Over many years in the Victorian period children who went to most of the early schools had to regularly bring a small sum of money to help pay for the running costs of the school. This was known as the "School Pence", and although it was very little it could still be hard for some parents to find.
This entry, from the official diary of Llyswen National School in 1888, shows that some teachers were very strict about collecting the money...

The main part from the Log Book reads -
"...John Thomas, a boy in Standard 5 [class 5], and his sister from Standard 1 have been absent for 5 continuous weeks, because I refused to take them in without their school pence".
An earlier entry in the same book, written in August 1886, read
"I sent some children home for their School pence on Tuesday, they have not turned up since".
School pence seemed to have caused school problems !
There is more about paying for lessons on the next page...

More about the 'School Pence'...