Punishment of Industrial School Children

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Background

This article from The Times newspaper on 25 October 1895 reports what was said at a committee of government the officials in charge of Industrial Schools.

Industrial schools aimed to remove children from bad influences, give them an education and teach them a trade. The Industrial Schools Act was passed in 1857. The act gave magistrates the power to sentence vagrant (homeless) children between the ages of 7 and 14 years old to an Industrial School. In 1861 a further act was passed and included children under the age of 14 found:

• Begging or receiving charity
• Wandering, homeless, without means of support, or in the company of reputed thieves
• To have who had committed an offence punishable by imprisonment
• To be beyond the control of their parents

Industrial Schools became the responsibility of the Committee of Education in 1870.