Sunday Schools

Sunday Schools. Schools, mainly for children, in which instruction, now primarily religious, is given on Sunday; they are usually held in conjunction with a parish or congregation. Although there are isolated earlier examples of schools for poor children on Sundays, the movement owed its success to R. Raikes, who, along with the local incumbent, engaged four women in 1780 to instruct the children of Gloucester in reading and the (BCP) Catechism on Sundays. His example was followed both in Europe and America. In England two national societies were founded on an interdenominational basis: the Sunday School Society (1783) to give financial support to individual schools, and the Sunday School Union (1803) to help provide books and materials. Most schools, however, were locally supported and after the early 1800s interdenominational co-operation was replaced by denominational rivalry. The desire of Anglicans to introduce more specifically C of E teaching led to the formation in 1843 of the Sunday School Institute (incorporated into the National Society in 1936). In 1966 the (National from 1921) Sunday School Union became the National Christian Education Council.