Education

THE CHURCH SCHOOL

Today it is accepted that everyone goes to school, this was not always the case. The Church provided forms of teaching to children and their parents; one penny a week covered the cost of a child providing the parents were churchgoers…Read more here.

HIGHBRIDGE, NOW BEECHFIELD, INFANTS SCHOOL

The Education bill of 1906 was intended to secure full public control of all rate-aided schools and to appoint teachers without reference to religious belief. This would have destroyed the purpose for which the church schools had been built; it encountered strong opposition from Anglicans throughout the country.  In Highbridge, it raised a storm of protest…Read more here.

HIGHBRIDGE CHILDCARE DAY NURSERY

A Community Nursery, which was built adjacent to Beechfield Infants School, opened in April 2004. The centre is the first of its kind in Somerset it is a nursery and family centre with a facility for health visiting; incorporating a toy library and play area…Read more here.

HIGHBRIDGE ADULT SCHOOL  AND PUBLIC LIBRARY

One hundred years of service in the Adult School building was celebrated on April 25^th 1991. Nationally, the Adult School movement was a non-sectarian Christian educational group closely allied in spirit to the contemporary Y.M.C.A. and temperance movements.  By 1888 classes had started in temporary accommodation in Highbridge…Read more here.

HIGHBRIDGE PRE-SCHOOL PLAYGROUP

Cherry Daldry founded Highbridge pre-school in 1968, in the Methodist Chapel in Church Street Highbridge with helpers Jasmine Welch and Elaine Scadden it was subsequently taken over by Elaine in 1970, Barbara Derham had joined as an assistant…Read more here.

KING ALFRED SCHOOL

The present King Alfred School (then named The King Alfred County Secondary School) evolved from Burnham County Secondary School which occupied a variety of sites in Burnham-on-Sea until November 1957…Read more here.

MEMORIES OF SCHOOL DAYS IN HIGHBRIDGE

I started school between three and three and a half. I remember, the teacher being very kind to me, when my Father died, he was only thirty-one. Mr Wood was the Caretaker at St’ John’s School. In the afternoon we slept on raffia type mats…Read more here.