Education in Kempston Rural
For the history of education before 1846 please see the page for early education in Kempston|
1846-1870
In 1846/7 the Church of England made an enquiry as to all its church schools. This was against the background of a new Whig government which championed secular education and the increasing importance of nonconformists, particularly Wesleyan Methodist, and Roman Catholics in providing schools. A new National School had just been opened, in 1844, next to the church in Church End, in what is now Kempston Rural, and the return for Kempston noted a Sunday School for 168 boys and 97 girls, a Dame's daily School for 9 boys and 9 girls and a daily school for 73 boys and 61 girls. Additionally, the comment was made: "An Infant schoolroom is wanted, as the present school, though near the church, is nearly two miles from the great mass of the population". The Bedfordshire Directory of 1853 notes of the new school that it had cost £545 and been built with grants of £130 by the Privy Council, £105 from the National Society, £40 from the Bedfordshire Diocesan Board of Education and £270 being raised by private subscriptions: "It is an excellent building and capable of holding 200 children. There are schools for boys, girls and infants. The site was given by the Rev.Henry Clutterbuck".
Rev.W.P.Warburton inspected the boys' class at Church End National School finding 44 present and: "Religious knowledge fairly satisfactory. Organization, four classes, under master and monitors. Discipline very fair. Internal arrangements fair. Books &c. plentiful supply. Methods, the boys repeat their lessons in a drawling monotonous manner, but the character of the instruction is by no means unsatisfactory". He also wanted to visit the girls' class, but: "The girls' school is called a "sewing, reading and writing school". The children meeting only in the afternoon on Tuesday and Thursday, and attending the whole of Saturday, I had no opportunity of forming an opinion as to the manner in which the school was conducted, as my visit took place in the forenoon". He also observed 40 infants, noting: "The infant school is nicely conducted".
1870-1903
The first Education Act was passed in 1870 (more correctly it was known as the Elementary Education Act). It was a milestone in the provision of education in Britain demonstrating central government's unequivocal support for education of all classes across the country. It also sought to secularise education by allowing the creation of School Boards. These were groups of representatives, elected by the local ratepayers and the Board had the powers to raise funds to form a local rate to support local education, build and run schools, pay the fees of the poorest children, make local school attendance compulsory between the ages of 5 and 13 and could even support local church schools, though in practice they replaced them, turning them into Board run schools (known as Board Schools). Naturally, and luckily for local historians, the Act required a questionnaire of local schools in 1870. The Kempston return included two schools in the urban part of Kempston as well as Church End National School, which was described as an Infant School accommodating 185 children, this implies that infants from both urban and rural parts of Kempston attended school here whilst the older children went to the newer schools at Up End and in Bedford Road, unless the description as an Infant School was a slip of the pen. It is known that children from Kempston Rural were attending Bromham Free School in the 1880s.
A School Board was formed in Kempston in 1876 leading the National School to re-styled a Board School. However, religious instruction was not forgotten, the School Board rules stating: "Hymns and prayers are used, and the Bible is read, with comment thereon".
In 1889 a new head-teacher observed ‘I find that the teachers have never been shown different methods of teaching and therefore are totally at a loss to teach in anything but one way, whether that way succeeds or fails.’ [SDKempstonRural1/1]. Church End Board School was renamed Kempston Rural Board School in 1895 when the urban and rural parts of the ancient parish of Kempston were split into two different parishes.
Kempston School from the church tower c.1920 [Z50/67/28a]
1903-1944
A land mark Education Act was passed in 1902, coming into effect in 1903. It disbanded the School Boards and gave day to day running of education to newly formed Local Education Authorities, usually the county council, as in Bedfordshire. The old Board Schools thus became Council Schools whilst the old National, British and other non-Board schools became known as Public Elementary Schools. Kempston Rural duly became Kempston Rural Council School.
Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service has a scrapbook of cuttings of visits made to most Bedfordshire Schools by School Inspectors for a period from just before the First World War through the inter-war years [E/IN1/1]. The first inspection in the scrapbook was in 1910, when "The work of this school has deteriorated since the last report was made and now, as a whole, reaches but a fair level of efficiency. There is a marked level of interest on the part of the children, the teaching does not sufficiently rouse them t oeffort and the discipline is lax. In the Infant Class the teaching is not sufficiently definite in aim, and the attainments of the children shouyld be much higher. the teaching of this class needs assistance with the youngest children". In the margin is noted: "The Managers should be requested to report specifically to the Education Committee upon the contents of this report". The headmaster responsible for this state of affairs was Edwin Storr.
In the next year, when average attendance was 102, the inspector found improvements in the Junior department but felt that more had to be made "before the school will be in a really satisfactory state", reading, composition and arithmetic all being weak. As for the Infants: "The Infants' Teacher has not long been in charge. She found the class in a very unsatisfactory state and appears to have done her best to raise the level of efficiency; already there are signs of improvement".
