# St Andrew's High School, Worthing

St Andrew's High School is located in Worthing, West Sussex, catchment area. It was founded in 1897.

## The 1890s

St Andrew's Church Clifton Road, Worthing was consecrated on Trinity Sunday, 27 May 1888. However it was to be a further nine years before the school was opened. Lady Loder, of Beach House, bought the land north of the church in 1893, at a cost of £580, for a school. However, plans were delayed for 2 years due to an epidemic of typhoid. The plans were finally approved in February 1895. The committee consisted of the Vicar, Mrs. Crowther-Benyon, Lady Loder, Mr Wedd and others. In 1896 an appeal was launched for funds and the school finally opened its doors to pupils on 25 January 1897 at the cost of £1850.
To mark the 10th anniversary of the church, Lady Loder gave a further £500 to the school. Joseph Theakstone was its first head teacher. Mr. Athelston Riley, one of the editors of the English Hymnal, opened the school. The Mayor attended the event and the school hall was the venue for luncheon.
The new school's Coat of Arms was (and remains) the 'Saltire' Cross of St Andrew with the motto Nihil Sine Labore (Nothing Without Effort).
By 1 February, 128 pupils had registered with there being some free places. Others paid a fee of between 3d and 6d a week. The curriculum included Reading, Writing, Spelling, Poetry, Arithmetic, Scripture, Science, Geography, Shorthand, French, Book keeping, Domestic Economy, Cookery and Singing. In these early days there were girls admitted to the school. Physical Education included swings for the girls, parallel bars for the boys and Swedish Drill had to be performed inside if the weather was bad.
1897 nationally was an important year as it was Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee and it is recorded that the girls made white crosses to smarten up their school clothes. The school continued to grow with 205 pupils on the register by April. Blue serge caps with a silken badge were now on sale for 11d.
Senior staff received £80 pa while pupil teachers' only £12 pa. By the end of this year H.M.I. wrote, "This is in all respects - discipline, teaching, appliances - a thoroughly good school. But I am inclined to think that too many subjects are placed on the timetable."

## 1900s

From the school logs we can see that on 20 June 1900 the Headmaster, Robert Parkinson, wrote, "During the last fortnight I have examined the school. Standard I, II are in excellent order. Standard III, IV are under one teacher and very crowded and consequently work is not thorough. Standard V, VI lack brightness. The work is well taught but the tone is low. Standard VI arithmetic is very weak".
The Worthing Observer of Sunday 31 March 1901 advertised "Evening Classes" of Cookery, Dressmaking, Home Nursing and Ambulance work.
Earlier in this month the Medical Officer of Health closed the school for 3 weeks due to a measles epidemic. By 1907 the school had 281 senior pupils and 76 infants of whom Miss L. Dunston was in charge with Mr Parkinson in overall charge as Head.

## 1910s

Music and drama featured prominently in the early history of the school and in January 1913 an evening of entertainment was arranged to raise money for the Sports Fund. Staff and pupils took part in a varied programme.
In 1914 Mr. Parkinson sold off superfluous land and enlarged the school to include 6 classrooms and 2 cloakrooms. Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein opened these extensions in September of this year.

## 1920s

On 16 April 1928 the school became a Church Senior Boys School. The girls were transferred to Davison School and the remaining 171 boys were placed in 4 forms according to ability in English and Arithmetic. Also in this year Mr. Desborough became head and Miss Dunston retired after 30 years service. Gardening was added to the curriculum in 1929 with crops being grown in the grounds of the Vicarage in Rectory Road and at No. 6 Southey Road

## 1930s

In 1931 the infant classes were transferred to Christ Church and Holy Trinity Schools. The late 1930s saw the outbreak of war and in the autumn of 1938 the school was temporarily closed so that staff could distribute gas masks to the people of Worthing. Also the Music and PT teacher Derrick Cressey was called up and the 7 classes had to be reduced to 6. The autumn term was delayed as the school was used to billet London evacuees.

## 1940s

An appeal had been launched in 1939 to raise £2,500 for extensions to the school and a new science and woodwork room was opened in June 1940 by The Bishop of Lewes. 63 boys and 3 staff were evacuated to Nottinghamshire in 1941. In February 1943 the school log shows that there was machine gunning over the playground and bombs exploding nearby. On 8 and 9 May 1945 a National Holiday to celebrate the surrender of Germany was held. A week later the Cigarette Fund realised £8-0-4 which meant that 160 tins of cigarettes could be dispatched to forces by the Overseas League.
During the war staff supervised boys picking peas at Roundstone Farm to improve productivity. Also the war claimed the lives of 30 old boys. By the end of the war the Headmaster Mr Parrit had less than 100 pupils and due to austerity very little was done to celebrate the schools 50th birthday in 1947. In 1948 the school had its first open day in 10 years. The Mayor attended and presented cups and prizes.

