This is some information I found on the Internet:
The school provision made at the time, ‘For the ragged classes … there were the ragged schools. … For the perishing classes who had not yet fallen into crime but were likely to do so, there were industrial schools. And for ‘juvenile offenders’ or ‘delinquents’ … who had already committed crimes … there were reformatory schools.’
Industrial Schools
Industrial schools had two main objects, to instil in the children the habit of working and to develop the latent potential of the destitute child. One of the earliest attempts to start an Industrial Feeding School, as they were at first called, was in Aberdeen in 1846.
What was their purpose?
Industrial Schools were intended to help those children who were destitute but who had not as yet committed any serious crime. The idea was to remove the child from bad influences, give them an education and teach them a trade. It was felt that although the ragged schools were fulfilling a need the provision they provided did not go far enough. The children needed to be removed from the environment in which they had been living. Depending on the circumstances of the child they either attended the school daily or they were able to live in.
Daily Timetable
The timetable was quite a strict one, the children rose at 6.00am and went to bed at 7.00pm. During the day there were set times for schooling, learning trades, housework, religion in the form of family worship, meal times and there was also a short time for play three times a day. The boys learned trades such as gardening, tailoring and shoemaking; the girls learned knitting, sewing, housework and washing.
The Industrial Schools Act
At first like the ragged schools the Industrial Schools were run on a voluntary basis. However in 1857 the Industrial Schools Act was passed. This gave magistrates the power to sentence children between the ages of 7 and 14 years old to a spell in one of these institutions. The act dealt with those children who were brought before the courts for vagrancy in other words for being homeless. In 1861 a further act was passed and different categories of children were included:
-Any child apparently under the age of fourteen found begging or receiving alms [money or goods given as charity to the poor].
-Any child apparently under the age of fourteen found wandering and not having any home or visible means of support, or in company of reputed thieves.
-Any child apparently under the age of twelve who, having committed an offence punishable by imprisonment or less.
-Any child under the age of fourteen whose parents declare him to be beyond their control.
The act stated the child had to be ‘apparently’ under the age of fourteen. This was because children often lied about their age if it was advantageous for them to do so. Some children genuinely did not know how old they were. It was not until 1875 that it became compulsory to register births.
The cost of the Schools
Parents were supposed to contribute to the cost of keeping a child in an Industrial School. This often proved impossible to collect because most of the children were homeless. The money had to be found from government sources. As time went on there was quite a lot of unease about the funding mainly because of the rapid expansion of the system. Some people thought it was too big a drain on the public purse. More and more magistrates preferred to send young offenders to the schools instead of prison. From 1870 the schools became the responsibility of the Committee of Education.