St. Aidan's C. of E. (Voluntary Aided) Primary School
1995-2004
The school was conceived in April 1994, when due to re-organisation in Doncaster, St. George's C.E. First School and Curlew Middle School were merged together to create an all through school on the St. George's site.
The merger created extra building work on the site, including a extra classroom as well as a purpose built Nursery Unit, creating a "New" school - St. Aidan's (after the parish in which it fell).
The School was born in September 1994, with building work completed 21 March 1995.
Due to the school's ability to take "Special Needs" children, in 2001 the library was extended with closing shutters, so that the room could be divided into two smaller classes, and a "Conservatory" was added at the back of the cramped Staff Room, again this had doors that could be closed off for it too be also used as another small classroom.
2003 saw a bright start to the year with the school celebrating 50 years since 1953, as a school on Clay Lane, a special service was arranged and the Bishop was present, then come the autumn the school had a Ofsted inspection and recived avery poor result, which was unexpected, the school put plans in motion to reverse the trend but was unsuccessful and the follow up report in early 2003 showed no improvements despite protests from Staff, Governors and Parents alike.
Marion Wharton, the Head, decided to take early retirement and in September JohnHunter was brought in from Mexborough by the Diocese and Education Department, but low morale persisted and parents began to take their children out to other schools and numbers also dwindled.
By the following Easter term a further temporary appointed head became acting headteacher whilst the school was set to close.
The chair of Governors, Rev. D. Goss himself upset at how the school had been treated, stood down, Paul Wakefield took over for the school's final term and oversaw the final closure in July 2004
Head Teacher
1995 - 2003 Mrs M. Wharton
Chair of Governors
1994 - 1995 - Rev. L. jenkins
1996 - 2004 - Rev D. Goss
The "Birds Eye" View of the school is taken from bing Multimaps whom I hope will not mind its reproduction as I am unable to find any such pictures elsewhere.
The picture is dated after September 2003 as there are only two cars parked in the former playground by the Nursery.
This is because Canon Popham C of E School utilised the building until their own purpose built nursery could be completed.
(The fact that they had advertised an artists impression of their nursery just before any mention was made that St Aidan's was closing was either intentional or unfortunate!)
