PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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As a result of the Education Act 1944, the senior boys and girls from Hyde Park Elementary School formed the nucleus for the Hyde Park Secondary Modern School. The school building had been badly damaged during the Second World War and by September 1946 pupils were being taught in rooms at Hope Baptist Chapel, Peverell Corner, the Cricket Pavilion at the Plymouth Cricket Club ground, Home Park, a room in the Pennycross Methodist Chapel and a hut in the Chapel grounds. In September 1947 three HORSA classrooms and two practical rooms became available in the grounds of Burleigh House, Burleigh Lane, and these formed the nucleus of Hyde Park Secondary Modern School, which in April 1948 allowed the hut at Pennycross Methodist Chapel to be released for the use of an expanding Montpelier Primary School. However, it was still necessary to use the Cricket Club Pavilion, where even the small lobby area was used to hold classes. Numbers had risen to 406 by September 1948 although at the time of a school inspection there were 179 boys and 190 girls on the register, making a total of only 369. At that time three classes were held at Hope Baptist Chapel, plus a further two in the Hall when it was not required for physical education classes. The main problem here was that the school furniture had to be stacked away at the end of each afternoon because the rooms were required by other organisations in the evenings. Two more classes were being held in the Cricket Pavilion, where two smaller rooms were also filled with 30 desks and the counter room could be used for teaching if required. And, of course, there were the HORSA huts at Burleigh, nearly a half a mile away. The school inspection in February 1949 revealed that some of the desks were too small for the size of the pupils using them but that a film-strip projector, a cine projector and a gramophone were available for use and that Rediffusion had been installed in a classroom at Hope and one of the huts at Burleigh. Two Nissen huts were also in the course of erection at Burleigh. It is not surprising that the inspectors reported: 'For the Head Mistress problems of organisation are at times almost insoluble, but she continues to face them with courage and with no small measure of success.' That lady was Miss V Sparkes BA. She had a staff of nine Masters and seven full-time Mistresses plus one part-time one. Upon entry to the school pupils were given a simple test of comprehension, calculation and English. There were twelve Forms, six of which were mixed. In 1955 Hyde Park Secondary Modern School became Burleigh Secondary Modern School.
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