PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
|
|
The Keyham Barton Roman Catholic Secondary Modern School was situated in Ocean Street, Keyham, Plymouth, adjacent to the Junior School. Run by the Sisters of Charity of St Paul, the School was opened on Monday April 2nd 1906 although it took until Wednesday June 20th 1906 for it to become properly equipped for its role. It was at that time an elementary school and took pupils of all ages. The School was taken over by the Devonport Local Education Authority on Tuesday January 1st 1907. By mid 1913 there were 100 to 110 children on the register but only two teachers in addition to the Headmistress. Great War "Victory" medals were presented to the children on the afternoon of Friday July 18th 1919. On the Feast of St Peter and St Paul, Wednesday June 29th 1927, the children travelled by charabanc to Babbacombe Beach. They set off at 10.30am. From Monday August 26th 1929 the infant department was reorganised in to a junior mixed school, taking all children under the age of eleven years old. This seems to be the start of the Senior Mixed School. During the summer holiday in 1930 the School was redecorated and the Seniors moved in to their own new building leaving the Juniors in the original one. Work started on an extension to the School on Monday April 18th 1932, causing two classes to be transferred to the Parish Hall. The additional two classrooms were completed on Monday August 29th 1932, after which there were eight classrooms to accommodate 340 pupils. The opportunity was taken to extend the playground as well. Rediffusion (cable radio) was installed on Friday July 19th 1935. The installation cost £1 10s and a loud speaker cost a further £1 15s. The School was closed on Friday September 1st 1939 in order to prepare for Air Raid Precautions and was not reopened, for Senior pupils only, until Monday September 18th 1939. As it happened work on converting the ground floor cloakroom into an air raid shelter did not commence until Thursday November 30th 1939 and even then it could only hold 40 children: the remaining 281 had to use trench shelters in the playground. They were first used at around 10.30am on Thursday July 4th 1940, when the first air raid warning was sounded. The children 'conducted themselves bravely', reported the Headmistress in the school Log Book. On the morning of Wednesday April 23rd 1941 only 49 children out of 240 turned up for School due to the heavy air raid during the night, which destroyed the adjoining Roman Catholic Church. The first party of children were evacuated to Camborne, in Cornwall, on Monday May 5th 1941, followed by others on Monday May 12, May 16th and Thursday June 5th. The Headmistress joined an evacuation train at Keyham Station on Saturday June 28th, also for Camborne. The resultant drop in the number of children resulted in the Senior School being amalgamated with the Junior and Infant School for those children whose parents decided to keep their children at home. Two further evacuation parties left on Thursday September 4th and Thursday October 9th 1941. The Senior and Junior Schools were split again as from January 4th 1943. At some point in March 1944 the first ever school photograph must have been taken as there was great excitement when the prints arrived at the school on April 3rd 1944. It is not clear if this applied to both Schools. After the commencement of the Education Act 1944, the Senior Department became a Secondary Modern School. The Keyham Barton Roman Catholic Secondary Modern School was closed in 1965 when it was replaced by the brand new Bishop Vaughan Secondary Modern School at Crownhill.
|
