LCC , London County Council x London County Council

When the London County Council became a local education authority it became the largest employer of teachers in the country. In 1902 it had established the London Day Training College in association with the University of London. In 1932 this College passed to the control of the University and became the Institute of Education. The Council founded six emergency training colleges after the Second World War. These colleges were meant to help solve some of the urgent post war problems, offering a one-year course of training, and were closed by 1951.

The decision of the Minister of Education in 1957 to extend the course of teacher training from two to three years led to expansion in the provision of places. Several training colleges in London were enlarged and a new day-training college for mature students (Sidney Webb College) was opened in 1961. In the same year the Council undertook responsibility for the maintenance of two voluntary colleges, one specialising in physical education and the other in training for primary education. By 1964 the Council was administering nine training colleges, all of them constituent colleges of the University of London Institute of Education.

It became clear from 1960 onwards that despite the increased numbers coming from training colleges, the shortage of primary school teachers was likely to become even more acute, largely because the earlier average age of marriage was causing women teachers to leave the profession in greater numbers. The increased birth-rate from 1954 onwards also accentuated the demand for primary teachers. The Council therefore took the initiative in seeking primary school staff from other sources, and started a series of short courses designed to attract into primary teaching married women graduates who had no teaching experience. At about the same time a vigorous publicity campaign was launched by the Council to increase the use of part-time teachers in primary and secondary schools. The Council's efforts met with considerable success, and in the recruitment of part-time teachers other local education authorities followed this example.

The Froebel Society for the Promotion of the Kindergarten System was founded in 1874 in order to provide courses of training for nursery teachers and a recognition and inspection facility for nursery schools. In 1887 the Society created a separate body, the National Froebel Union, in order to validate examinations and set standards for the Froebel Teacher's Certificate. In 1938 the two bodies united to form the National Froebel Foundation.