St. Edmund's National School, Salisbury

St. Edmund's National School, Salisbury
Date of image
2003
Date uploaded
25 October 2007
Number of views
778
Number of comments
0
Location of image
Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre, Chippenham
Notes

A St. Edmund's school, in association with the National Society existed in 1815 but by 1818 it was only a Sunday school. It had become a day school again by 1835 when there were 69 boys and 49 girls attending. By 1859 the boys were being taught at other schools in the city and 70 girls were taught in a building attached to the church. In 1860 the church, in union with the National Society, built a new school for boys and girls to the west of the church. The new school was a success and was used as a practising school for the Diocesan Training College. The school had eight classrooms of which seven were in use in 1870; two for boys, two for girls and three for infants, with 509 children on the school books but with an average attendance of only 345. Children paid between one penny and fourpence a week while 46 children attended night school at twopence a week.

Alterations to the school buildings in 1896 increased the accommodation from 574 to 675 places and the attendance in 1905 was 490 with 172 boys, 162 girls and 156 infants. The school received good reports in the early years of the 20th century. The average attendance was 336 in 1926 when re-organization of education in the city changed the school into one for 350 senior girls, aged 11 and over, from the parochial schools. In 1944, under the Education Act of that year, the school became a secondary modern and was known as