The Elementary Education Act of 1870 established the framework for the education of all children aged between 5 and 12. After 1880 attendance was made compulsory. Initially the schools were controlled by School Boards. A further Act in 1902 passed control to local education authorities - which in Surrey, as elsewhere, was the County Council.

From the 19th century there were also church schools, often known as National Schools, and other schools which had originally been set up as charities, like the London Orphan Asylum (now Reed's School, Cobham). Various institutions, such as the Royal Philanthropic Society at Redhill, also cared for children who had fallen into a life of crime. Records of a wide range of Surrey schools are held at Surrey History Centre, Woking.

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