The history of Pennington Infant School - part three
1960 - 2000
1960 saw the Infant school still housed in Priestlands House (the Gurney Dixon building) with Miss Isaac as Headteacher and 118 children on roll. Due to the falling numbers 1 teacher had been made redundant from the previous year. The school logbook makes frequent references throughout 1960 and 61 to the leaking roof of the building and the problems caused. Great relief is expressed that the roof is finally repaired in October 1961. The school was still being heated in the winter by open fires and there was much consternation that they had received a delivery of 'small coal' rather than the usual coke. The resultant mess and dust caused great distress. The open fires were not enough to combat the extreme cold of the bad winter of 1962/3. The log records temperatures of only 46 degrees in the classrooms with teachers stoking the fires and children taking lessons wearing their coats. In 1964 the long time deputy Headteacher Mrs Ellacot retired, to be replaced by Miss Midgely. By 1965 the school numbers had risen again to 185.
On the 21st July 1967 Miss B.P. Isaac retired as the headteacher and the infant school ceased to be housed in Priestlands House. From September the school was to be housed in a new purpose built building several hundred yards away on what had been farmland. During the 1960s and 1970s Hampshire had one of the fastest population growth rates of any county. It was during this 'boom period' that many local authorities joined forces to create SCOLA - the Second Consortium of Local Authorities - to produce a standard design for school buildings that could be used up and down the country to secure economy and speed in the procurement of mass-produced building systems and components. The new school was one of the first schools in the county to be built to this new SCOLA standard. Mrs Thomas was to be the new Headteacher for the new Pennington County Infants School. Her staff for the new school were: Deputy head Mrs Robinson, Mrs Blake, Mrs Pike, Mrs Henman, Miss Williams, Mrs Barnes and the secretary Mrs Cole.
The new school opened on September 6th 1967 with 168 children on roll. On the first day the workmen were still laying the woodblock floor in the hall and there were no tables for the children to work on. The tables didn't arrive until the third day of the new term, but apparently they found it to be "of very little inconvenience". During the first few weeks of the term there were also workmen laying turf and making the grounds safe and presentable. Through the late sixties and the seventies Mrs Thomas presided over 13 relatively uneventful years of educating children and organising the usual round of performances, fairs, jumble sales, open days, etc.
Mrs Thomas was replaced in September 1980 by Mrs B.J.Windram. By the following year the school numbers had dropped to 100, with only 4 full time teachers: Mrs Windram, Miss Wilkins, Mrs Eggison and Miss Groves. In March of 1982 it was announced that the County Council proposed selling an acre of the infant school grounds for housing development, the land having been deemed to be 'surplus to requirements' by the buildings sub-committee. Negotiations had been progressing in secret between the Governors and the Council since January 1980. Following the announcement enquiries, meetings, disagreements and discussions went on for several years before the land was finally sold and developed for housing.
At the start of the 1983 school year, several members of staff were sent on a 1 day training course on the use of BBC Acorn computers, a machine was purchased and the computer age hit Pennington Infants. Six months later the school took delivery of its first video recorder - technology was moving on apace! By 1986 school numbers had risen so much that a 'temporary' classroom had to be erected behind the school so that the children could be split into seven classes.
In July of 1990 Mrs Windram retired as headteacher following what she described as "10 happy but eventful years". In her final entry in the school log she says "Many changes have taken place, the age of technology has arrived and the pace of change increases term by term. I was given a wonderful send off by everyone this afternoon and will take many happy memories to treasure in my retirement". The start of the school year in 1990 saw Miss Groves as acting head with Mrs Bradbury-Pratt, Mrs Thomas, Mrs Shaw, Miss Oliver and Miss Sarfas as teaching staff. In January 1991 Mrs Diane O'Grady took up her post as the new Headteacher and immediately set about overseeing the newly introduced SAT tests for 7 year olds. July 1993 saw the retirement of Margery Bradley who had worked at Pennington Infants as a teaching assistant for 23 years. During the mid 90's the children must have looked forward to lunchtimes with great enthusiasm as the head of the Kitchen, Mrs Anne Gates, was voted School Cook of the Year in 1995. That definitely stopped the jokes about the standard of school dinners. In the summer term of 1996 the school had its first visit from the inspectors from OfSTED and received a glowing report. By 1997 the school grounds were really starting to develop. With the support of funding fron ESSO an adventure playground had been built and with money raised by fairs and sales there was now a landscaped 'quiet area' where children could sit under the trees and talk.
Click here for the new millennium at Pennington Infants.