Rushden and Higham Education
Progress with Intermediate School – Preparing for the Opening
Good progress is being made with the provision of an Intermediate School at Rushden, and at a meeting of the Rushden Education Sub-Committee on Tuesday, Mr B Vorley presiding, Mr A mantle (Clerk) said that Mr Cameron (of the County Education Offices) had met the headmasters in the town and they had gone thoroughly into the question of the transfer of the scholars to the Intermediate School. The children who gained promotion marks in 1924 and 1925 would be admitted, leaving a certain number to be made up from the other scholars. It was thought that admission ought to be made competitive, and a writing examination had taken place. Those who did best in the written paper would undergo an oral examination, and thus the selction of the remaining scholars for the Intermediate School would be made.

Infants’ Schools
Mr Mantle said that with regard to the infants’ schools it was proposed that the area from which scholars would be admitted to Moor-road School should be that part of Rushden which is west and north of Station-road, including Glassbrook-road, and the area west of Spencer Park. The South-End School area would be to the west of Park-road from the Council Buildings to the Council Field and the whole of the area south of that field. The area for Newton-road School will be east of Park-road from the Council Field to the Council Buildings and the area east of Rectory-road to the railway station. The Alfred-street School would accept applications for the admission of children from the remainder of the town not already delineated. Except childen with brother or sisters already in the school, the head teacher should accept the applications for admission only from persons residing withing the prescribed area.

Transfer of Scholars
With regard to the transfer of scholars from the North-End Mixed School, which is after August to be used as an Intermediate School, Mr Holland (secretary of the County Education Committee) suggested that a circular should be sent to the parents of the scholars asking them which other school they would prefer the children to attend, and pointing out that, while available accommodation was limited, and therefore admission to any particular school could not be guaranteed, every effort would be made to arrange that the child should attend the school elected.

The committee concurred.

Opening the Intermediate School
The Clerk reported that on July 9th he wrote as follows to Mr Holland (secretary of the Northants Education Committee):

I beg to inform you that a special meeting of Managers was held on Tuesday last to consider the staffing of the above school and the placing of teachers in other schools in the town consequent upon the closing of the North-End School as an ordinary elementary school at the end of the current term.

It was unanimously resolved to recommend the appointment of the following teachers:

Mrs E M Hensman and Miss F Buttling from Newton-road School, Mr W A E Sherwood from North-End, and Mr E S Waller, B.Sc., from Alfred-street. With respect to the appointment of the other two assistants, the Managers considered it advisable to defer sending in a recommendation until the requirements of the education Committee have been obtained.

Transfers—It was further agreed to make the following transfers: Miss Marion Mears (certificated), from Newton-road to Alfred-street; Mr Harold Hales (certificated), from North-End to Alfred-street; Miss Hilda Smeathers (uncertificated), Miss Florence Osborne (certificated), Miss C Watson (certificated), from North-End to Newton-road; Miss Doris Drage (uncertificated), from North-End to Alfred-street, the latter teacher to take charge of the new Standard II, attached to either the Mixed or Infants’ Department. This matter is left for the Education Committee to decided, and the managers will be glad to receive their decision on this point as soon as convenient.

Mr Perkins having been recommended for appointment as the Principal of the Intermediate School, Mr Saddler will take his place as the headmaster at Newton-road School.

County Committee’s Approval
Mr Mantle reported that on July 17th he received the following reply from Mr Holland:

I duly reported the position in regard to this school to the meeting of the Elementary Education Sub-Committee on Saturday last, when it was resolved:

1. That the title of the school should be the Rushden Intermediate School.

2. That the school should be conducted in the North-End Mixed School premises, and that the old North-End Infant’s School premises should be adapted as a practical instruction Centre.

3. That Mr L Perkins,m B.Sc., should be the headmaster.

4. That the staff of the Intermediate School on opening should be headmaster and six certificated teachers, and the four Rushden assistant teachers recommended by the Managers should be appointed thereto—namely, Mrs Hensman, Miss Buttling, Mr Sherwood, and Mr Waller.

5. That advertisements be issued for two other certificated assistants, one master and one mistress, graduates to be preferred, to undertake the work of the school principally on the art side, including French.

6. That the transfers of staff recommended in your letter of July 9th be approved, and that the staffs fixed for the schools concerned be revised accordingly.

7. That an infants’ classroom at present unused at Rushden Alfred-street School be utilised for a floating class by the Mixed and infants’ departments as may be necessary, and at present by the Mixed department, to which Miss Doris Drage will be appointed, for the present at any rate. The Education Surveyor will arrange to have certain minor alterations carried out during the holidays to permit an access to this classroom through the adjoining Mixed School classroom.

