Greenlands Primary School
For information and updates in respect of Greenlands Primary School, please follow this link: https://www.greenlandsprimary.org.uk/
History of Greenlands School
The exact date of the founding of the Darenth Green Street Green Board School is unclear but a map circa 1881 shows a National School (Boys and Girls) marked between St Margaret’s Church and Lane End. The school logbook (1900 – 1957) written by the Head Teachers of the day contains no mention of the school being built or of it moving into a new building. However, an entry for October 1st 1920 says ‘Mr and Mrs Sanders terminated their engagements as Headmaster and Certified Assistant Teacher of the school after 34 and three quarter years’, suggesting that the school was open from at least 1885.
The reason for the siting of the school amongst fields, a long way from the church and the dwellings in Lane End, is a mystery. For many years most of the parents worked on local farms and some were nomadic. In the 1901 census Mr and Mrs Sanders and their family are listed as living in The School House, Green Street Green, Darenth. This building was demolished at some point but is believed to have been within the current school grounds.
In 1903 the school had 4 classes and the children walked to school twice each day returning home for lunch. Punctuality was important and children late back from lunch were marked as absent.
The logbook is a great source of information with many major outbreaks of infectious diseases, such as measles, scarlet fever, chicken pox, mumps, whooping cough, diphtheria and smallpox recorded. These outbreaks sometimes occasioned whole school closure and the admittance of some children to the isolation hospital. In 19010 the school was closed for six weeks due to an outbreak of mumps and in 1918 an infant at the school died of diphtheria. Regular medical inspections of the children began in 1908 but prior to this the local Medical Officer of Health or the Sanitary Inspector notified the school whenever an infectious disease was reported in a household and all children living there had to be removed from the school until the dwelling was declared infection free.
Until 1939 many entries in the logbook concern the attendance, lateness, illness and employment of teachers. Staff absence and turnover was a constant problem. Many of these teachers were unqualified and on supply. In 1907 the Head Teacher recorded that he ‘had to teach a class of 75 children owing to staff absence’.
The timing of the school day varied according to the seasons so that children could reach home before dark. The school also set their own summer holiday dates (with permission from the Education Board) to coincide with annual fruit and hop picking; the summer break being divided into two parts.
As many parents worked on the local farms, children were granted an extra days holiday when the annual Kent Agricultural Association ploughing match was held in Farningham. Extra holidays were also granted for national events such as coronations (a week for the coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra in 1902), the funeral of the monarch (King Edward VII in 1910) or the end World War II in 1945. There is no mention of the end of World War 1 as the school was closed from 23rd October until 25th November 1918 due to an outbreak of influenza which affected most of the staff and pupils. The head teacher’s son, William F Sanders (an Old Dartfordian) is commemorated on the Darenth Council School war memorial.
Mr Sanders, successor (Mr Wilfred Grout) was Headmaster until April 1950 and his wife, like Mrs Sanders, also taught at the school. In 65 years there were only two head teachers!
The organisation of classes within the school building was changed from time to time depending on the number of pupils. On November 27th 1922, there is an entry in red recording the temperatures at 9 am as being Senior Room 41◦, Class Room 43◦ and Infant Room as 41◦. On October 8th 1923 the entry reads ‘Central heating has been installed during the holiday’. In 1934 work commenced on two classrooms to the south of the existing premises and an HMI report the following March commented ‘The addition of two classrooms to the school has relieved the overcrowding noted in the last report’. Two classrooms having housed four classes.
In April 1938 the school was reorganised as a Junior Mixed and Infant School and in May 1939 had six classes and 242 children on the role In September 1939 a drawing shows partitions were used to make 3 classrooms each approximately 24 feet by 22 feet from two classrooms.
An anti-aircraft unit was billeted on school premises from September 1938 and air raid shelters were built near to the head teacher’s house. Following the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, children from London and their parents were evacuated to the area together with two teachers. Extra classrooms were set up in The Sunday School Room, St Luke’s Vestry (part of the parish church), Gore cottages and Hillrise although these were gradually returned to their normal use over the next few months. During the school holidays evacuees and their friends met daily in the Sunday School premises with the supervising school staff taking their holiday once term restarted. For two months March to May 1940 the school was recorded as working in three shifts 9-11. 11.15 – 1.15 and 2 – 4. And in September 1940 the school returned from the summer holidays on a half time timetable. Canteen dinners were first served at the school from April 20th 1942. The entry for June 16th 1944 reads ‘prolonged alert owing to enemy action. The children present sent home. All teachers present. Remained on premises until 14.30 hours.’ In July 1944, 62 children and some staff were evacuated to Axminster where they remained until December 13th.
In 1950 Mr Grout resigned due to ill health and was succeeded by Mr Robert Taylor, who was well liked. . At this time pupils used to undertake cold war training and the visit of the mobile dental unit was viewed with dread by most pupils. On 18th February 1951 the inaugural meeting of the PTA was held.
In May 1954 it was reported that ‘There are six classrooms, four in the main building and two in a hutted annexe’. An entry on September 6th 1956 reads ‘building commenced on the new project , Stage 1, during the holidays and is continuing throughout the term’. Children were also being taught again in St Luke’s Room at this time. An entry on 10th September 1957 says ’ The first three classes (Form IV, III and II) are being housed in the new accommodation – these wooden huts were in use until demolished in 2018.
Mr Taylor was succeeded by Mr Jack Lewis Legg in 1962, a much-loved Head Teacher who was in post until 1981. Prior to an outdoor swimming pool being built about 1970 the pupils were bussed to Hextable for swimming lessons. A fire in 1978 destroyed the school hall and kitchens. The cause was never established but for some time the children had to be bussed to another school for their lunch. Mr Legg was succeeded by Mrs Grange as Head Teacher.
Mr Lomas was the Head Teacher from 1983 to 1991 when he was succeeded by Mr Manning who was at the school until 2013. Mrs Jo Cerullowas then Head Teacher staying at the school for 3 and a half years during which time the school obtained a ‘Good’ Ofsted rating.
Mr Graham Ward is the current Head of School. In 2017 KCC agreed that the wooden huts should be demolished and replaced with modern buildings suitable for 21st century education. These have been in use since September 2019 and are much appreciated.
On 1st February 2019 the school was renamed Greenlands Primary School and became the fourth member of Cygnus Academies Trust.