See also Category:Old Etonians)

Harrow

(See also Category:Old Harrovians)

Rugby

(See also Category:Old Rugbeians)

Shrewsbury

Westminster

(See also Category:Old Westminsters)

Winchester

(See also Category:Old Wykehamists)

Grammar Schools

Sherborne

Tonbridge School

Ladies' Seminaries

It is worth mentioning that girls' schools were basically finishing schools, there to polish what girls already had been taught at home - this is one reason that girls were older than boys when they went away to school.

A girl's school at the time would have concentrated on accomplishments and skills that she would need in her future life: simple mathematics, bookkeeping (to help when overseeing the household accounts), sewing - both plain sewing and embroidery - deportment - actually, they would have concentrated a lot on deportment, dancing, French, maybe some Italian. They would possibly have played some ladylike games, although nothing that would have encouraged hoydenish behaviour. They would have been encouraged in conversational skills - girls were supposed to be able to converse upon a wide variety of subject, but not to go very deep with any of them (it was unladylike and there was a school of thought that women could not cope with such depth) - so more froth than substance. I am sure they learned how to make small talk.

The above describes a very liberal school with a broad range of subjects taught - a lot of schools would merely concentrate on deportment and dancing, expecting that their pupils would already have learned everything else to an acceptable standard before arriving. They would also not teach riding, as again a girl was expected to know how to ride before leaving home.

They would have learned enough about household tasks in order to be able oversee them efficiently in their own homes - but they would not necessarily have got their hands dirty actually cooking, say. After all, we're talking about an establishment where members of the aristocracy send their daughters, and even Mrs Bennet boasted that her daughters 'had nothing to do in the kitchen' (i.e. with actual food preparation), although P&P satirises it, and middle-class households who could only afford to employ one or two servants would have expected their daughters to help in the kitchen with preparing meals.

See also the article Education for Women.

Miss Pirbright's Select Seminary for Young Ladies

Miss Eamont's School for Girls

Useful Research Links

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