Post-war Primaries

 The County Architects' Department produced the perfect solution, under the circumstances, for the post-war period.  It developed designs for schools of all kinds, based on a modular system with seemingly endless variations on a theme.  The system was great for the time, although not every efficient in today's world. In every part of the county we can spy plentiful examples of schools having an  intended design life of around thirty years still coping well more than twice as long.

One of the first of our post-war primaries, Windermere (1957), located on the northern boundary of
London Road estate.
COURTESY DIANA DEVEREUX

The demand for these modular buildings was significant.  A number of issues combined in the post-war years to strain, almost to breaking point, the budgets of a county department attempting to provide sufficient school places.  Firstly, the pre-war elementary conversion was not complete, and of course, little or no maintenance was  possible during the wartime period. The number of households had grown, though not the number of homes; the number of births grew during the course of the war, and a further increase during the early post-war years.  The authority was forced to plan for significant numbers of new places, without the benefit of a recent national census since 1931, and there was now a requirement for primary schools to be located within an easy walk from children's homes.

Camp School, saved by the size of the new post-war estate behind it and the numbers of young
families living nearby. 

The infants building was the first to arrive in Cell Barnes Lane; the junior school arriving a few years later.
COURTESY CUNNINGHAM JUNIOR SCHOOL

It is easier, with the post-war primary phase, to focus on three distinct east end communities: Camp, Fleetville and Marshalswick.  Camp School had opened in 1898, the first to be located in the expanded areas of St Albans since 1879.  By 1939 it was considered that Camp School had "had its day".  It was full, but it lacked modern facilities; in fact, it even lacked some of the most basic facilities.  Future estates were on the drawing board – and with them sites for new schools.  So the new schools would be built first and only then would Camp School be closed and demolished.  With a prompt start on house building of the early London Road estate, a rather inadequate opening up of the extremely narrow Windermere Avenue cul-de-sac meant that clusters of new homes were built nearby, on allotment land. It was inevitable that the first new estate school would be Windermere JMI (1957).  In Cell Barnes Lane, extending the former Springfield estate into the hub containing shops, flats and meeting places, was built Cunningham Infants School.  Ideally, the authority would have liked to confirm a future junior department too, but this was not possible until more land had been purchased.  Modern estates were required to include more public open space and land for any further school was unlikely to be found.  The Council bowed to the inevitable and retained Camp School, adding new facilities where possible.  And today, in 2022, Camp School remains a flourishing learning environment.

The 1913 original infants building at Fleetville.  From about 1948 the buildings, including the huts
and nearby nursery were overcrowded.

An example of a HORSA hut (Huts fOr the Raising of School Age).  Beaumont Schools had
three of them, paving the way for the secondary leaving age rising to 15.  The formative
Oakwood School used two classrooms in on of them for two years.

Oakwood JMI today.

COURTESY GOOGLE EARTH

Turning to Fleetville district, where the school was transformed from elementary to primary over a period of time, the peace years began  with two forms of entry in both infants and juniors, and in the mid fifties junior classes reached fifty or more children,  Use was made of  a classroom in the Royal Road nursery building as well as small groups in the former police station in Woodstock Road South. Plans were even made for an emergency conversion of at least one house in Burnham Road.  An active parents' association exerted pressure to reduce class sizes by opening a new school, and was disappointed not to have been given the larger buildings of the nearby Central school on two separate occasions in the 1950s, only succeeding in 1975.  Remembering that the authority had purchased land in Oakwood Drive during the 1930s, specifically for a future primary school, it put in place its "Fleetville Extension School".  Part of it was open in 1957 for infants (shortage of funds again), and temporarily two junior classes were provided with one of the HORSA (Huts fOr the Raising of School Age) buildings on nearby Beaumont's grounds.  Given its location the new school was, inevitably, named Oakwood.  Its catchment, however, has remained extensive, including Oaklands and parts of Sandpit Lane, in addition to an increasing number of infill homes in the district.

Skyswood JMI today.
COURTESY GOOGLE EARTH

The Wheatfields schools today.
COURTESY GOOGLE EARTH

An open air event at St John Fisher JMI.

COURTESY ST ALBANS LIFE

Apart from old Marshalswick, the new housing, which came to be known as the Nash estate from 1938 onwards, also included a considerable number of new homes in the 1950s.  But there were no local school places available nearby until 1960 when Skyswood JMI (Chandlers Road) opened. Until then children of primary age were allocated places at Sandridge School and Spencer Junior School, or Fleetville School – we've already explored its crowding issue above!  But one primary would never be enough for a large estate, and so Wheatfields School in Downes Road entered the building programme and opened in 1963.  As had occurred elsewhere, whenever more than two such schools were planned negotiations took place with voluntary organisations, usually churches.  The third Marshalswick primary therefore became St John Fisher JMI in Hazelmore Road, very close to Skyswood School.  

Samuel Ryder Academy all-through 4 to 19
COURTESY TG escapes

The greatest demand for primary places at large estates usually comes with the first flush of new families moving in.  After a while numbers of school age children stabilises and a variable number of spare places continues to be available.  So, when Jersey Farm was developed in the 1970s the decision was made not to include a school, as long as there were road and footpath connections to the existing The Ridgeway where all three Marshalswick schools, as well as the secondary school, were accessed from.  The same decision was made in the 1990s when Highfield Park residential development began; no primary school was included.  In this instance, however, the existing primary schools at Camp (Cunningham, Windermere and Camp) would be unable to offer sufficient numbers of new places.  Therefore, in the upgrades proposed for the secondary school which became Samuel Ryder Academy, a primary phase was included to make SRA an all-through school; pupils from age 4 to 19 on a single site.