History of Warfield School
Warfield C of E Primary School is rooted in the history of Warfield and has been contributing to the education and wellbeing of local children for over 200 years.
Warfield School began its life in 1816 when Lord Braybrooke gave a parcel of land to the Vicar and Church Wardens of Warfield for a building for the 'voluntary education of poor infants'. The school was open until 1935 when the building was deemed unsafe and the school was closed until 1937 when it re-opened as a Junior and Infant Mixed School, not in a new building, but with the old building having been repaired and a modern extension added. During the Second World War (1939-1945), there were evacuees in Warfield and the school was shared with the Mantua St. School, Battersea, with the Warfield children having lessons in the morning and the London children lessons in the afternoon.
The evacuees left in due course and Warfield School enjoyed a relatively untroubled existence until 1980 when, because of declining numbers and the economic strictures being applied by the Education Authority, the school, along with others in the County, came under threat of closure.
In 1989, a major new housing development centred around Jigs Lane was proposed with two sites allocated for primary education. The Governors of Warfield School debated how best to maintain the ethos of a village school and concluded that the future of the school would be best protected by adopting the site at All Saints Rise. An application was made to the Secretary of State for a Transfer Order, which was granted in late 1991, allowing the planning to start early in 1992. Construction of the new building commenced in April 1993 and opened January 1994, providing 210 school places.
The site ran as a one form entry primary school for the next two decades, the building being further developed and modified in order to support the school community. The school remained oversubscribed for many years.
In 2016, in response to a lack of school places in the local area and an ever growing local community, Warfield school opened a second site with capacity to house an additional 420 children on the new Woodhurst Park housing development. By 2018 The Woodhurst Site was operating as another single form entry school. Warfield operated as a two form entry school across two sites for 5 years.
Due to changes in the local demographics there is now a surplus of school places and the additional capacity at Warfield is no longer required. The Governors of Warfield School debated how best to secure the future of the school and concluded that the future of the school would be best protected by uniting onto the Woodhurst Site which already has provision for all the children currently in the All Saints Site. A public consultation was undertaken and approved on 26th May 2022.
Warfield school began operating as a two form entry primary school on one site from 1st September 2022.