History
Schools and Colleges during this early period, therefore, reflected the basic structure of Feudal society, concerned as they were with a Classical and religious education for a relatively small minority of the population.
Between the 12th and 14th centuries, Merchant and Craft guilds were established to formally teach the skills required for membership of the Guilds that flourished during this period.
Whether these should be considered as schools in the way we interpret the concept of schooling nowadays is arguable, since these institutions were concerned more with the training of apprentices into a particular craft than with the provision of an education as we might understand it.
Before the 1870 Forster Education Act, therefore, education was clearly class-stratified both in terms of provision and access. However, it's clear such establishments did serve an educational / training function in relation to the learning of various economic skills and trades.