BRAMCOTE

SOCIAL HISTORY

EDUCATION

Before 1870

In 1743 there were no schools in Bramcote.[1] In 1787 Sarah Moore, a school mistress, lived and taught school in the house of Luke Hucknall the elder of Bramcote.[2] In 1832 Miss Mary Lindley had a boarding academy in Bramcote.[3] In 1835 there were two daily schools, one containing 13 males and 12 females; the other (commenced in 1833) 13 males and 11 females; and one boarding school with 16 females; these children were all instructed at the expense of their parents. One Sunday School, consisting of 39 boys, and the same number of girls, was supported by Dissenters.[4]

Bramcote National School (Mixed)

The National School was built in 1836. In 1844 the school had a master and a mistress for the girls.[5] The building was on Town Street on the same side as, and just below, Chapel Street.[6]

In 1863 the school had a schoolroom about 35 x 16 feet and a classroom about 13 x 16 feet and two staff, a master and a mistress. There were 87 children on the books, 50 boys and 37 girls, of whom only one boy was over the age of twelve. The school’s income was £58, of which £31 came from school pence. The Sunday school had 91 children on its books, of whom 55 were boys. The vicar and schoolmaster also held classes on two nights a week for boys and one for girls, with 9 boys and 10 girls on the books. [7] The Inspector’s report for the same year shows that the general efficiency was good but only fair for the lower class’s writing and arithmetic. The school’s buildings were in good order, its fittings were complete and it was well supplied with books and apparatus, but it had no playground.[8]

BETWEEN 1870 AND 1903

Bramcote National School (Mixed)

In 1872 shows that the school could accommodate 105 children although it had only 76 on its roll;[9] one year later it had 125 children on its roll and plans for a new school for 200 children had been approved.[10] However, that plan seems to have been abandoned as the existing school was extended in 1874 to make the schoolroom about 49 x 16 feet and the classroom about 15 x 16 feet.[11]

On 5 May 1884 the vicar stated that the school accommodation required by the Education Department would be provided by voluntary effort and that building would start shortly. Three days later HMI condemned the premises. In August plans were submitted for a new school to accommodate about 160 pupils.[12] In 1885 the new school building with accomodation for 160 pupils was built and endowed by Mrs Sherwin Gregory.[13] The new school had three rooms: a large room about 45 x 19 feet, an infant room about 27 x 19 feet and a class room about 18 x 14 feet.[14] The new school was also on Town Street, but higher up and on the oposite side of the road, a short distance below Church Street.[15] In 2013 the new school building was still standing and was occupied as a nursery school. The old school building was pulled down in 1917.[16]

BETWEEN 1903 AND 1944

Bramcote Public Elementary School (Mixed)

In 1903 Bramcote National school became a public elementary school.

In 1904 correspondence regarding an endowment attached to the school discussed its value, returns and origins, which then amounted to £311 14s. 6d., producing £8 5s. annually, but the origins were unclear.[17]

In 1911 the Inspector reported the head to be ‘in indifferent health’, which had been responsible for some slight falling off in certain respects.[18]

Bramcote Church of England Public Elementary School (Mixed)

By 1922, Bramcote public elementary school had become the Bramcote Church of England public elementary school.[19]

In 1926 it was reported that ‘The headmaster has considerable artistic and constructive ability which he is anxious to use in the service of the children under his care. His efforts, however, lack purposeful direction, and the absence of a well-considered policy adversely affects the work of the whole school.’[20] In 1932 the school was criticised for the inadequate and poor quality of the books, the quality of the teaching, the grading of the work and the appearance of the rooms.[21] When the school was visited in 1934, for various reasons, including staff absences, it was passing through a difficult period. The past year has been more successful and credit was due for the improvement that has taken place. Certain weaknesses remained, some of which were well known to the headmaster and were dealt with in his terminal reports. But there was plenty of evidence that ‘with a continuance of the present effort and a rather more detailed planning of the work’, a very satisfactory standard could be reached, notwithstanding the fact that some of the children were said to be difficult cases.[22]

