Roade
Primary School
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image for full size version)
As a result of the Education
Act of 1870, the School was purpose built and was opened in
1876. It is a mixed rural primary school for children in the
4-11 age group and is maintained by the Northamptonshire Education
Authority. It is part of the Roade Comprehensive School cluster.
The buildings consist of the original
Victorian block containing two classrooms, and a main block
built in 1971 and further extended in 1996. There are a large
playground with two netball pitches, a school field, and the
use of an adjoining field with a football pitch and other
games facilities. The grounds also include a pond with a wild-life
area and a garden used as a quiet area.
An after-school club (Roadesters)
operates in the school hall from 3.15 to 6 pm every day during
the school term. There is also a thriving pre-school playgroup
on the premises for children from 2 years and 9 months; it
is independent of the School. The School is also strongly
supported by the Friends of Roade Primary School (FORPS),
an association of parents, staff and friends.
Roade Primary School
- 125 years of educating our children
Before 1870 education was not available to everybody.
The wealthy had the big public schools. The middle classes
had the endowed grammar schools and the dames' schools. The
working classes - adults and children - had to rely on a sparse
number of charitable schools, or on the Sunday schools started
by Robert Raikes and Revd.
Thomas Stocks in Gloucester in 1780.
There are reports
of early schools in Roade. The 1818 Education Returns show
that Roade had a population of 428 (with the Revd T. Butlin
of Butlin's Lane fame as perpetual curate) and state "The
poorer classes have the privilege of sending their children
to a school at Courteenhall, about a mile distant." It
is not clear whether this was The Old Grammar School at Courteenhall,
which building is still in occasional use. According to the
Education Returns for 1833, there were Sunday schools at both
the parish church (40 children) and the Baptist church (140
children), "supported by subscription". Then in
1836 Mrs Wake, the wife of the Rector of Courteenhall, opened
an infants school in Roade. In 1849 this developed into a
church sponsored school, which was officially recognised by
the National Schools Society. At times, there were also evening
classes for adults. Generally, schools in the village itself
did not last long because of financing problems.
The Elementary
Education Act of 1870 set up schools throughout the country
for children aged 5 to 13. The schools were to be run by elected
school boards (as in Roade) or by managers appointed by the
local Church of England (as in Hartwell and Ashton). They
could be paid for out of a local rate or by charging parents
according to what they could pay.
The Education
Department calculated that places were needed in Roade for
114 children. The existing rented schoolroom in Church End
was too small and in poor condition, so Roade Primary School
was built on land bought from the Duke of Grafton, and the
School Board was set up in January 1876. The original building,
still in use, included a schoolroom and a schoolmaster's house,
linked by a single storey board room. A bell above the School
was rung to hurry scholars to classes; it now hangs inside
the main entrance to the newer buildings, and is rung by a
pupil when a new sibling is born in that family.
The Education
Act 1880 said that fees (if charged) should not be more than
9d (about 4p) per week and that children could leave school
at 10 if they could read and write adequately - or if they
had a good attendance record. Then in 1891 a new Act said
that all elementary education should be free to the children.
By 1893 the school roll had almost doubled. The Grafton estate
gave a further strip of land on the Memorial Green side of
the School so that the original building could be extended
(the part marked "Boys" and "Infants"
as seen from Hartwell Road). It could now accommodate 100
infants and 100 older children - in two classrooms!
Free secondary
education to the age of 14 was made available by the Act of
1902 (though it did not become compulsory until 1918). This
Act also meant that the County Council took over from the
Board of Management in running the School. There was some
renovation of the School in 1919 but water closets were not
installed until 1923, electric light in 1926, and central
heating in 1930.
In 1939 about
100 children from West Kilburn in London were evacuated to
Roade. At first they and the local children were taught half-time,
in shifts. Later, all available space in the village, including
The Institute (behind Warwick House) and a room at the George
Inn, was rented in order to house classes made up from both
sets of children. There was also pressure on space because
a nursery class was created; this was to free more women to
enter the work force, particularly at the greatly expanded
factory at Pianoforte Supplies.
Most evacuees gradually returned home. By 1944, all the children
were being taught in the School itself, and at the end of
the war there were only about 80 pupils. However numbers increased
again as houses were built in the village, and peaked at 325
in 1974.
A surprising
amount of legislation for social reform went through Parliament
during World War II. Among it was the Education Act 1944 which
would make education compulsory for children aged 5 to 15,
while young adults up to the age of 18 were to go to part-time
classes if not in employment. The school leaving age was raised
to 15 in 1947 and to 16 in 1973. Schools throughout the country
had difficulty in finding space for these additional children
and many had HORSA (Hutting Operation for the Raising of the
School-leaving Age) huts in the playground. The ones in Roade
were installed on a temporary basis in 1949 - and removed
only in 1996 when the Lineham Block (opened by Glenys Kinnock)
was built.
In 1953, the
School was renamed Roade Primary and Secondary Modern Council
School and children were transferred there from Ashton and
from Hartwell at the age of 11. However by 1954, class sizes
approached 40 and the managers at Roade resisted pressure
from the Local Education Authority to take still more children
from those villages. The opening of Roade Secondary Modern
School (as it was then called) in Stratford Road in September
1956 took much of the pressure off all the primary schools
in the newly organised cluster.
By 1962 there
had already been large-scale building of council housing in
the village and now further housing schemes were planned.
In 1964 the LEA proposed to rebuild the Primary School completely,
eventually replacing the original Victorian block This would
give an assembly hall (for the first time), new classrooms
and indoor lavatories. The new buildings were opened in 1971,
but the Victorian block was retained. It was refurbished in
1996 and then in 1999 the schoolmaster's house (which had
been extended over the board room in 1957 so that it could
be used as a home for the site manager) was converted to classrooms
and storage areas.
In 2000, the
Department for Education and Employment laid out the requirements
for the Foundation Stage of Education for ages 3 to 6. In
2001, the play group from St Mary's was transferred to the
school as the Bumble Bees Pre-school Group and a suitable
outdoor area adjacent to the Lineham Block was set up. No
further construction is expected at this present time, but
upgrading within the existing buildings continues.
The first headteacher
was John Brown. He was succeeded in 1879 by James Elden, who
stayed until his retirement in 1922. Until her death in 1912,
his wife taught the infants. Elden established a school garden
in 1907, woodworking classes for boys (held in the Methodist
"barn" across the road) in 1911 and cookery for
older girls in 1917. The next headteacher was R.W. Janes (1922
- 1934) and the School won the County Gardening Shield almost
every year from 1923 to 1931; they were fourth in 1927, but
only because of a handicapping system. Janes also introduced
music and again the School was very successful in competitions.
This success, particularly in singing, continued under the
next headteacher, Joe Maxwell (1934 - 1951).
The emphasis
switched to sport with the next headteacher, Mr. Harper (1951
- 1965) and many shields were won. The School was also very
successful in gaining places at Towcester Grammar School (now
Sponne School). Mr Collins was headteacher for one term in
1965 and then Mr McGregor took over. During his time (1965
- 1977) the hall and new classrooms were built. He was succeeded
by Brian Tyrrell (1977 - 1990) and he in turn by Clive Geddes
(1990 - 2000). During this period, the Lineham Block was built
and the new classroom constructed in the schoolhouse. Graham
Frost then acted as headteacher for one term, until Helen
Hollwey took on the position in January 2001.
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