Introduction

This first chapter includes a contextual administrative history of the approved schools, and a discussion of the legislative framework in which they operated. It thereby introduces the schools, the records from which sample data was taken, and an explanation for the selection of three particular schools. The approved schools which comprise the sample institutions are introduced, and the methodological approaches adopted in order to identify and capture the data within surviving records are set out. Finally, it discusses some of the challenges of accessing and presenting details from closed records in historical study, considering the implications of the contemporary recordkeeping practice for the study of these institutions, positioned against a backdrop of privileged access and missing material.