IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): LCC/EO/TRA
Held at: London Metropolitan Archives
Title: EDUCATION OFFICER'S DEPARTMENT: TRAINING OF TEACHERS
Date(s): 1903-1976
Level of description: Collection
Extent: 9.18 linear metres
Name of creator(s): LCC | London County Council x London County Council
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
When the London County Council became a local education authority it became the largest employer of teachers in the country. In 1902 it had established the London Day Training College in association with the University of London. In 1932 this College passed to the control of the University and became the Institute of Education. The Council founded six emergency training colleges after the Second World War. These colleges were meant to help solve some of the urgent post war problems, offering a one-year course of training, and were closed by 1951.
The decision of the Minister of Education in 1957 to extend the course of teacher training from two to three years led to expansion in the provision of places. Several training colleges in London were enlarged and a new day-training college for mature students (Sidney Webb College) was opened in 1961. In the same year the Council undertook responsibility for the maintenance of two voluntary colleges, one specialising in physical education and the other in training for primary education. By 1964 the Council was administering nine training colleges, all of them constituent colleges of the University of London Institute of Education.
It became clear from 1960 onwards that despite the increased numbers coming from training colleges, the shortage of primary school teachers was likely to become even more acute, largely because the earlier average age of marriage was causing women teachers to leave the profession in greater numbers. The increased birth-rate from 1954 onwards also accentuated the demand for primary teachers. The Council therefore took the initiative in seeking primary school staff from other sources, and started a series of short courses designed to attract into primary teaching married women graduates who had no teaching experience. At about the same time a vigorous publicity campaign was launched by the Council to increase the use of part-time teachers in primary and secondary schools. The Council's efforts met with considerable success, and in the recruitment of part-time teachers other local education authorities followed this example.
The Froebel Society for the Promotion of the Kindergarten System was founded in 1874 in order to provide courses of training for nursery teachers and a recognition and inspection facility for nursery schools. In 1887 the Society created a separate body, the National Froebel Union, in order to validate examinations and set standards for the Froebel Teacher's Certificate. In 1938 the two bodies united to form the National Froebel Foundation.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Records of the London County Council Education Officer's Department relating to teacher training, 1903-1976.
Subject and policy files on a variety of topics including the Departmental Committee on the Training of Teachers; relations between the Universities and Training Colleges; the Central Consultative Committee of Headmasters and Headmistresses; training of art teachers; training of teachers of the blind; training of teachers of building; training of teachers of the deaf; training of domestic economy teachers; training of teachers of educationally sub-normal children; physical training in LCC Training Colleges; arrangements during the Second World War; Emergency Training Colleges; Senior County Teachers' Scholarships; statistics; National Froebel Union (later Foundation); University of Cambridge Certificate of Education; grants regulations; supply and training of teachers for technical colleges; introduction of the three-year teacher training course.
Subject files relating to individual LCC Training Colleges and individual Training Colleges not maintained by the LCC, including papers on buildings, equipment, expansions, reorganisations and closures, staffing, establishment of courses, arrangements and evacuation during Second World War, transfer of colleges to University of London, correspondence, syllabi, pamphlets, prospectuses, college magazines, policies, grants and fees, inspections, Governor's meeting minutes, Students' Union meeting minutes, Staff-Student Consultative Committee minutes, Staff Meetings and Academic Board meeting minutes (please see catalogue for full list of the individual colleges).
Also sample sets of applicants' case-papers for the Loan Fund for Prospective Teachers; sample sets of personal files of Training College students; reports from Annual Conferences of Teachers; handbooks from the Nuffield Foundation Science Teaching Project; sample certificates and student report and record books; National Froebel Union regulations, examination papers and reports of examiners; 'The Government of Maintained Training Colleges', LCC pamphlet (1953).
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
LCC/EO/TRA/01: Subject and policy files; LCC/EO/TRA/02-03: Training Colleges; LCC/EO/TRA/04: Minutes; LCC/EO/TRA/05: General.
Conditions governing access:
These records are available for public inspection, although records containing personal information are subject to access restrictions under the UK Data Protection Act, 1998.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copyright: City of London
Physical characteristics:
Fit
Finding aids:
Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Acquired with the records of its parent body, the London County Council.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
The Archive of the Institute of Education, University of London, can be contacted at 20 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AL. The National Froebel Foundation Archive is held at Roehampton University Archives and Special Collections, University Library, Roehampton Lane, London, SW15 5SZ.
Publication note:
For further information on the history of the LCC please see Achievement: A Short History of the London County Council by W Eric Jackson (1965), LMA Library reference 18.0 1965, The London County Council 1938, LMA Library reference 18.7 SER 4, and The Youngest County: A description of London as a county and its public services, 1951, LMA Library reference 18.0 1951.
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Date(s) of descriptions: April to June 2009