THE EARLY YEARS - 1912 to 1918

Starting Out

By the time of the Opening Ceremony the School was already up and running. It started to admit scholars on 9th January 1912, and by March there were sixty-six pupils, of which twenty-nine were under 12 and thirty-five either 12 or 13. Only two had transferred from other Secondary Schools, the rest having previously attended Elementary Schools within the Borough. Eighteen pupils had been awarded scholarships from various sources, mainly the County Council, and for the others the fees were set at £3.6s.0d per annum, to include games, but not text books.

The staff numbered five, including the Headmaster, with two of the others only part-time. There had been eighty-six applicants for the post of Headmaster, and after interviewing six of them, the Education Committee asked the LEC to approve the appointment of James Henry Cadman B.A., B.Sc.(London). This was agreed, and on 1st December 1911 he commenced his duties as Head of both the Day Secondary School and the Technical Evening College at a total salary of £300 per annum.

Two of the other members of staff, Mr Corlett and Miss Lythgoe, were still teaching at the School over thirty years later, after two World Wars.

By the end of 1913 the student roll was close to a hundred, and the School was growing satisfactorily. All was to change as Europe entered the agony of the Great War. The School was not immune.

The War Years

As the town's menfolk went off to war, the demand for juvenile labour increased, as did family dependence on children's earnings. The school's progress was halted, and for three years as many pupils left as were admitted, so that by the end of 1916 the number of students was still less than a hundred.

The School was affected in other ways, as staff members joined the Forces and replacements were hard to find. Materials were also in short supply. No prizes were awarded to successful students at their own request "in the national interest". Even though the School had opened only in 1912, before the War ended two young former pupils were to die on active service.

In 1915 Mr Cadman resigned as Headmaster to become Director of Studies at the Pitman School of Shorthand, and the search for a successor began at a time when it seemed unlikely that anyone of the right calibre would be found, but the School was fortunate. The successful candidate was Arthur Oldroyd M.A., M.Sc., and he was to remain Headmaster of the School for the next thirty-one years, more than half of its history. He would lead the School through very hard times.

In view of Mr Oldroyd's subsequent achievements, it is ironic that his appointment should provoke the first public scepticism about the School's viability. He was engaged on the same salary as Mr Cadman three years earlier, £300 per annum, but in a heated debate in the Council Chamber it was claimed that the salary was not justified as the school numbers envisaged in 1912 had not been achieved. Blame was directed at the Councillors who had pressed for the provision of the School, and at the people of Heywood, who had not sent their children to the School in the numbers "promised" in the early canvassing.

When it became apparent that the LEC would insist on a salary of at least £300 being paid, the arguments abated, but would be renewed throughout the 1920s, when the School's existence would be under threat.

Although numbers had not increased, academic achievement had progressed apace. The School's reputation was growing, and examination results were outstanding for those who stayed at the School long enough to take them, but more children were withdrawn early. Proceedings were taken to recover fees from parents who failed to give the required period of notice.

Growth was resumed in 1917. In what Mr Oldroyd described as "a wave of educational enthusiasm that has spread over the country", pupil numbers started to rise again. The reasons for this abrupt change were complex. As the War had progressed, it was apparent that those not in the Armed Forces were becoming more affluent. The shortage of manpower and the needs of industry meant that there was work for everybody, and wages rose as employers competed for labour. Overtime work was plentiful. There was also a demand, from industry and the Armed Forces, for better-educated recruits, so that more parents saw education as an investment for their children, with prospects of better jobs and careers. Nationally the proportion of Elementary School children proceeding to Secondary Schools doubled from five per cent to ten per cent between 1915 and 1921.

By the end of 1917 there were 120 students at the School, and by the end of 1918 that had risen to over 140. (At this time Mr Oldroyd complained of shortage of accommodation. When he retired there would be three times that number, and there would be over 600 before the School ceased to exist.) The School had survived the Great War, and the loss of its first Headmaster, and emerged in good shape.