Branston: Education

Education

A Sunday school was established by Congregationalists, possibly soon after they registered their first place of worship in Branston in 1808. There was an average attendance of 45 children in 1851. (fn. 1) A schoolroom of 1868 formerly stood opposite the chapel. (fn. 2)

A day school was started in 1825 and it had 15 pupils in 1833, when there was also an infants' school. (fn. 3) An Anglican school-church was opened in 1844, and on Census Sunday 1851 there was an attendance of 28 children at each of three classes. (fn. 4) By 1846 it also served as a National day school. (fn. 5)

Branston was included in a school board district established for the Burton area in 1873. (fn. 6) At first the board used the premises of the National school, and there was an average attendance of 46 children. A new schoolroom was built on the north side of Main Street in 1875 and was enlarged in 1881. (fn. 7) It remained an all-age school until 1939, when the seniors were transferred to Clarence Street school, in Burton. In 1956 it was renamed Rykneld county primary school. (fn. 8) Because the link road to Burton from the A38 bypass ran too close to the building, a new school was built in 1964 on a site to the west, and the old building was demolished. (fn. 9)

Paget high school on the south side of Burton Road was opened by the county council in 1973. When the council took control of education in Burton after the abolition of the county borough in 1974, the Paget school was used as the senior department of a comprehensive school whose junior section was in Clarence Street in Burton. That school building was closed in 1984 and the Branston building extended to take the additional pupils. (fn. 10)