page_title: Bishop Horden Memorial School
section_title: Education
hierarchical_section_title: Bishop Horden Memorial School / Education
caption_attribution_description: English: Cree children from Bishop Horden Hall (Moose Factory Indian Residential School) attend service at St. Thomas Anglican Church, January, 1946
context_page_description: Bishop Horden Hall, also known as Bishop Horden Memorial School and Horden Hall, was a residential school that operated from 1906 until 1976 on Moose Factory Island, at the southern end of James Bay, at the bottom of Hudson Bay, in northern Ontario.
  During its 70 years, Horden Hall was known by nine names and operated out of several different buildings.
  Bishop Horden Hall is the name used for the school in the 2006 Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, in which the Government of Canada acknowledged the damage done to Indigenous people who attended residential schools, and established a $1.9-billion compensation package to compensate them for the harms they suffered.
  Between 1906 and 1927, an average of 25 children lived at the school. Residency peaked between 1957 and 1958, with 251 children. When the school closed in 1976, there were 107 children living there.
context_section_description: For most of its history, the school taught Grades 1 to 8. From 1948-1950 and 1952-1959, it also taught kindergarten.
  The Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that as educational institutions, the residential schools were failures, and much of what went on in classrooms was simply repetitive drill. The teachers were hired by the Church, which placed a greater priority on religious commitment than on teaching ability, and because the pay was so low, many lacked qualifications. An oral history of Horden Hall survivors found that most didn't have strong memories of their teachers, and didn't consider them "significant adults" in their lives.
  Because Indian Affairs wanted the schools to be self-sufficient, children were expected to raise or grow and prepare most of the food they ate, to make and repair most of their own clothing, and to maintain the school buildings. Until the 1950s, children at Horden Hall spent only half their day in classes, and the other half working. Boys worked in the gardens and barns, and in the bush cutting firewood, and girls cooked, cleaned, and did laundry.
  The school put a heavy emphasis on religion. A survivor who was at the school in the 1960s remembers "prayers in the morning, prayers at breakfast, prayers after breakfast, prayers before lunch, prayers at lunch, prayers after lunch, prayers before supper, prayers at supper, prayers after supper, and prayers before we went to bed." Children at Horden Hall were required to attend two religious services each Sunday.
caption: Cree children from Bishop Horden Hall attend service at St. Thomas' Anglican Church in Moose Factory Island, in 1946
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