Protestant Sunday schools began in Britain in the 18th century as a response to conditions created by the Industrial Revolution. Education was not available to a large portion of the population and many children worked long hours in factories, mills, and other industrial settings. Sunday was the only free time that many children had.

Some English churches began to offer schooling on a Sunday, teaching working children the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic, using the medium of the Bible and other religious literature. Sunday schools soon spread throughout the whole of the United Kingdom.

Interest in education was particularly strong in the Scottish church and Scottish settlers brought this tradition with them when they migrated to New Zealand. The shipping inventories of the vessels bringing the first Free Church settlers to Otago in 1848 included lists of exercise books, slates, maps, text books and other materials for setting up a school on arrival.

As the 19th century progressed, a wider range of schools appeared and the Education Act of 1877 provided for free primary education for all New Zealand children. By this time the Sunday schools had mostly moved away from their origins to focus solely on religious education and teaching. They were well attended and it is estimated that by 1900, two-thirds of New Zealand children went to Sunday school, even those whose parents were not regular church attenders. Many Sunday schools also offered additional activities such as picnics and excursions, and scripture examinations with prizes.

The story of the Sunday school in New Zealand is well illustrated by an example from Dunedin. In 1875 Dunedin’s First Church began a Sunday school in Russell Street, a poorer area on a rise above the central city. The lessons here were taken mainly by parishioners from First Church, including Helen Nicol, who later became an important suffragist. She described how her experiences teaching there first made her aware of the effects of poverty within her community. The Session of First Church in 1882 described the work at Russell Street as “for the purpose of reaching those who are not in the habit of attending the ordinary places of worship”.

By 1883 there were 245 children on the roll of the Russell Street Sunday School - 100 boys and 145 girls - taught by 24 teachers. Along with the Sunday school lessons there were prayer meetings, singing classes and a library. Among the most popular activities were the social gatherings and excursions which happened several times a year and could include concerts and train trips. The Sunday School Annual Report of 1882 highlighted their importance, maintaining that they “teach the children that Christians can enjoy themselves with as much pleasure as the worldly appear to and that religion does not wish its members to be gloomy and morose, but happy and joyous …”

The 1883 Report did state that there had been complaints about the “pell mell way of getting in and out of conveyances” on the way to an excursion that year.

By the early 20th century activities at Russell Street had extended to older age groups, with Bible Class groups for young men and women and the Haere mai Group for girls, which offered a variety of activities, including “physical culture” classes, such as calisthenics and basketball (netball).

From the 1950s onwards, the Sunday school at Russell Street steadily declined, but the refurbished Sunday School Hall (now a private home) stills stands as a reminder of this chapter in the lives of the children of one of Dunedin’s less privileged communities.