Education in Walthamstow (Official Guide) [Top of Page]

(Extract from "The Borough of Walthamstow Official Guide - 1961")

The education of the working classes was one of the most neglected public services until well into the last century. It was not until 1870 that the first constructive Act was passed, setting up School Boards to supplement the voluntary system where necessary. The first meeting of the Walthamstow School Board took place on the 17th June, 1880; among the schools then in existence were the Sir George Monoux Grammar School (1527), the National School, Vestry Road (1819), and St. Mary's Infants' School (1824, moved to its present site 1828). The Walthamstow School Board was dissolved in 1903; but during its twenty-three years it had founded most of the schools still existing in the borough. The new Education Act of 1902 brought into being the Education Committee in place of the Walthamstow School Board, and under this Act the responsibility for secondary education was assumed by Essex Education Committee.

At the present lime opportunities for education and self advancement in Walthamstow are among the most comprehensive to be offered by any comparable borough. Under the Education Act 1944, it is an excepted district, and the Council is responsible, under the Essex County Council, for the administration of all primary, secondary, technical, and grammar schools, and for the further education in the borough. Special schools for the partially sighted, deaf, physically handicapped, and educationally sub-normal are also maintained. At the end of 1958 there were 19,743 children on the school roll.

A Youth Employment Bureau assists in the placing of boys and girls in suitable careers, and day-release classes are available for young workers by arrangement with their employers.

A wide selection of part-time classes for adults is organised in various ways, especially by Friends' Hall and Walthamstow Educational Settlement in Greenleaf Road, and the South-West Essex Technical College. The latter was opened in 1939, and offers an extensive syllabus, including courses of a recreational and cultural nature.

July 1st 1966 - Change Over Next Year? [Top of Page]

A DETAILED plan for the soon-as-possible introduction of comprehensive secondary schooling in Waltham Forest will be submitted for Government approval from the monthly council meeting to-night (Friday).
One of the shock features of the scheme is the scheduled closure, in July, 1967, of another Waltham Forest School, Goodall Secondary. The buildings in Goodall Road, Leyton, will be offered to the Roman Catholic authorities for possible conversion to a Church school. Two Walthamstow schools, George Gascoigne and Mark House, are closing later this month.
Under the comprehensive plan already approved by the borough Education Committee there will be 17 junior secondary schools feeding nine senior secondary schools. All children will transfer at the age of 14.

The borough's eight grammar and technical schools - Sir George Monoux, Walthamstow High, Leyton Boys High, Leyton Girls High, Chingford High, McEntee Technical, William Morris Technical and Tom Hood Technical, will become the senior secondary schools. The ninth senior secondary school will be Sidney Burnell School in Highams Park, linking up with a new junior secondary school being created at Heathcote School, Chingford.
Introduction of the comprehensive system in Waltham Forest could take place in September, 1967. But this will be possible only if the Government gives its blessings to the early stages of a £900,000 school improvement building programme planned for the next five years. Delay, unless "Unless the Department of Education and Science can assure us of satisfactory building programmes for the next two financial years, it will be necessary to postpone the first year of the change to September, 1968," the Council will tell the Government, in its detailed plan.

Lion's share of the planned improvements will be in the senior secondary schools, most of which must be enlarged to cope with increased numbers and to provide advanced teaching facilities for a school roll composed entirely of fourth, fifth and sixth- formers. "Until we can be sure that there will be suitable and adequate accommodation in the senior secondary schools for the 14-plus age group, on the conclusion of their junior secondary course, we cannot put into force the transfer without selection from the primary schools to the junior secondary schools" says the Council statement.
An assurance previously given by the Education Committee has been restated this week. All children who have begun a grammar or technical school course before the new system is introduced will be permitted to complete the course.

This means that only in their early years the new secondary schools will be two schools in one catering for a slowly diminishing number of selective scholars who will be "relics" of the old system plus a yearly intake of 14-plus children of all abilities. Goodall School Leyton, is due to close at the end of next school year. No 11-year-old children will be admitted this September. Headmaster Mr John Binner is being offered a transfer to George Mitchell School Leyton to succeed Mr Frank Bassett, who is retiring soon.

Assurance to teachers

The Headmasters of Heathcote School Chingford, Mt Ronald Woods and of Sidney Burnell School, Highams Park, Mr H.G. Paul are also being warned that they may be asked to take new posts when the reorganisation begins.
Teachers receive this assurance from their employers, the Council: "We are fully alive to the importance of the safeguarding of salaries, under the reorganisation, and we will implement fully any agreement that may be reached by the Burnham machinery.

The Council statement to the government stresses that 1967 would be a desirable time to introduce the changeover. But this is not possible until the necessary work on the new senior secondary schools, they will bear the full cost of raising the school leaving age to 16, has been authorised.
We regard the two tier system now proposed as a sound long-term solution and as having advantages over a system of "all through" comprehensive schools with their long age range and large numbers," says the Council statement.

