Warfield C E Primary School Bracknell All Saints Rise, Warfield

A Note from The Head Teacher

Welcome to our school, Warfield C of E Primary School. We hope that, should your child join our school, your family will quickly feel part of the school community, which we view as a team which works together to provide the very best we can for the children in our care. Governors, teachers, staff members, parents, children and all those involved in the work of the school are part of this teamwork and we value the contributions of each group and individual, to the overall life of the school.

Our aim is to be a school that parents would want as their first choice for their children and that their children would want to be a part of; where children feel valued, secure and able to express their ideas and opinions; where pupils are motivated to learn in a well-resourced, stimulating environment and where they have access to the highest quality teaching and learning from skilled, enthusiastic, caring staff; where every opportunity will be exploited so that academic, spiritual, moral, physical, aesthetic, social and cultural development will be maximised; where staff, governors and parents work as a team to inspire and assist all pupils towards their goals; and where there is global commitment to the fulfilment of potential in an atmosphere of mutual respect, trust and high expectation.

This Website aims to give you relevant information about the school. Welcome mornings for prospective parents are held when you can discuss the school in greater detail, ask questions and visit the classes at the best time to visit any teaching group ? when the classes are buzzing with activity.

In 1816 Lord Braybrooke gave a parcel of land to the Vicar and Church Wardens of Warfield for a building for the 'voluntary education of poor infants'.

Warfield School was built on this land, evidently because it was the only site available in an area of good agricultural and not because it was considered the best site for the purpose.

It remained in constant use until 1935 when on 7th September, apparently as the result of heavy gales; an extensive crack appeared in the school wall. On 16th September the school was declared unsafe and closed for two weeks whilst the walls were shored up.

An entry in the school log book for 9th December that year reads: "I have today announced to the pupils that this school will close down on December 20th. It is no longer acknowledged by the Board of Education. The children will attend the other schools in the neighbourhood until such time that a Warfield Junior School is built here, either by the school managers or the Berkshire Education Committee." (It was, up to this point of course, an 'all-age' school)

The children were duly shared out between the two Bracknell schools then in existence, Bulbrook and Priestwood, and Warfield School remained closed until 31st August 1937, when it re-opened as a Junior and Infant Mixed School, not in a new building, but with the old building having been repaired and a modern extension added. This modernisation was not completed, evidently, until 1950, when a diocesan report mentions 'the delightful new classroom for Infants', which probably alludes to the room which now houses Juniors.

During the Second World War (1939-1945), there were evacuees in Warfield and the school was shared with the Mantua St. School, Battersea, with the Warfield children having lessons in the morning and the London children lessons in the afternoon.

The evacuees left in due course and Warfield School enjoyed a relatively untroubled existence until 1980 when, because of declining numbers and the economic strictures being applied by the Education Authority, the school, along with others in the County, came under threat of closure.

A parental Action Group tried unsuccessfully to fight this but in January 1981, following Mrs Andrews appointment as Head, a new Action Group, with very strong backing from the local community, took up the challenge again and with a lot of hard work and by a change in the constitution of the County Council, closure was averted.

In 1989, a major new housing development centred around Jigs Lane was proposed with two sites allocated for primary education. The Governors of Warfield School debated how best to maintain the ethos of a village school and concluded that the future of the school would be best protected by adopting the site at All Saints Rise. An application was made to the Secretary of State for a Transfer Order, which was granted in late 1991, allowing the planning to start early in 1992. Construction of the new building commenced in April 1993 and opened January 1994.