British Education Timeline http://www.educationengland.org.uk/history/timeline.html

600-1800 Beginnings

598 First grammar school established at Canterbury.

600s More grammar schools established at Dorchester, Winchester, Hexham, Malmesbury, Lichfield, Hereford and Worcester.

871 Alfred became king of Wessex and showed 'concern for education'.

1066 Norman invasion: French replaced English as vernacular medium for teaching Latin.

1096 Oxford: evidence of teaching.

1209 Cambridge: scholars arrived from Oxford.

1382 Winchester founded: independent school.

1440 Eton founded: independent school.

1670 Dissenting Academies: established to teach law, medicine, commerce, engineering and the arts. Were a significant part of England’s educational systems from the mid-seventeenth to nineteenth centuries (By members of a religious body who has, for one reason or another, separated from the Established Church or any other kind of Protestant who refuses to recognise the supremacy of the Established Church in areas where the established Church is or was Anglican)

1700 Charity Schools for the poor.

1775 Industrial Revolution began to create demand for mass education.

1799 School of industry opened at Kendal.

1800-1860 Towards a state system of education

1807 Parochial Schools (приходские) Bill: made provision for the education of 'the labouring classes'.

1816 first infant school opened in New Lanark, Scotland.

1833 Government began making annual grants to church schools.

1839 Education Department established: Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth appointed as first Permanent Secretary.

1840 Grammar Schools Act 1840: allowed endowment funds to be spent on modern and commercial subjects.

1841 Five School Sites Acts passed between 1841 and 1852 facilitated the purchase of land for school buildings and allowed for 'Parliamentary Grants for the Education of the Poor'

1843 Governesses' Benevolent Institution: campaigned for better education for girls and women

1847 Asylum for Idiots established at Highgate

1851 Great Exhibition revealed lack of facilities for technical education in England

1865 Girls admitted to Cambridge Local Examinations

1866 College for the Blind Sons of Gentlemen opened at Worcester, later became Worcester College for the Blind

1870 Elementary Education Act 1870: introduced compulsory universal education for children aged 5-13 but left enforcement of attendance to school boards

1870 Girls admitted to Oxford Local Examinations

1878 Maria Grey Training College for women teachers founded.

Maria Georgina Grey who had also been fundamental in the founding of the Women's Education Union to promote women’s right to education and the professional recognition of female teachers

1878 London University opened all its examinations and degrees to women.

1888 Local Government Act created county councils and county borough councils which later became the framework for educational administration

1889 Welsh Intermediate Education Act established the Welsh secondary education system.

1889 Prevention of Cruelty to, and Protection of, Children Act 1889 wide-ranging Act including restrictions on the employment of children

1891 Elementary Education Act: elementary education to be provided free

1893 School leaving age raised to 11.

1893 Elementary Education (Blind and Deaf Children) Act: required school authorities to make better educational provision for blind and deaf children

1899 School leaving age raised to 12