By 1921 average attendance was down to 91 but: "A marked improvement in both attainment and tone has been made in all sections of this school since the present Head Teacher [Charles C.Crouch] was appointed". By 1924 the number attending had fallen still further to 84 but: "This school now has a thoroughly good tone, and much of the work is quite satisfactory. The Head Teacher's interest in all that is for the good of the children is very manifest, and on the whole the improvement noted since the last Report has been very well maintained. Epidemic Sickness, involving unsatisfactory attendance, has been prevalent at various times during the past twelve or fifteen months; but for this circumstance it is probable that progress would have been even greater than it is. The best subject is Physical Training which is very good indeed". It is interesting that the school at Bromham had had poor attendance during this same period due to measles. There was an underlying downward trend in numbers, however, for ten years later, the next recorded inspection noted an average attendance of only 45 and reported: "This Junior School, wose numbers have fallen considerably, is very well conducted". The inspector noted, somewhat critically: "Writing varies; there are a few children with not much control, but it is very free from smudges, and the best are capable of neat, clear, writing". He went on: "Speech work is careful and the beginning of Dramatic work and Reading in the Infants' Section leads on to quite good work in the Upper Room, where this side of the work is helped by a small, but growing, children's library which is evidently well patronised". He ended by saying: "Both the Teachers are doing their work very well".
The final report in the scrapbook dates to 1935 and 1937: "At the earlier of these two visits the school was found to be somewhat unsatisfactory in the following particulars: - Suitability of Schemes; Needlework; and speech work of all kinds. Suggestions were made, and at the second visit some improvement was noted. The points put before the Head Teacher for further consideration were
1. A better arrangement for the midday meal, for which several children remain in school.
2. Pictorial records for History and Geography work.
3. Further improvement in the standard of Needlework.
It is hoped that the improvement already noted will be maintained, and enhanced".
At the beginning of World War Two children were evacuated to Bedfordshire from a number of parts of East London as well as some of the channel town such as Eastbourne. The Kempston Rural school admission register shows that most children were evacuated from Walthamstow but there were also a handful from districts such as Hackney, Plumstead and Tottenham. [SDKempstonRural2/1]
There was some disagreement as to whether the local and evacuated children should be taught together. August 1st 1940 ‘Mrs Lock (School inspector) visited to take particulars with reference to Air Raid Precautions and the position of the evacuated school. She expressed her view against the proposal of amalgamation. H.E. Baines Director of Education called in with reference to the same matter. He is in favour of the amalgamation.’ There is no record of the decision in the logbook. [SDKempstonRural1/3]
1944 to date
The third of the great Education Acts was that of 1944 which established the principle of County Primary Schools for children up to the age of 11, at which time they took an examination to determine the nature of the secondary school they would attend until they were 15, the most academically able going to grammar schools, the rest to secondary or secondary modern schools. Kempston Rural thus became a County Primary School.
In the 1970s Bedfordshire County Council introduced comprehensive education, doing away with the 11+ examination and grammar schools and introducing a tier of school between the old County Primary and County Secondary Schools. Thus Lower Schools now taught children aged 4 to 9, Middle Schools from 9 to 13 and Upper Schools from 13 onwards. Kempston Rural became a Lower School.
Kempston Rural Lower School July 2007
Sources
- STuncat591 and CRT130Kem24: deeds: 1844-1929;
- P60/8/2: minutes regarding stone wall round schools: 1844;
- P60/1/5: notes on erection of schools and list of subscribers etc.: 1845;
- AD3865/22: plans of original school: 1845;
- BD1259: detailed letter regarding school: c.1860s;
- X254/76: printed report on school: 1862;
- AD3865/22: plans of alterations: 1871;
- SDKempstonRural1/1: school logbook: 1871-1897;
- SDKempstonRural1/2: school logbook: 1897-1920;
- Z933/1: copy photograph of Class Two: 1903;
- E/TE5/1: details of teachers: 1904-1908;
- E/TE5/2: details of teachers: 1908-1912;
- E/IN1/1: inspector's reports: 1910-1937;
- SDKempstonRural1/3: school logbook: 1920-1947;
- SDKempstonRural2/1: admissions register: 1920-1963;
- SDKempstonRural3/1: monthly report book: 1941-1950;
- PCKempstonRural26/1: details of water supply: 1959-1975;
- Bedfordshire Magazine Vol.XII p.110: photograph: 1960s;
- CA8/441: building maintenance file: 1968-1978;
- CA8/213: building maintenance - alterations to form staff room: 1970-1971;
- PCKempstonRural26/2: correspondence regarding playground: 1971;
- CA2/559: building file - proposed replacement school: 1974-1975;
- SMM40/1: reports of school managers: 1974-1980;
- PCKempstonRural26/5: governors' reports: 1979-1992;
- CA10/25: installation of damp proof course: 1980;
- E/TE3/4: return of teaching staff: 1981;
- E/PM3/2/4: information on travellers' children at school: 1982-1987;
- E/PM6/2/4: school support for abolition of corporal punishment: 1985-1986;
- E/TE3/7: return of teaching staff: 1986;
- E/MS3/2/2: kitchen and other details: c.1987;
- E/TE2/2/L/44: details of school: 1988;
- CC/LE26: lease of 0.62 acres as playing field for school: 1993;
- E/Pu4/4/210: prospectus: 1995