Sarah Yelf was the first principal of Edge Hill College, the first

non-denominational A non-denominational person or organization is one that does not follow (or is not restricted to) any particular or specific religious denomination. The term has been used in the context of various faiths, including Jainism, Baháʼí Faith, Zoro ...

teacher training college in England or Wales, located in Liverpool.

Career

During 1861 and 1862, Sarah Yelf trained as a teacher at Salisbury Diocesan Training College and then became headmistress of Teddington Church School for three years. She then moved to Salisbury College as second mistress from 1865 until 1876. She became Inspectress of the Liverpool Board Schools and Principal of the Liverpool Pupil Teachers Centre for Girls in 1876. There was a need to increase the number of trained teachers for

elementary schools A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

in the United Kingdom after the

Elementary Education Act 1870 The Elementary Education Act 1870 ( 33 & 34 Vict. c. 75), commonly known as Forster's Education Act, set the framework for schooling of all children between the ages of 5 and 12 in England and Wales. It established local education authorities wit ...

. Most teacher training colleges had been founded by the

Anglican Church Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

, and gave preference to applications for study from young people of that denomination. This led to a group of

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

philanthropists and businessmen planning a non-denominational residential teaching training college for women that became called Edge Hill College. It was formally opened in January 1885 with 41 women students. Yelf had approached them about the position as Principal and was appointed with a yearly salary of £200. This was before women's colleges were required to have a woman as principal. Under her direction the academic standards of the new teacher training college was ranked fifth in the country. Yelf retired due to ill health in 1890, aged 44. She died aged 83. One of the student halls of residence at (now) Edge Hill University is named Sarah Yelf Hall after her.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yelf, Sarah 1840s births 1920s deaths Heads of universities and colleges in England School inspectors 19th-century British educators 19th-century British women educators