Elementary Education Act 1870 further acts in 1876 ("the Sandon Act", which gave parents a legal obligation to ensure that their children were educated) and 1880 ("the Mundella Act") made attendance compulsory for children until they were 10 years old, with various exemptions. Many factory owners feared the removal of children as a source of cheap labour. However, with the simple mathematics and English they were acquiring, factory owners now had workers who could read and make measurements. Following continued campaigning by the National Education League, following the Elementary Education Act 1880, attendance to age 10 became compulsory everywhere in England and Wales. In
Raising of school leaving age in England and Wales that the new upper age limit be enforced from 1 September 1972 onwards. As well as raising the school leaving age in 1972, the year also saw the introduction of the Education (Work Experience) Act, allowing LEAs to organise work experience for the additional final year school students. In some counties around the country, these changes also led to the introduction of middle schools in 1968, where students were kept at primary or junior school for an additional year, meaning that the number of students in secondary schools within these areas remained virtually constant through the change. In others, more