Corsham - Education

Education

The education authority for Corsham and its surrounding area is Wiltshire County Council, which maintains seven primary schools and one secondary school. The primary schools, catering for students up to age 11 are

• Box Church of England Primary School, High Street, Box. Founded in 1875 as an elementary board school, it now has about 170 pupils.
• Corsham Primary School, split between Pound Pill, and Broadwood Avenue, Corsham, was formed from the origins of Lady Methuen’s School for Girls (founded 1816), The National School for Girls (c.1840s) and Corsham British School For Boys (c. 1840). These schools came under the aegis of the Corsham School Board in 1893 and were finally merged in 1923. It now provides for about 540 students.
• Corsham Regis School, Kings Avenue, Corsham, opened in 1943 for the children of incoming military workers. It became specifically a junior school in 1955 when older children transferred to the Corsham Secondary Modern School, and now has about 180 students. It has 7 classrooms and a nursery called ABC.
• Lypiatt Primary School near Neston, to the south of Corsham itself, and was opened in 1951 to cater for children of Ministry of Defence employees; it now has about 16 students.
• Neston Primary School, Church Rise, Neston, was founded in 1861 as Corshamside School. It now provides for about 170 students.
• Shaw Church of England (Controlled) Primary School in Corsham Road, Shaw, Melksham, takes pupils from Corsham. Founded in the 1840s, it expanded over the years as an elementary school until 1953, when a secondary school opened in Melksham and Shaw became a primary school. It now has about 185 students.
• St Patrick's Catholic Primary School, Lacock Road, Corsham, opened in 1966 and now has about 200 pupils.
• The Corsham School, The Tynings, is Corsham's only secondary school; it was opened in 1972 as a comprehensive school and is now a specialist Visual Arts and Maths and Computing College with approximately 1400 students. Catering for students from 11 to 18, its DCSF educational statistics are generally better than for Wiltshire as a whole. Its most recent Ofsted inspection, in 2009, assessed it as Outstanding in most areas.

• The Heywood Preparatory School, Priory Street, is an independent school providing education from ages 3 to 11, and has about 190 pupils. It achieved a favourable assessment when last inspected in June 2008, being described as "successful in meeting its aims and outstandingly so in many areas. It meets the needs of all pupils who are well educated in the widest sense". It is located on two acres of property in the centre of Corsham, near Corsham Court, and was first mentioned in the Domesday Book as a priory donated to an order of monks.The building itself is a Grade II Georgian building built in Bath stone in 1776, later additions include a barn, used as a dining room and later a science block and multi-functional performance hall built in the previous decade. The school is owned by Michael and Pamela Hall, who are the bursar and headteacher respectively who bought it in 1993. The school was rated 95th in The Sunday Times Good Schools Guide, previously it was 115th.