The statement admits that the Council attaches great importance to linking particular junior secondary schools to specified senior secondary schools, one will feed the other. But parents are assured that they will be given a chance to state a preference as to which schools their children attend. Wishes will be honoured, if places are available. The Council will encourage regular meetings of head teachers and subject teachers within each linked group, in the borough as a whole.

Eight Groups

Waltham Forest's secondary schools will be divided into eight groups under the scheme suggested to the Government. Here are the groupings:

Walthamstow
Junior Secondary Schools
Warwick Boys (450 pupils), Warwick Girls (450), Chapel End (450),
feeding Secondary Senior Schools,
Sir George Monoux (600) and Walthamstow Girls High (600)
Junior Schools,
Beaconsfield (450), and William McGuffie (300)
Feeding Senior School William Morris Technical (540)
Junior Schools,
Willowfield (450) and Sidney Chaplin (450)
Feeding Senior School McEntee

Leyton
Junior Schools
Lake House (450), and Ruckholt (450)
Feeding Senior School
Tom Hood Technical (600)
Junior Schools
Connaught Girls (450) and Leyton Manor Girls (450)
Feeding Senior School Leyton Girls High (600)
Junior Schools
George Mitchell Boys (450) and Norlington Boys (450)
Feeding Senior School
Leyton Boys High (600)

Highams Park Chingford
Junior School
Heathcote (720)
Feeding Senior School
Sidney Burnell (480)

Chingford
Junior Schools
Chingford Boys (450) and Chingford Girls (450)
Feeding Senior School
Chingford High (600)

Building Plans

Extensions to most of the new senior secondary schools will form the basis of future building programmes submitted by Waltham Forest Council for Government approval. But there are more ambitious proposals for William Morris tech where the old group of buildings need to be replaced by a new purpose built senior high school. Another long term plan is to replace Beaconsfield and William McGuffie schools in Walthamstow with a single purpose built junior secondary school. Abandonment of the scheme to build an all-age comprehensive school in Verulam Avenue Walthamstow, has left the Council with £240,000 in the education building "kitty."
This money is being spent on immediate improvements to Tom Hood Technical, Leyton; Sir George Monoux Grammar, William Morris Technical and Warwick Boys Walthamstow. These are the projects due for submission in years to come as part of the reorganisation scheme and the raising of the leaving age to 16. 1967-68 - Additions and improvements to Leyton Boys High (£80,000) and Chingford High (£80,000). 1968-69 - Additions and improvements to Walthamstow Girls High (£100,000) and Leyton Girls High (£80,000). 1969-70 - Stage two improvements to Sir George Monoux Grammar (£60,000) Tom Hood Technical (£60,000), and Chingford High (£70,000). 1970-71 - Stage two improvements to Leyton Boys High (£60,000), and Leyton Girls High (£60,000).

Church End School

St. Mary's Infants School, Church End, was founded in 1824 in a barn by the vicar, William Wilson. He was encouraged by Samuel Wilderspin (1792?-1866), who conducted his brother Joseph Wilson's school at Spitalfields on the principles of Robert Owen. William Wilson became an advocate of infant education and his school quickly won a reputation at least equal to that of Wilderspin's.

In 1828 a school was built in the churchyard for 150 children between 2 and 7 years of age. Wilson followed closely Wilderspin's methods, stressing the value of 'instruction by amusement' and exhorting teachers to have an affectionate regard for the children. The school was a preparatory school for poor children, who went on to St. Mary's National school. The foundation of other infants schools in the parish may have contributed to the decline in attendance, to 76 in 1847, but by 1882 140 children attended and the school was known as the Central infants chool. It became a voluntary Controlled school in 1951. The building of 1828, standing west of the church, has a dignified 5-bay front of yellow brick. The three central bays, which contain the entrance porch and tall round-headed windows, project slightly under a raked parapet. The flanking bays, of which one has been altered, were both originally two-storeyed, the lower windows being set in arched recesses.

In 1928 the building was restored and later extended.

Secondary schools founded after 1945:

Five secondary modern schools were established in 1945−46, in existing elementary school buildings. Chapel End, enlarged in 1961, Mark House, and Coppermill (Beaconsfield) were mixed. Blackhorse Road (Willowfield, Tavistock Avenue) for girls became mixed in 1961; new buildings were completed in 1962. Joseph Barrett (Warwick) for boys and girls was enlarged in the 1950s. Mark House was closed in 1966.

William Fitt secondary (modern) school, Cazenove Road, opened in 1957 at Winns Avenue. In 1962 it moved to its present site. Sidney Chaplin secondary (modern) school, Folly Lane, opened in 1959.