In 1870 the government introduced a system of schools for all children across the country. Where there had been no schools up until then, new ones were built.
Children would attend their local village school up to the age of thirteen and then leave for work. The new schools were rather different to our primary schools today, and teachers and children had many problems to deal with.

The first difficulty was the cost. Poor families lost a valuable source of income when they sent their older children to school. But there were other costs too. Two entries from the Darowen School records reveal these...

In this extract from 1870 the Headmaster writes:
"Told the children to bring their subscriptions of 5d each towards the fuel on Monday next."

Most small schools were heated by a fire or stove and the parents had to pay for the coal !
Schools sometimes ran out of coal but even when they didn’t the buildings were often bitterly cold away from the stove. At Darowen the ink in the inkpots froze in the classroom!

More money problems at Darowen school...