[West Ender]

When I left school aged 16, in 1959, the legal leaving age was 15. Pupils taking O levels, usually at High or Grammar Schools, stayed on until 16. I'm not sure when the legal age was raised to 16 but it was in the 60s.

The leaving age had been 14 before the war and prior to that pupils could leave school on a "part-time" basis at 13. My dad fell into that catagory. He left Hyndburn Park school in 1922, when he was 14, but for the previous year he had only attended school half days, the other half he worked at Steiners. He got his further education at Night School and he was doing that until he was 18.