the premises were still located at no. 21 london road and the jubilee institute. as the tenancy of the private venture school was to end on 25 march 1896, the town council paid mr cruikshank £10 for the desks, books and goodwill of his school. boys were drawn from three elementary schools in chippenham: the british, national and st. paul's schools. in addition twelve boys had previously attended the private grammar school. others were from other private schools in chippenham, corsham, devizes, calne and surrounding villages. there were 39 boys aged 11 to 16 on the admission register from 13 april 1896. the curriculum included latin, french, science, history, geography, grammar, bookkeeping, shorthand, arithmetic, writing, geometry and freehand drawing.