the school, originally called the kidlington church of england central school, was built to teach children over the age of 11 whose numbers had grown during the 1920s to the point where the national school in the village was not able to accommodate them. by combining the number of over-11s from kidlington with those from the church schools in the surrounding villages of begbroke, cassington, hampton poyle, islip, noke, oddington, shipton-on-cherwell, thrupp and yarnton a sufficient number was achieved to justify the cost of a new school.