An infant school is a type of school or school department for young children. Today, it is mainly used in England and Wales. The first two years of school in Ireland are called infant classes.
The first infant school was founded in New Lanark, Scotland in 1816. It was followed by other philanthropic infant schools across the United Kingdom. Early childhood education was a new concept at the time and seen as a potential solution to social problems related to industrialisation. Numerous writers published works on the subject and a theory of how infant teaching should ideally be conducted developed — this included moral education, physical exercise and an authoritative but friendly teacher. The movement quickly spread across the British empire, Europe and the United States. It was used by missionary groups in an effort to convert the empire's non-Christian subjects.
In England and Wales, infant schools began to be seen as a way to maximise the education children could receive before they left school to start work and were valued by parents as a form of childcare. State-funded schools were advised in 1840 to include infant departments within their grounds. A similar process took place in Ireland after the establishment of a state education system there in 1831. As it was integrated into the state system, infant education in England, Ireland and Wales came under pressure to achieve quick academic progress in children and shifted towards rote-learning. The new "kindergarten" methods of teaching young children had some limited influence on the curriculum in the late 19th century.
Beginning in 1905, infant education in England and Wales shifted towards more child-centred methods of teaching where education was meant to reflect the preferences of children. Many of the youngest children under five, who were considered ill-suited to school, were removed entirely, though some nursery classes were later attached to infant schools to cater to this age group. The child-centred approach reached its peak following a report in 1967. In 1988, a more centralised curriculum was introduced, but there have been moves away from that in Wales since devolution. Infant teaching in Ireland initially moved in a similar child-centred direction. Following Irish independence, a return was initially made to rote-learning with the aim of reviving the Irish language though this was reversed from 1948.