History of Our School

HISTORY OF OUR SCHOOL

The name of the school 'Preshute' comes from the Parish in which the school is sited.

'Preshute' is derived from the 'priest's ciete' (or cottage), recorded on documents dating from the 11th Century. It is thought that the 'priest's ciete' was located where St George's Church now stands.

We think that the first school in Preshute was started in 1833, when the vicar formed a school as the parishioners of Preshute were considered illiterate.

Oldest school building dates back to 1845 

However, our oldest school building dates from 1845; this is the room we now use as the hall. The school was then known as 'Preshute Parochial School'. The school was extended in 1875 when the classroom next to the hall was added (now used by class 3) along with its cloakroom and the current storeroom.

The building we call the 'Pratten' was added in 1968. This included the classroom at the front of the school (currently class 6), the office area and cloakrooms.

As the school numbers increased, mobile classrooms were added; the first in the mid 1970's, the next in 1988 (now class 1) and the last in 1997 (now class 2).

Two new classrooms

In 1997 the school had a further extension when two new classrooms (one now used by class R), a new staff room and a group room were added. Once these were completed the original mobile was finally removed from the site!

In 1999 the school numbers had increased again, and a seventh classroom was needed. An additional classroom was made by extending and splitting one of the 'new' classrooms; these are now used by classes 4 and 5. Whilst this building work took place, the school was very short of space and one of the classes was taught in the bell tower in St. George's Church.

In Autumn 2004, there was more building work when the office was extended, a new staff room created, and the old staff room converted into an additional group room. We also had some 'sunpipes' installed in the roof of the corridor, group room and staff room to let natural light into these areas.

In the following years, work was carried out re-designing the playground, adding more seating and maximising the outside playing space.

The Garden Room 

A new 'Garden room' was added to the front of the school in Spring 2009 replacing the PE and caretaker's sheds. In addition to providing the school with some much needed storage space, this lovely, light room can be used by both staff and pupils.

The new classrooms 2021

To see our latest building work pictures see- Latest projects page

Opening the playground 2022

Marlborough news online report - https://marlborough.news/news/bishop-of-ramsbury-formally-opens-preshute-primary-schools-new-classrooms-and-playground%EF%BF%BC/