‘The school without tears’: E. F. O’Neill of Prestolee

Abstract

Between the years 1918 and 1953 a remarkable and sustained experiment in education occurred at an unremarkable village elementary school mid‐way between Manchester and Bolton in Lancashire, England. Prestolee School at the heart of the industrial mill town of Kearsley was transformed by the head teacher, Edward Frances O'Neill (1890–1975). O'Neill's experiment to educate within an atmosphere of freedom is re‐examined in this article in the light of an archive of materials which were originally collected by the celebrated mathematics educator, W. W. Sawyer. This archive of photographs, letters, memos and children's work has been explored alongside records of school inspections and other formal records of the school and its head teacher during these years.