In 1938 it was reported that ‘The infants in Standard I make satisfactory progress. However, the three junior and three senior standards all shared another room and the work of the junior classes was less satisfactory and the senior children are receiving something less than an adequate preparation for life.’[23]

SINCE 1944

Primary Schools

Bramcote Church of England (Aided) primary school (mixed)

After 1944, the Church school became the Bramcote Church of England (Aided) primary school. In 1979 the school moved to a new site and building on Hanley Avenue, where it remained in 2013.[24]

Bramcote Hills educational campus

In 1947 the compulsory purchase of 70 acres of the Bramcote Hills Estate by the county education committee enabled a campus to be planned which would contain a number of new schools including a secondary modern boys school (1948), a technical school (1956), a grammar school (1958) and a primary school (1960).[25]

Bramcote Hills County Primary School, Moor Lane (Mixed)

The school opened on 2 May 1960 with 46 infants. The building was designed to accommodate 160 pupils aged between 5 and 11. There were four classrooms and a craft space.[26] In April 1963 it was proposed to extend the school to cater for an additional 80 children (two new classrooms, toilets and cloakroom, and dining space). The extension was opened in September 1964.[27]

Secondary Schools

Bramcote Hills County Secondary School (Boys)

This was the first new secondary modern school to be opened in Nottinghamshire after the passing of the 1944 Education Act. The site of 17.9 acres was part of the 70-acre campus acquired for future development in this area. The school, opened in 1948, was designed to accomodate 450 boys drawn from Stapleford Church Street, Chilwell Meadow Lane and Beeston Fields county schools. 232 boys transferred from Church Street secondary modern school in Stapleford, together with 197 from a wider area. After the boys from Church Street, a mixed secondary school, had transferred to Bramcote, the girls, including those from Bramcote, remained at the Stapleford school. The new school had ten general purpose classrooms, two woodwork rooms, science room, art room, metalwork room, geography room, light craft room, and music room, together with adjoining stores for each classroom. The official opening took place in September 1949. In June 1951 there were 473 on the roll. This number was expected to rise to over 500 from September 1951.[28] In 1953 the head stated that on average 30 boys each year secured admission to grammar school as late developers or to various city technical schools, proving that good progress was being made. In the same year Chilwell and Attenborough were transferred from the school’s catchment area to that of Beeston Fields.[29] In 1955 the northern part of Chilwell was returned to the school’s catchment area.[30] The roll reached a peak of 588 in 1959, 100 more than the school had originally been designed for, after which it declined due to the opening of the Alderman White secondary modern school.[31] By 1963 the school was one of three secondary schools on the same campus, the others being the mixed technical school and the grammar school. In that year the catchment area was Bramcote, Trowell and Stapleford. The school could have catered for well over 100 more pupils than the 294 then on its roll. The school had 15 teachers plus the head and deputy head. There were two streams for each of four years and one upper and one remedial form. Only a small minority of pupils wore a school uniform.[32]

In September 1978 the school became Bramcote Park comprehensive school.[33]

Bramcote Park Comprehensive School (Mixed)

Bramcote Park comprehensive school, formerly known as Bramcote Hills secondary school, was opened in September 1978 with 697 pupils on its roll.[34] In September 1979 the school had 760 pupils with 174 admissions that year.[35]

In September 1984 the Parkview sixth-form centre opened as a joint centre for The Park School and Bramcote Hills. It was situated in the ‘upper school’ buildings of the Bramcote Hills complex.[36]

On 16 October 1994 a fire destroyed buildings worth over £1½ million. A number of temporary classrooms were used while the buldings were restored or rebuilt, and the school was officially reopened by David Blunket MP on 24 January 1997.[37]

