In November 1998 the Junior and Infant Schools were three form entry schools serving the village of Eaton Socon which had experienced considerable housing and industrial growth during the 1960's and 70's and somewhat less development subsequently.
The numbers of children entering the Infant school dropped considerably over the past few years which greatly affected the school finance, and similar effects were soon felt in the Junior School. With LEA demographers predicting that future intake rolls would continue to be low and falling, staff redundancies appeared to be one option with amalgamation as the other. It was obvious that a single school would require one headteacher, one deputy, one board of Governors, one bursar, one caretaker and sufficient staff to match the children on roll in accordance with the latest requirements on class sizes.
The Education Libraries and Heritage Committee met in October 1999 and agreed that the proposal to create a new primary school by extending the current Infant School to provide education for current and future pupils in the 5-11 range living in Eaton Socon should be pursued. After several months, a temporary board of Governors was set up and together with Headteachers and the LEA, plans were drawn up. Staffing was reviewed and farewells were subsequently made to the two existing Headteachers who took retirement.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank them for all that they have done during their time at the schools to secure the best educational provision possible for children attending the two schools. In addition we would like to thank them for their commitment to and support of the project to amalgamate the schools and create a new all-through primary school.
A new Headteacher was employed for the new single Primary School. Peter Schneidereit took up this position in September of 2000. One of his first tasks was to serve on the appointment panel for the school's Deputy Headteacher. Following this appointment, Mr Schneidereit obtained the Temporary Governing Body's agreement to begin the process of appointing staff to the other teaching posts established in the new school's staffing structure.
A permanent Governing Body was formed late in 2000. |