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
Science education in England all children completed all standards, which meant that by the age of 12, there were children that had not ‘completed’ their elementary education. Of course families that could afford (and wanted) to keep their children in school post-compulsory age to pass all standards did so. In fact some children stayed in school beyond the seventh standard. Schools that offered post-seventh standard education became known as "higher grade schools", of which science education was a recognised feature of their curricula. This was by far the single most important development for science education in schools in England in the nineteenth century from