Many children were kept away from school to help with farm and other jobs, but another major cause of absence was illness. Many diseases which are now very rare often caused very serious illness and many deaths in Victorian times.
There are references to sickness in almost every school Log Book.

The example above is part of the School Inspector's report on Manafon School from November 1885 -
"In judging this School, it should be remembered that epidemics of different kinds have been rife in the parish of Manafon, not only recently, but at intervals during the last two years".
Many school reports in Victorian times had to make allowances for lessons missed due to illness.
There is a rather sad little entry in the Llanllugan School diary from October 1890...

"Some of the little ones who attended were coughing pitifully".
There are more examples of the health problems in local schools in the Victorian years on the next page...

More about the dangers of disease...