Baby boom swells class (From Oxford Mail)

Baby boom swells class

3:00pm Monday 30th January 2012 in Memory Lane By John Chipperfield

THE post-war baby boom caused serious problems for many schools, none more so than St Nicholas at Old Marston, Oxford.

The rapid rise in the number of pupils put the school under severe pressure in the early 1950s.

In 1950, the school roll totalled 82. Three years later, the figure was 181.

A book on the school’s history, Marston Village School 1851-1954, compiled by former governor Jan Sanders, a copy of which had been sent to Memory Lane, records how the tiny building in Elsfield Road, housing three classes, could no longer cope and alternative premises in the village had to be found.

Two classes were taught in the Reading Room in Oxford Road, another in a hut at the Vardoc tie factory in Church Lane and a seventh in a hut behind the White Hart pub.

Headmaster Cyril Jennings had to give up teaching so that he could exercise proper control over his expanding empire.

He set up his office in the front room of his house and was often seen touring the village on his bike!

The space problems were finally solved when a new school was opened off Raymund Road.

The booklet records: “Inspectors had frequently visited and must have sent back many reports of an impossibly overcrowded school. Perhaps hearing a class was being taken in a hut at the back of a pub finally triggered action.”

The new school opened in September 1954, but building was not completed and two classes had to stay behind for a few months.

More memories from the book soon.