All parents of schoolchildren should read carefully the details of the scheme, explained fully below, for the re-zoning of Rushden into districts for each of which an elementary school will be allocated, which was approved by the Rushden School Managers at their meeting on Tuesday.

The scheme has been drawn up by the District Chief Attendance Officer, Mr. L. E. A. Prothero, under the instructions of the County Secretary for Education.

The reasons why the re-zoning is necessary are explained by Mr. Prothero in his report.

There is one point to be noted. We are informed by an official of the Education authorities that the School Managers cannot force parents to send their children to a particular school under the existing regulations, but authority is to be given from the County Council and Education Committee so that they will be able to insist on children going to the school allotted to the zone in which they reside. No child, it is stated will have to go more that a mile, and the legal limit is three miles. A penalty of £1 per day can be imposed for refusal to comply with the regulations.

The report presented by Mr. Prothero was as follows:-

“I have been carefully into the figures with Mr. Ferris and find that the provision of new houses by the Rushden U.D.C. and the consequent removal of newly married couples to the Irchester-road estate, has created a flow of school population from the southern to the N.W. part of the town and has, consequently, thrown additional pressure on the Alfred-street school. A further source of pressure on this school was the closure of the North End Council School premises for public elementary school purposes.

“Efforts have been made to minimise the difficulties during the past six years by zoning arrangements which, for one reason or another, have not been strictly adhered to, partly owing to the difficulties of estimating accurately the number of transfers from one part of the town to another, and partly owing to the fact that it has been difficult to meet the wishes of all parents who have infants and older children attending schools from the same area.

“The U.D.C. have provided, and partly carried out, an extensive building scheme, not only on the Irchester-road but also in the Newton-road district, and in conjunction with the County Education Committee have made provision for the erection of a new school on the Irchester-road estate. There is, however, the possibility of the scheme being held up owing to the present financial stringency, and consequently it is essential that definite steps should now be taken to allocate permanent areas to be served by each school in the town. The public elementary schools, excluding the Intermediate School, are recognised by the Board of Education as providing accommodation for:-

School	Older Scholars	Infants
Newton Road	320	330
South End	180	168
Alfred Street	370	230
Moor Road	---	193
Total	870	921

Newton Road Halls

“In arriving at this figure no account has been taken of halls or school places over 40 in the case of Senior and 50 in the case of Juniors, irrespective of the cubic capacity of the rooms.

“The total number of children on roll at all schools, except the Intermediate is: Older scholars 1,003; Infants 664; a total of 1667. It will therefore be observed that there is a shortage of 137 places for older scholars unless the halls at Newton-road schools are used.

“In view of the fact that these halls are recognised by the Board of Education as providing a certain number of school places and the fact that the national emergency may postpone both the erection of a new school on the Irchester-road estate and the reorganisation of the schools in the town under the Committee’s scheme of reorganisation for the County. I venture to assume that the reorganised number of places in these halls may continue to be partly utilised.

“On this assumption it may be taken that the effective accommodation of the schools is: Older scholars; Newton-road, 320 + 50 hall + 50 borrowed from Infants’ Department, a total of 420; South End, 180; Alfred-street, 370 + 50 borrowed from Infants Department a total of 420; a grand total of 1,020; Newton-road, 280, + hall (+ 50 lent), 330; South End, 118 + 50 returned from Mixed Department, 168; Alfred-street, 195, (+ 50 lent to Mixed Department) 195; Moor-road, 193, a grand total of 886.

The New Zones

“In order that the accommodation thus provided may be utilised to the best advantage and with the least inconvenience to parents and children in all parts of the town, it is suggested that the zones should be fixed as follows:-

South End, that part of the town south of the north part of Irchester-road; west of Wellingborough-road to the junction of Bedford-road and Harborough-road; and south of Harborough-road, inclusive.

Alfred-street, all that part of the town north of Queen-street inclusive and the Parish Church, and east of Wellingborough-road.

Newton-road, south of Queen-street exclusive, and east of the High-street and north of Harborough-road.

“These zones are for older scholars and infants except that of Alfred-street, where it will be necessary to make a sub-zone for the children to attend Moor-road. This zone will comprise north of Washbrook-road to the junction of Moor-road; Moor-road to the junction of Station-road; Station-road to the junction with High-street north, and west of High-street north to Hayway.

“The zones as suggested provide for promotion of infant children to schools for older children in the same zone and as far as possible every care has been taken to obviate the crossing of busy thoroughfares by these young children. Care has also been taken to keep the number of children in the Alfred-street and Moor-road schools as low as possible to provide for new entrants from the Irchester-road estate. By this means it is hoped that the numbers at these two schools will not appreciably exceed the new accommodation until the new school has been erected or until the Committee’s scheme of reorganisation for the town has been affected.

Permanent Zones?

“It is suggested that the zones when fixed should be made permanent until, at least, the proposed school on the Irchester-road estate has been erected and that Managers should be prohibited from admitting any child residing in one zoned area to a school in another zoned area, except by the authority of the local Education Authority through the District Sub-Committee.

“Under this arrangement the District Sub-Committee would withhold their consent from any proposed breach of the zoning arrangement unless they were satisfied that it would not prevent any other child from being admitted to the school in his own zoned area.”

Mr. Prothero gave the following figures of the accommodation possible at the various schools, together with the numbers on the roll as follows: Alfred-street Mixed, 420 (number on roll 402); Alfred-street Infants, 195 (125); Moor-road Infants, 193 (128); Newton-road Mixed, 420 (425); Newton-road Infants, 330 (280); South End Mixed, 180 (176); South End Infants, 168 (125).

