Clapham and Patching CofE Primary School: 15 pictures looking back at life at Sussex village school as it prepares to celebrate its 150th birthday

There has been a school on the site since 1814 but the current school was built in 1873 and as the school prepares to celebrate the anniversary with a week of special activities, we take a look back at some of the key moments shared in the Worthing Herald over the years.

Joan Hogan, née Stanford, organised a reunion in June 2012 and the get-together at The Fox pub in Patching was a good opportunity to share memories of the old days. Joan was at the school from 1949 to 1955 and she had fond memories of former headmaster George Inglefield, who was at the school from the 1930s to the 1960s.

Writing in Bricks & Water – 100 Years of Social History in Clapham & Patching Villages, a book by Friends of Clapham & Patching Churches, she and other former pupils tell more of their school days. In the 1930s, the three Rs took priority – reading writing and arithmetic, where the children would chant the times tables. The headteacher was known as 'Colonel Brown' as he was a strict disciplinarian who ruled with a rod of iron. There were no games lessons – the children were not even allowed to kick a ball about in the playground.

When Mr Brown retired, Miss Lockie became headmistress but she sadly passed away in 1933. A temporary replacement was found for a short period and it was than that Mr Inglefield arrived. Lessons still had top priority but for at least one session a week, the children would go to the cricket field for games and they even had an old ball for football in the playground.

Sport did go on to become very important at the school and 70-odd years later, in 2009, the mixed netball team celebrated winning the small schools netball tournament for the third year running. The team was made up of children from years five and six and it was the last year they could take part in the tournament as many of them were soon to leave for high school.

It has always been a small school with a strong connection to the village community. In the 1990s, a tradition started to bake apple crumble around harvest time and deliver them to residents, something the children really enjoyed doing.

Being small has not stopped the school teaching the children about the wider world. In December 2007, for example, the school became Antarctica and a huddle of penguins gathered to study global warming. Visitors from the British Antarctic Survey, including Dr Liz Thomas, a member of the research centre in Antarctica, told the children about the effects of global warming and her experiences before showing them some 4,000-year-old ice.

The school went through a long period of uncertainty itself around that time, with a high level of staff turnover and an acting head teacher for several years, until Jane Jones was appointed to the permanent post in January 2010. Ofsted was impressed with the progress made under Miss Jones' strong and determined leadership and in February 2011, graded the school 'satisfactory' while adding that it was improving.

One year later, Ofsted gave the school a ‘good’ rating and this was repeated under Miss Jones in December 2019, though at the time, the school was facing an uncertain future. West Sussex County Council had identified it as 'vulnerable’ and launched a consultation to explore possible changes to the school, including federation, merger or closure.

After a rollercoaster journey, Clapham and Patching CofE Primary School was saved and it started a new chapter on November 1, 2020, when it joined the South Downs Education Trust and became part of the academy with Worthing High School.