8. This arrangement will obviate the necessity for a Standard II to be retained either at Alfred-street or at Newton-road Infants’, an arrangement which is not regarded as educationally desirable when the brightest children have the prospect of a further transfer at eleven plus. To enable the remaining Mixed School places to be utilised to the best advantage and to obviate overcrowding at Moor-road Infants’, certain zoning arrangements will have to be put into force, to affect principally, though with exceptions, only those children who will be admitted to school for the first time after the summer holidays. The detailed arrangements, already discussed with and approved by the Managers, were outlined to the committee and endorsed by them. These arrangements will be put into force by the school attendance service, in further consultation, where necessary, with the Managers and head teachers. By sending children from the outlying Higham-hill district to Higham Ferrers School, and by filling up South-End Mixed School to the extent of the places vacated there by children transferred to the Central School, pressure on Alfred-street and Newton-road Mixed Departments will be relieved.

9. That entry to the Intermediates School be offered this year to Rushden and Higham Ferrers pupils under the following arrangements:

First year pupils—children of eleven plus who obtain the promotion mark in the annual schools examination, 1925, and who undertake to stay at least for a three-years course;

Second year pupils—children of twelve plus who obtained the promotion mark in the annual schools examination, 1924, and who undertake to stay for at least a two-years course;

Third year pupils—children of 13 plus selected on an examination to be conducted by the headmasters of the Rushden and Higham Ferrers Mixed Schools and a representative of the committee’s staff, who undertake to remain for at least a one-year course, together with a few younger children who may be specially recommended by their head teachers and pass an oral examination, a total of about 200. The arrangements for this examination are being proceeded with.

10. That the school garden at present conducted by North-End Mixed be taken over by Newton-road Mixed School.

11. That the chairman of the Elementary Education Sub-Committee be authorised to approve a school cap or hatband for the pupils of the Intermediate School.

The Intermediate School - Rushden’s Two Hundred Brightest Scholars - Informal Opening on Tuesday
The new Intermediate School for Rushden occupying the premises of the old North-End School on the Hayway, was opened for teaching on Tuesday, though the official opening does not take place until the new scientific and domestic department, occupying the premises of the old North-End Infants’ Schools, is ready. The main school was cleaned and repainted during the summer holiday, and new furniture (desks, etc.) and fittings put in. When a representative of The Rushden Echo called to look round the school on Tuesday afternoon, he found Mr Saddler, the old headmaster of North-End School, and now the headmaster of the Newton-road School, taking a kind of last look round and assisting Mr L Perkins, B.Sc., the old headmaster of newton-road School and now first headmaster of the intermediate School, in the settlement of any outstanding details regarding equipment, etc.

The scholars had not started on the regular curriculum, but were being put through informal tests to fit them in their right “Forms.” It will be Form I to Form VI at this school instead of Standard I to Standard VII, as in the elementary schools. There are 200 scholars at present, and our representative, seeing the majority of them as they marches out to play on Tuesday, was impressed by the general intelligence of their features and their

Smartness of Appearance.
They are the pick of the products of the elementary schools in Rushden and Higham Ferrers.

There is a large central hall in the school which Mr Perkins, who believes in physical fitness as a necessity to mental alertness, has decided to use mostly as a gymnasium. With the piano, of course, it will serve as a general assembly room for the regular and special occasions on which the whole school will be called together.

Mr Perkins said the regular curriculum, apart from the manual, scientific, and domestic classes, would be in use almost at once. Miss O Brown, B.A., of Stroud, the new French mistress, would arrive the next day (Wednesday), and Mr Hanson, B.A., the other new teacher, had arrived from Halifax. The other four teachers were, as is generally known, locally appointed, and they had charge of the preliminary examinations of the scholars on Tuesday. There are now six Forms, with about 36 scholars in each, a large enough number for each teacher.

It will be quite a big event when the adjoining building is opened. The old infants’ school is undergoing a transformation, and when it is finished it will include a very large kitchen and a bedroom which anyone might envy. These will be used in teaching of domestic arts. Other rooms will be devoted to woodwork and science, and there will be a well-equipped laboratory.

Every year the scholars to fill the Intermediate School will go from the higher classes of the elementary schools. This year most of them have been picked by the various headmasters and teachers after, in some cases, preliminary examinations. In a normal year the usual age at which a boy or girl will go to this school will be eleven, but there will be some above and perhaps an occasional child below that age, according to differing results shown in the various elementary schools. This year there are a fair number above that age whose parents have kept them as long as possible at the elementary schools in the hope of getting them into the Intermediate School, if only for one year.