Streets In Each Area

Mr. Prothero gave the streets in the various zones as follows:-

Alfred-street Mixed: Church-street, Alfred-street, College-street, Fitzwilliam-street, Duck-street, Wellingborough-road (part of), Moor-road, Wentworth-road, Station-road, Carnegie-street, West-street, Dayton-street and Montague-street, Pemberton-street, Midland-road, Fletcher-road, Washbrook-road, Pytchley-road, Gordon-street, Oakley-road, Irchester-road, Westfield Avenue, High-street (part of), Higham-road, North-street, Shirley Park-road, East Grove, Victoria-road, Rectory-road (north of Queen-street), Woburn Place, Beaconsfield Place and Terrace, Hayway, Spencer-road, St. Crispins Estate, Queen-street.

Newton-road (Mixed and Infants): High-street (part), George-street, Portland-road, Rectory-road, Succoth Place, Orchard Place, Kings-road and Place, Allen-road, Blinco-road, Cromwell-road, Robinson-road, Pratt-road, Newton-road, Grove-road, Pyghtles Terrace, Denmark-road, Roberts-street, Winchester-road, Oval-road, Trafford-road, Essex-road, York-road, Manton-road, South Terrace, Albion Place, Crabb-street, Griffith-street, Park-road, Park Place, Dell Place, Co-operative Row, Oswald-road, Grafton-street, Court Estate, Little-street.

South End (Mixed and Infants): Wellingborough-road (part), Harborough-road, Manning-street, Bedford-road, High-street South, Wymington-road, New Wymington, Purvis-road, Tennyson-road, Glassbrook-road, Brookfield-road, Windmill-road, Sartoris-road, Birchhall-road, Factory Place.

The Proposed School

Mr. Prothero said that the scheme did not take into account the proposed school on the Irchester-road. He was glad to say, however, that the Committee would proceed with the scheme as far as they could, subject to the approval of the Board of Education, and they hoped to have some part of the building ready in about 18 months or two years’ time.

Mr. Capon; Has anything been heard from the Ministry?

Mr. Prothero: No but it had been decided to carry on as far as we are allowed.

Mr. Prothero added that if the Managers approved the scheme the Committee would fix the accommodation so that no teacher would be allowed to take children in excess of the accommodation.

Mr. Green: Will this necessitate much changing about?

Mr. Prothero: Yes, a good deal, and there will also be certain staff rearrangements; we do not know whether a lot of top class children might be found in one school.

Mr. Claridge: Can we make the children attend a certain school?

Mr. Prothero: If the scheme is approved and adopted nothing can stop you.

Mr. Prothero said he would ask the Managers to agree should they approve the scheme that any transfers from one school to another should come before the Managers to be authorised before the teachers took the children in.

The chairman said they would be asking for trouble to want children from the other side of Glassbrook-road to go to South End Schools.

Mr. Prothero said the greatest distance was not more than a mile, and the legal limit was three.

The Chairman: It is from one extreme end of the town to the other. The attendance will suffer severely.

Mr. Prothero said the only alternative was the new school on the Irchester-road.

Several members agreed there was no other solution.

Scheme Adopted

Mr. Prothero pointed out that they could not press for another school when they had already more available places than scholars. He said the scheme would come into effect in January and everybody would be notified and the teachers instructed.

Mr. Capon proposed and Mr. Claridge seconded that the scheme be approved and adopted and this was carried. The Managers agreed to become a zoning authority in connection with the scheme.

A letter was received from the County Secretary for Education relative to the position of a boy, attending a Rushden School but residing in Bedfordshire, being disqualified from obtaining a scholarship under the County Authorities.

The letter stated that the case was regrettable but not the first of its kind. The boy’s name was submitted in the ordinary way and it was not until the lad was summoned to attend the oral examination that it was learnt that he was ineligible for a Northamptonshire scholarship, owing to his residence in Bedfordshire.

Scholarship Incident

Unfortunately the system of awarding scholarships in Bedfordshire was different from this county, free places were awarded following an examination set by the Governors of the secondary schools, and these examinations took place in May of each year. The only thing he could suggest was for headmasters to be acquainted with the position so that a similar case did not occur again, and to watch the matter carefully to ensure that Bedfordshire pupils were not left out. It was impracticable to admit the children from other counties to the prejudice of Northamptonshire scholars. This county had arrangements with some counties, but not with Bedfordshire, and there was little hope of getting one.

The Managers agreed to have the letter circulated to local headmasters, the Chairman remarking that it was a pity it was too late to do anything in the particular case in question.

In connection with the Visitors’ reports Mr. Claridge stated that a large number were absent from several Infants’ Schools but otherwise there seemed to be less whooping cough.

A satisfactory report was received by the Managers from H.M. Inspector in connection with Newton-road Infants School.

The members present were Messrs. L. Baxter (in the chair), W. E. Capon (vice-chairman), E. Freeman, F. Green, C. Claridge, E. A. Sugars, F. Corby, and the Rev. C. J. Keeler, with the Clerk Mr. J. Ferris, and the District Chief Attendance Officer, Mr. L. E. A. Prothero.

Plan

The above sketch of the principal streets of Rushden shows how the town is to be divided up for the purpose of creating the elementary school zones. The boundaries of the three zones (Newton-road, Alfred-street and South End) are marked on the map by a thick black line, and the dotted line indicates the boundary in the Alfred-street School, and the remainder to Moor-road.

The widths of the streets shown are, of course, out of proportion, but the scale of six inches to the mile is accurate for measuring from one point to another. The smaller roads, etc., have been omitted as making the map too complicated, but sufficient detail is shown to enable readers to place any particular spot. This map makes quite clear the zones, and the school to which each child will have to go.