History

St Paul’s Church was built in 1838 and part of it was used as the first school. Although it was only one room there were in fact two entrances!!

The ‘old school’ as we now know it, was built in fact right next to the church in 1872. The first headmaster of Brompton-on-Swale C.of.E Primary School was George Thornton.

Until1958 the school catered for children aged between five and fourteen years of age. The older children of the school were often off to do haymaking, potato picking and turnip lifting. Although the set school holidays were not long the children were often off school because of bad weather, village functions or diseases such as diphtheria, measles, chicken pox, mumps and whooping chough. They were all rife.

In 1872 a schoolhouse was built to house the headmaster at the time. Then in 1931, the headmistress at the time, no longer wanted to live there, so it was let to the caretaker till 1981.

During the Second World War some children were evacuated to this area from Gateshead. From September 1939 to November 1940 they all shared the school with village children. The evacuees used the school in a morning and the village children in the afternoon. In the late 1940’s the visiting children moved into the W.I. hut.

The present school built in Brompton Park was a refreshing change from the old building near the Church Hall. It was opened on June 6th 1983. It had three classrooms, modern dining facilities, a computerised electric heating and ventilating system with spacious gardens and playground.

However the population grew and three temporary classrooms were built on. But in 2001 a further two classrooms were built to accommodate the rising number of children. They comprised of two classrooms, two cloakrooms and a new upstairs staff room. It was officially opened by The Rt Hon. William Hague M.P.






1892-1900
The First Entry
May 10th 1892
Received the report today.
The report is an inspection of the school. It tells you how good the school is!!

May 31st 1892
Rev. L Smith gave a bible lesson today.
In other words R.E!!!

July 25th 1892
Holiday on account of the school being required for the tea meeting in connection of the Church organ.
They had lots of holidays like this!!

February 14th 1893
Special singing lesson taken from 11 to 12. Usual half-day holiday for Shrove Tuesday.
Heres another holiday!!!

June 16th 1893
The pupil teacher has been absent from her lessons on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Her excuse was her mother had been ill.
They had pupil teachers in Victorian times, as there was a lack of teachers! (WOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!)

February 15th 1895
The severe weather still keeps many children from attending school. Holiday this afternoon with manager’s permission.
This often happened in Victorian times.

May 3rd 1897
Several boys off school today on account of the haymaking season.
This often happened in Victorian times as they had no motor driven vehicles.

November 11th 1898
The Scarlatina has seriously affected the school this week.
Scarlatina was a kind of disease where you went Scarlet round the face and were vomiting a lot!!

June 16th 1900
No school was held today on account of the thunderstorm, which came at 1:15am and ended at 2:00pm.
Bad weather affected the schools quite badly.