A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FULBRIDGE SCHOOL
In the October of 1935 Fulbridge Council School opened on the Keeton Road site. It has never been on Fulbridge Road! Mrs. Grace Bailey became Head of the Infant School and in 1936 Mr. Morris Bailey became Head of the Junior School. They were not related or married, it was just a coincidence that they had the same surname. The school day was from 9.00am to 12 noon when all the children had to go home for lunch. The afternoon session began at 2.00pm and finished at 4.30pm. There was about 45 children in each class! On your birthday Mr. Bailey would let you go home at 4.15pm once you had collected a ‘new penny’ from him which you would go and spend at ‘Jumbo’s, the corner shop.
The school was built with iron railings along the front but in 1940 they were taken down and melted to help with the ‘war effort.’ The school was used as a centre for evacuees from London, they were allocated to homes from the school. At the beginning of the Autumn Term 1939 the start of term was delayed by about three weeks whilst the brick built air raid shelters were built at the front of school where Keeton Road now is. The closest that bombs came to the school was Lincoln Road. If there had been an air raid during the night you did not have to come into school until 10.00am. When there was a raid during the day you had to enter the air raid shelters and you were not allowed to go home until someone arrived to pick you up. This could have been a long time and the shelters were not very comfortable. One day Mr. Bailey ran down the school corridors, when the air raid siren went off, shouting to stay in the classrooms and get under the desks! As he was doing this a German plane flew overhead and the sound of machine guns was heard.
Two years after the school opened in 1937, Mrs Joan Rigby who many years later was to work at the school as a Learning Support Assistant, started as a pupil in the school. One of her friends at the school was later to marry the one of Britain’s best loved comedians and become Mrs. Ernie Wise. Joan remembers that she was famous for her tap dancing during the war years at school concerts. She was a member of the ‘Embassy Babes’ which is where she met Ernie Wise.
In 1945 Fulbridge Council School became two schools and was renamed Fulbridge County Junior and Fulbridge County Infant School.
In 1952 a new Head was appointed to the Infant School. Her name was Miss. Monica Leverett. It was not until 1962 that the Head of the Junior School changed, Mr. John Rickerby became the Head. In 1966 Miss. Hodgson started teaching in the Junior School and she was to teach there for over 30 years until very sadly she passed away, not long after retiring from teaching at the school. In 1970 another long standing teacher started teaching in the Infant School, that is Miss Brenda King. Miss King decided to retire from full time teaching in 2002.
In 1978 Mrs. Margaret Francis was appointed as Head of the Infant school and in 1979 after having been a class teacher and Deputy Head Mr. Gordon Smith became Head of the Junior School. Eight years after Mr. Smith was appointed Mrs. Maureen Ashby became Head of the Infant School. In 1994 Mr. Iain Erskine became Deputy Head of the Infant School and in 1996 when Mrs Ashby retired he became Head of the Infant School.
In September 1978 Mrs Helen Bath became Chair of the Governing Body but in 2000 the Governing Body that ran both schools had to separate into two Governing Bodies due to new government legislation. Mr Ian Millar became Chair of Governors in the Junior School for a short period of time before Mr. Charles Swift OBE took over in 2001.
Both schools were to have Ofsted Inspections that went very well in 1994 and 1996. In 1999 the Infant School had another successful Inspection and followed it with two consecutive National Awards for being one of the most improved schools in the country. Unfortunately just as Mr. Smith was about to retire the Junior School failed an Inspection and was put into ‘Serious Weaknesses’ for a year. During that year Mr. Smith retired and Mr. Colin Deans who had been at the school for over 20 years as Deputy Head became Head for a year, leaving the school in October 2001. The Junior School was inspected again in May 2001 and was judged as not having made enough progress and so was put into ‘Special Measures’ for two years. Mr. Deans decided to resign in October 2001 and the Local Education Authority and the Governors asked Mr. Erskine to run both schools. In September 2002 the schools became a ‘Partnership of Schools’ and for the first time since 1945 became one school again. The Junior School was significantly modernised during the period after Mr. Erskine’s appointment and has made significant progress in that time against all the action points in the schools Action Plan. In June 2003 the Junior School was removed from Special Measures, having made good progress against the criterion that put the Junior School into Special Measures.
At midnight on August 31st 2004 both the Infant and Junior schools closed as the clock ticked past midnight and as the 1st September arrived they opened as a Primary School. Mr Erskine was appointed as the new Head of School under new legislation that allowed the Governors not to advertise the post nationally as long as there was only one Head in post and the Governors were happy with the effectiveness of that Head. The number in each year groups was reduced from 99 to 90.
The school took on a creative approach to teaching the National Curriculum which it went to develop significantly over the next few years becoming the lead school in a group of Peterborough schools that wanted to put creativity, first hand experience and use of the local environment at the centre of their approaches to delivering the curriculum.
In November 2005 the new primary school had a successful Ofsted Inspection. By September 2006 the school environment had been transformed with themed corridors, including an Anderson Shelter, a Greek Agora, a Travel Agents, a continental café, a Victorian school room, kitchen and living room as well as a castle with a dungeon and an Egyptian area amongst other such themed role play areas.