From September 2000 Parkview sixth-form centre ceased to be part of Bramcote Park Comprehensive School.[38] In 2004 Bramcote Park comprehensive school became Bramcote Park business and enterprise school.[39]

Bramcote Park Business and Enterprise School

Bramcote Park Business and Enterprise School, formerly known as Bramcote Park Comprehensive School, was opened in 2004. In 2007 it became part of the White Park Hills Federation.[40]

Bramcote Hills County Secondary Technical School (Mixed)

In 1956, prior to the opening of the school, which was planned for September that year, and the opening of the grammar school, which was scheduled for September 1957, it was intended to use the technical school’s premises to accommodate nine forms of technical pupils (4: 11+, 3: 12+ and 2: 13+) and six forms of grammar pupils (4: 11+ and 2: 12+). The 12+ and 13+ technical pupils would be transferred from Carlton le Willows grammar school. It was intended that the grammar pupils would move to the new school in September 1957 and that each school would then have a four-form intake.[41]

Bramcote Hills county seconday technical school was opened in 1956. In November 1963 the school was a four-form entry mixed school with 612 pupils on roll (291 boys and 321 girls), including 57 in the sixth form. The building was designed for 600 pupils. Staff consisted of a head plus 32 teachers. There was some anxiety as there were only nine women teachers. Meals were cooked and served on the premises. There was a hall with a small stage, gymnasium and changing rooms, dining room and kitchen, library, 16 classrooms, two workshops for woodwork and one each for metalwork and engineering, technical drawing office, needlecraft room, two housecraft rooms, art room, light craft room, four laboratories and a greenhouse. Staff lavatories and pupils’ cloakrooms were insufficient. Heating in the gymnasium and changing rooms seemed to be inadequate. There was no hot water supply in the art rooms. A workbench, water supply and additional lighting was required in greenhouse.[42] At about the same time, the county education committee renamed the school ‘The Bramcote Hills County Technical Grammar School’, along with other similar schools, to indicate clearly that it was a selective secondary school and also to avoid confusion between the two selective schools on the Bramcote Campus.[43]

In 1973 the school merged with Bramcote Hills county grammar school. The merged schools retained the name Bramcote Hills county grammar school.[44]

Bramcote Hills County Grammar School (Mixed)

Bramcote Hills county grammar school was informally opened in September 1957 by temporarily sharing the premises to be used by the Bramcote Hills county secondary technical school.[45]

In 1958 the school’s own premises became available and the school was formally opened on 15 November by J. W. P. Garrett, headmaster of Bristol Grammar School. The school was the third to be erected on the Bramcote Hills Campus and was sited on the eastern part of the area, sharing access from Moor Lane with the secondary technical school. The accomodation was designed for an eventual total of 720 pupils.The buildings at that time constituted a three-form entry instalment of a four-form entry school, designed for 540 pupils with a sixth form of 90 children. The accomodation provided for fourteen general purpose classrooms and four division rooms, the classrooms having been planned in a central two storey block. The two practical wings contained science laboratories, housecraft, light craft and art rooms, temporary woodwork and metalwork rooms. In addition there was a library, small dining area, entrance and assembly halls, gymnasium and administrative unit. The second phase of constuction was scheduled to include four additional classrooms and two science laboratories, together with a second gymnasium.[46]

In May 1964 there were 655 pupils on the roll (including 105 in the sixth form). The building had now reached its capacity of 720. The pupils were drawn entirely from Beeston and Stapleford. There were 37 full-time staff. School meals were cooked and served in two sittings on the premises. The Inspector reported there were some difficulties in heating several parts of the building. Covering of a paved space would provide an extension to a craft room for carving and plaster work. There was a need for more safety at the school entrance, for example a large gate or a separate entrance for cars.[47]

In 1973 Bramcote Hills county technical grammar school and Bramcote Hills county grammar school were merged and retained the name Bramcote Hills county grammar school.[48] In 1978, the Bramcote Hills county grammar school became the Bramcote Hills comprehensive school.[49]