Going to school
Parliament has been a central force in building and shaping the nation's system of state education, going back to the 1830s with the very first state grants to what were then privately run schools.
The system of state schooling which we know today has been created and expanded through a series of pioneering Acts of Parliament, which built on the work of charities and societies in initially answering the need for better access to primary and secondary education.
Reference sources for more in-depth research into how Parliament has brought change and improvement to Britain's countryside
Follow the chief stages and developments in the creation of Britain's state schools
Schooling still preoccupies Parliament nearly two hundred years after it first recognized the need for a formal system of education
Find out how Parliament has established Britain's modern system of state education