CHATHAM, HIGHFIELD SCHOOL RECORDS

C/ES/85/14

1874-1990

fonds

According to Bagshaw's Directory of 1847, the British School, the earliest predecessor of Highfield School, was built in 1846 by subscription at a cost of £753, and within a year had 200 boys and 100 girls each paying 3d a week. The British Schools were operated by the British and Foreign School Society, a Nonconformist organisation which served as a counterweight to the Church of England's National Schools, each system providing cheaply accessible education on a semi-charitable basis with emphasis on religious instruction. In 1847 the school's premises were located at Duncan Place, New Road, Chatham. Kelly's Directory for 1891-1892 indicates that the premises were rebuilt in 1890 and now accommodated 220 boys, 130 girls and 90 infants. Chatham Borough Council assumed full political control of the British School in 1903 under Lord Balfour's Education Act of 1902. From that time the school seems to have been referred to as Chatham New Road Council School, until a further change of identity in 1914, when new premises were acquired in Ordnance Street, the school then becoming known as Chatham Senior Boys' Council School. In 1940 the Boys' School was rebuilt and served the same area alongside Ordnance Street Council Girls' School, the two schools fully amalgamating into Highfield Secondary Mixed School in 1964. In 1944 a new Education Act transferred control of the school to Kent County Council as successor education authority to Chatham Borough Council.

This seems to be the same school as C/ES/85/4.