About Our School : School History

The village of New Earswick had its origin in the desire of Mr. Joseph Rowntree to make a practical contribution to the housing question.  With this end in view he founded a Trust in December, 1904.  The following clause in the deed of foundation is vital to the appreciation of the nature and purpose of the experiment:

"The object of the said Trust shall be the improvement of the condition of the working classes.... in and around the City of York and elsewhere in Great Britain and Ireland, by the provision of improved dwellings with open spaces and where possible gardens to be enjoyed therewith, and the organisation of village communities, with such facilities for the enjoyment of full and healthy lives as the Trustees shall consider desirable...."

Joseph Rowntree bought land north of York and started to build the village of New Earswick.  He was appalled by the condition of the slums in which many of the workers in his cocoa works lived and brought up their families.  He decided to spend some of the money he had earned in building decent houses at reasonable rents in a place where children could grow up in healthy conditions.  He realised that village children had to walk a long way to the nearest school and in 1912 he built an elementary school in the village for boys and girls aged 5 to 14 (the present primary school). 

For its time the school was "state of the art" and considered to be very modern and forward thinking.  Boys and girls were taught the same subjects in a time when it was a very new idea to teach girls science.  The design of the school building became the model for others to aspire to as it provided an "open air" school as large windows could be completely folded back against the walls leaving openings around 14 feet wide.  When completed the school provided accommodation for 352 children on the basis of 15 square feet of floor area per child instead of the 10 square feet required by the Board of Education at that time.

The school still has a full set of log books, admissions records and even a "Punishment Book", tracking the history of the school, its staff and pupils over the last century.

 
Extract from Punishment Book:

28th February 1927  L. Smith   Age 10    Running home (twice warned)     2 strokes - hand

12th December 1938  N. Peacock   Age 11   Stealing 3/-   3 strokes - hand at mother's request

The 1912 school opening was quite an affair and marred by controversy.  There were over 100 guests, including the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of York, Joseph and Lady Sykes-Rymer and Sir William Worsley, Chairman of the North Riding Education Committee.  As Sir Walter left the school in his car Miss Key Jones, the Secretary of the Women's Socialist and Political Union (York Branch), who accompanied by another suffragette tried to present a document to Sir Walter, despite being in danger of being run over!  After a struggle they were removed by one of the stewards and a Scotland Yard detective. 

In the 1950's the school was featured in a film called "Free to grow up" which is now held by the Yorkshire Film Archive.  More recently, it was the setting for the launch programme of the digital television channel, Teachers TV. (http://www.teachers.tv)