Wing had three main schools, Infant School under Miss Greenway, Girls’ School under Miss Baldrey and the Boys’ School under Mr. Long. The yearly reports can be found here.
Both the Schools broke up on 31st July 1914, when they returned on 3rd September the country had been at war for a month. The Schools did not change in those first few months, brothers and fathers signed up to go to war, the Gloucestershire Regiment and 12th West Yorks. would have impacted on them, but the teachers and the school routine stayed the same.
In January 1915 Edith Cutler passed her Oxford Junior Locals exam; Margaret Page and Frederick Corkett were appointed as pupil teachers. Work steadily carried on and the schools received glowing reports in March 1915. Sadly in May 1915 the village was struck by a measles epidemic. The schools were closed, until June 21st with 90 cases being reported by the end of May. The Corkett family lost two of their children over two days, Leonard 4 and Arthur Claud who was just 2. In July 1915 the Infant School lost its headmistress, Miss Alice Greenway, as she left after 12 ½ years to work near her home in Linslade. At the end of the school year in July 1915 Frederick A. Randall won a Minor Scholarship of £20 a year for three years and Frances F. B. Redrup won a teacher candidate Scholarship. In September 1915 Miss Baldrey was called from her VAD nursing at Fazakerley Military Hospital, which had been built in 1906 with room for 350 patients with infectious diseases and 25 TB patients. It became a major hospital during the war and was renamed 1st Western General it received soldiers transported by train to the local station, with the nearest Girls’ High School being used as a clearing house for patients.
Sadly we do not have the first half of the 1915-16 year.
In May 1916 Mr. Long was called up and Miss Baldrey was forced to return to take charge of the Girls’ and Boys’ Schools. In November, Miss Mabel Strong, of the Infants had to leave to take care of her sick mother.
In February 1917 things for the older children changed with the introduction of potato cultivation as part of the gardening curriculum. Schools were asked to increase their land or take over vacant allotments and an hour out of the school day was given to potato. An example of a successful school is given where the children worked at dawn and in the evenings and dug 60 poles. In March 1917 Miss Baldery resigned her position to take another up in Birmingham. Her replacement was Miss Monk from Harborne and a supply teacher named Mr. Dawson was sent to the Boys School. Miss Strong’s position had been taken over by Mrs. Brown of Leighton and then Mrs. Groves of Cheddington. The older children are hard at work for part of the day in the school garden and in the ‘Victory Patch’ at Moorfields, provided by Mrs. Rothschild.
In December 1917 the Girls’ School received a kind donation from Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Heley who gave books and £6 from the Burcott Chapel Night School which had been raised for themselves.
In 1918 the Schools signed up for War Savings Bonds. In January 16 members and £16 13s. 4d.; February 19, £4 11s. 8d.; March 56 members £13 9s. 4d. Total £34 14s. 4d. They had also been hard at work in the Victory Patch.
School Reports
Wing at War 