St. Margarets School
St Margarets Church of England School
Address: Birmingham Road, Great Barr, Birmingham, B43 7AP
Telephone: 0121 357 2758
St Margaret's is a Church of England Primary School (Nursery/Infants/Juniors) associated with the Parish Church of St Margaret's in Chapel Lane. The school's links with early education in Great Barr go back to the Anglican Charity Schools that sprang up during the eighteenth century.
The Addyes Charity arose as a result of a bequest, made in 1722 by Thomas Addyes, of buildings and land at Snail's Green, Great Barr. The bequest provided for a schoolmaster's residence and sufficient funds to provide for the education of thirteen poor boys "to read English well and to write".
Further bequests, made in the nineteenth century by the Scott family, provided money to clothe the thirteen boys and to pay a schoolmistress to teach five girls. This became known as the Gibbon/Scott Charity. In 1906 the endowments were amalgamated to become the Addyes and Scott Foundation.
The first school to provide education for all children of Great Barr was built by the Church of England in 1852. It consisted of a schoolmaster's house and two classrooms. The school catered for children of all ages. The original building still exists and is now the Head Teacher's study, the school office and classrooms 2, 3 and 4.
The parishioners of Great Barr raised large sums of money in the early 1950s to provide for extensions to the school and for the modernization of the old school buildings. The then Ministry of Education made a 50% grant towards the total costs.
Buildings to house the infant department were added in 1962, and an extra classroom was built to house a new junior class in 1967. The nursery block was built in 1979 to cater for children from three years of age.
Information taken from the school prospectus
Head teachers
- 2006-
- Mrs J Stackhouse
- -2006
- Mr M Earnshaw