Before the Education Act of 1902 the training of teachers was largely carried out under a pupil-teacher system, first established in 1846, but after the Elementary Education Act 1870 their instruction was undertaken at separate establishments called pupil-teacher centres, run by local school boards, with teaching practice at their elementary schools.
Pupil-teachers were prepared for the Queen's/King's Scholarship Examination........Successful Queen's (King's) scholars had the opportunity of attending training colleges for 2 or 3 years. These were residential colleges, mostly Church of England, run by voluntary societies with some government subsidy and modelled on Battersea Normal School. Building grants for training colleges were authorised by Privy Council Minutes of 1843 and 1844. The Church of England founded many Diocesan Teachers Training Colleges as early as the 1840s.

(See National Archives Leaflet 110 for further details of available records for teachers.

There are several Research Guides from The National Archives giving an excellent overview of the history of education in this country. Also look under keywords 'educational history' and 'schools'.

• UK Schools & Colleges Database: provides information on more than 31,000 UK state and independent Schools and Colleges, and over 29,000 UK School, College and University websites (as of June 2016).
• MissingAncestors.com (archived copy) - contains information on staff and students at Industrial/Reformatory Schools & the like during the 19th and early 20th century.
• Anguline Research Archives (archived copy) produce CDs of a number of major public school registers.
• Universities: Brief biographical details of graduates of Cambridge or Oxford Universities are provided in either Alumni Cantabrigienses by JA Venn or  Alumni Oxonienses : the Members of the University of Oxford, by Joseph Foster, respectively, which are particularly useful for C of E ministers.  They are available in various forms:
  • Hard copies are held by many public libraries, including Reading Central Library.  
  • Cambridge Alumni Database free online from Cambridge University.  See also their research guide. 
  • Alumni Oxonienses: The Members of the University of Oxford, 1500-1714 and 1715-1886 free from Internet Archive.  
  • Online subscription access from Ancestry:  Oxford University Alumni, 1500-1886  and  Cambridge University Alumni, 1261-1900.