Sunday schools

A Sunday school (also sometimes referred to as a Sabbath school) is a Christian educational institution, usually (but not always) catering to children and other young people. Many Seventh-day Adventist communities hold their Sabbath Schools on Saturdays.

Sunday schools in England were first set up in the 1780s to provide education to working children. William King (see memorial in Dursley Tabernacle Church) first started a Sunday School in Dursley, Gloucestershire, and suggested to his friend Robert Raikes, that he start a similar school in Gloucester, resulting in Raikes being generally quoted as starting the schools as he was editor of the Gloucester Journal and wrote an article in his Journal resulting in many clergymen supporting it. It aimed to teach the youngsters reading, writing and cyphering and a knowledge of the Bible.

By 1785, 250,000 English children were attending Sunday School. There were 5,000 in Manchester alone. By 1895, the 'Society for the Establishment and Promotion of Sunday Schools' had distributed 91,915 spelling books, 24,232 Testaments and 5,360 Bibles. The Sunday School movement was cross-denominational, and through subscription built large buildings that could host public lectures as well as classrooms. In the early days, adults would attend the same classes as the infants, as each were instructed in basic reading. In some towns the Methodists withdrew from the Large Sunday School and built their own. The Anglicans set up their own 'National' schools that would act as Sunday Schools and day schools. These schools were the precursors to a national system of education.

The role of the Sunday Schools changed with the Education Act 1870. In the 1920s they promoted sports. It was common for teams to compete in a Sunday School League. They were social centres hosting amateur dramatics and concert parties. By the 1960s, the term Sunday School could refer to the building and not to any education classes. By the 1970s even the largest Sunday School at had been demolished. Sunday School became the generic name for many different types of religious education pursued on Sundays by various denominations.

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