Thakeham: Education

EDUCATION.

There was a school in the parish between 1586 (fn. 1) and 1626, (fn. 2) but it had lapsed by 1640. (fn. 3) In 1662 a poor woman was teaching two or three children to spell. (fn. 4) A school at the workhouse was recorded in 1815 (fn. 5) and in 1818, when c. 40 children were taught. Another school was then attended by 12 children. (fn. 6) No school existed in 1833. (fn. 7) In 1846-7 there was a Sunday school with a master paid out of subscriptions, attended by 24 boys and 16 girls. Children then went to work at 13. (fn. 8) The Sunday school may have been that whose mistress lived in Thakeham Street in 1851, (fn. 9) and which made no return in 1871; Thakeham children then went to school in West Chiltington, Storrington, and Sullington. (fn. 10) The Sunday school was again recorded in 1878 and 1884, (fn. 11) and a Quaker Sunday school was being held at the Blue Idol from c. 1891. (fn. 12)

A school board was formed in 1874, (fn. 13) and in 1875 a school was built and opened in Thakeham Street for 92 children. It included a schoolroom for juniors, a classroom for infants, and a teacher's house attached. The children paid scaled fees. Initially 50 children were admitted; early in 1876 average attendance was 40 juniors and 13 to 14 infants. (fn. 14) Attendance fluctuated between 48 and 58 until the early 1930s, but by 1938 had fallen to 35. (fn. 15) In 1939 the school had an influx of evacuees from south London and Surrey, and the parish room was adapted for the infants' department during the Second World War. (fn. 16) The children on the roll of the school, renamed Thakeham county primary school, numbered 52 in 1947 and 58 in 1949; in 1955 the parish room was again taken over for the infants. (fn. 17) In 1975 there were 51 children on the roll. (fn. 18) By 1978 the school had become Thakeham First school. (fn. 19) It was still open in 1981.

The mixed Storrington council senior school, later Storrington county secondary school, was built on the site of the union workhouse and opened in 1940 with 213 children on the roll. (fn. 20) It had been extended by 1949, (fn. 21) and in 1952 was renamed Rydon county secondary school and further extended. (fn. 22) Several minor improvements were made between 1954 and 1961, (fn. 23) when 418 children were on the roll. (fn. 24) By 1968 the roll had declined to 328, and in the following year the school became an intermediate mixed school. (fn. 25) There were 441 children on the roll in 1980. (fn. 26)