ABSTRACT
In the 1850s and 1860s, the country’s educational provision was examined by three commissions, commonly known as the Newcastle Commission (1858-1861), the Clarendon Commission (1861-1864) and the Taunton Commission (1864-1868). English education had never been so carefully studied before. The three commissions looked at different sectors of education: Newcastle at so-called ‘popular ’ education, Clarendon at what were termed the nine ‘great’ public schools, and lastly Taunton, the Schools Inquiry Commission, at what had not already been covered, the middle ground. The Taunton Commission report of 1868 refers again and again to ‘middle-class education,’ which it clearly saw as its own particular brief.
