Robert Raikes (1736-1811)the man who 'invented' Sunday School

Robert was an English philanthropist and Anglican layman. He was a pioneer of the Sunday School movement although he did not start the first Sunday School.

The original schedule for schools -as written by Robert was
The children were to come after ten in the morning, and stay till twelve; they were then to go home and return at one; and after reading a lesson, they were to be conducted to church. After church, they were to be employed repeating the catechism till after five, and then dismissed with an injunction to go home without making a noise.

He inherited a publishing business from his father and in 1757 he became proprietor of the Gloucester Journal. In 1758 he moved the business to Robert Raikes’ House.

He was interested in prison reform, specifically with the conditions in Gloucester
gaol and saw that vice would be better prevented than cured. He saw schooling as the best intervention.

The movement began in July 1780 in the home of Mrs Meredith and with a school for boys in the slums. The best available time was Sunday- the boys were working 6 days a week in the factories. The teachers were lay people. The text book was the Bible. Later girls also attended.

He used his newspaper to publicise the schools and bore most of the cost himself in the early years.

Despite controversy and disputes, in the early years, Sunday Schools -some called the schools* Raikes’Ragged School* grew at a phenomenal rate in Great Britain.
1788 - 300,000 children
1831 - `.1,250,000
1910 - 5,500,000

These schools preceded the first state funding schools for the general public. They are seen as the forerunners of the currwnt English school system

The money of phianthropist Robert Raikes was not wasted.