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A History of the County of Essex: Volume 10, Lexden Hundred (Part) Including Dedham, Earls Colne and Wivenhoe. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 2001.
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EDUCATION.
There was no school in East Donyland in 1818, but a Sunday School for 50 boys and 54 girls had been founded by 1833. (fn. 1) Plans for a school were made and a trust deed drawn up in 1846, but no further progress was made until 1862 when a school was built next to the church. (fn. 2) By 1871 it was overcrowded with 131 children in accommodation for 89. An infants' room was added that year, increasing the school's capacity to 201. (fn. 3) The school was extended again between 1893 and 1906, to accommodate 304 children, and c. 1906 average attendance was 271. (fn. 4) In 1911 there was accom- modation for only 156 children and 80 infants, and average attendance was 133 children and 46 infants. (fn. 5)
The school was reorganized in 1946 as a Church of England junior and infants school, and became a church controlled school in 1951. In 1956 it was renamed St. Lawrence East Donyland Church of England Primary school. Numbers increased steadily in the 1950s and 1960s, and the first phase of a new school was built on the former rectory house garden in Rectory Road between 1973 and 1976. The second phase of the new school, for junior chil- dren, opened in 1987, and the old building was converted into housing. (fn. 6)