## 1950s

Sussex Road School was appropriated as temporary additional accommodation as the school was fully subscribed. A new floor was laid in the hall in 1954 and the Parent Staff Association founded in 1956. September 1958 saw 35 St. Andrew's boys taking part in extended courses to attempt their GCEs. St Andrew's championed the newly established The Duke of Edinburgh's Award scheme.

## 1960s

St. Andrew's was now spread over three sites. To remedy this a new school was built in Sackville Road. The foundation stone was laid by the Mayor, Mrs. M I Keele, on 14 May 1963 and dedicated by the Bishop of Chichester The Right Reverend Roger P. Wilson.
The Parent Staff Association raised £1000 for an organ to be installed in the new school in keeping with its association with St. Andrew's Church. They also raised another £700 for a statue of St. Andrew to be placed at the school's main entrance. The school on Sackville Road opened in 1965 at a cost of £203,000 (75s 10d per sq ft). Keith Andrew Ltd of Worthing built it and a 9-foot bronze cross was erected under the instruction of the architect Mr. Claridge in keeping with the school's Christian ethos. Pupils helped pack the removal vans and personally carried books to the new site. The library housed some 5,500 books.

## 1970s

In August 1970 plans to demolish the old Clifton Road School and replace it with flats were raised, and ultimately carried out. 1972 saw the 75th anniversary celebrations along with the official opening and dedication of the new arts centre by the Right Reverend Simon Phipps, Bishop of Horsham. Mr Robin Ellmore (Woodwork) retired after 42 years as did Mr George Robotham, (Maths) after 17 years. Mr John Peckham was appointed Headmaster in September 1975 and Deputy.

## 1980s

The Chair of Governors, Rev. John Cotton, opened a new Science Lab, at a cost of £15,000, at a short ceremony with a blessing in September 1984 while in September 1986 the Gym was extended. Brighton and Hove Albion Manager, Alan Mullery opened this.
After 10 years of waiting the 3rd Worthing Scout Group finally saw the start of their building work of their new Group Headquarters in the grounds of the school. This also gave the school a hall to use for drama.

## 1990s

On 3 October 1990 the Bishop of Chichester celebrates 25 years on the Sackville Road site. More expansion, this time a £500,000 Sports Hall. This was ready for use in November 1991. Also in 1990 the go ahead was given in December for two new first schools to be built in the Worthing area. One of which, Springfields, is to be built in the grounds of St. Andrew's.
St. Andrew's won the schools' County Cricket Trophy in 1993. A single storey extension was started in May 1995 in the form of a new technology centre costing £177,000. It was ready for use in November of the same year. 1996 saw the retirement of Head teacher, Mr. Peter Stewart after 13 years. On 8 March 1997 St. Andrew's Church of England School for Boys was 100 years old and in September of the same year a new Head Teacher was appointed, Mr. Steve Jewell.
In September 1998, St. Andrew's won the Potter Bailey Cricket Trophy after the final against The Angmering School.

## 2000s

A fibreglass statue of St. Andrew casting a fishing net was located in the pond at the school main entrance. This was removed in 2006 because it had deteriorated beyond economic repair.
In 2005 the school's rugby team won the Worthing & District trophy for the first and only time in the school's history, beating Angmering 12–10 in the final. Accordingly, to a local paper, the victory was made even more impressive by the fact that only two of the St Andrew's rugby team played rugby regularly outside of school.
In 2009, headteacher Steve Jewell left and was replaced by Steve Mercer.

## 2010s

The school was judged to Require Improvement by Ofsted in 2013. In 2015 it was judged Good. In 2018 it was again judged to Require Improvement. In 2022 it was judged Inadequate. In 2023 it was judged Good.
Steve Mercer left the school in February 2017 and was replaced by Ian Straw in an interim capacity. In 2018 Ian Straw resigned and was replaced by Louise Welcome, the school's first woman headteacher.

## 2020s

In July 2020 West Sussex County Council announced proposals to alter St Andrew's from a single sex boys’ school to a co-educational school from September 2021 entry. Also in 2020, Louise Welcome resigned.