The evacuation of English schoolchildren during World War Two : an examination of the educational and social aspects, with a case-study of reception area, West Sussex

The intention of this thesis is to study the impact of the evacuations of 1939 - 1940 upon the educational service of England and Wales, and the eztent to which they may have contributed to the remadcsble war- time growth of interest in education, end to subsegnent educational legislation and wider social reform. The operation of the 1939 evacuation, its immediate effects, the "phoney war" period, and the evacuations which came with Dunkirk and the aerial offensive are considered in Chapter 1. The general effects on the national education service, with special reference to premises, occupy Chapter 2. The next two chapters are devoted to educational difficulties in the different types of zones. Chapter 3 indicates how reception areas coped with the initial mass invasion and the subsequent two-way traffic of evacuees. Chapter 4 looks at the problems of providing education in areas which should have been evacuated of schoolchildrai, and at the comparatively tronble-free neutral areas. After an introductory section on the inspectorate, the teachers themselves are the subject of Chapter 5 which shows the problems they met, the roles they accumulated, the consequent strain under which they lived and worked, and their many achievements.