'Hester Barron puts the school back where it belongs, as the heart of communities, in the period when the primary school became the most significant and most appreciated state institution in most people's lives, a harbinger of later prized welfare-state institutions. The result is a vivid and eloquent social history of interwar London viewed through its children, their parents and their teachers.'
Peter Mandler, Professor of Modern Cultural History, University of Cambridge

This fascinating study demonstrates just how many answers there can be to the question ‘what are schools for?’ and will be valuable to anyone with an interest in the history of childhood and education as well as those working on interwar Britain more broadly.
The Journal of the Social History Society