West Wight Middle School – now sadly demolished – served West Wight villages for 40 years between 1971 and 2011.
No school has served students aged 11+ from the less densely populated side of the Island since.
The middle school was situated at the junction of Windmill Lane and Queens Road in Freshwater. At one time, it was colloquially known as ‘Windmill Lane School’.
The school building was completed as far back as 1906 and was the first council school to be provided at the western end of the Isle of Wight. The first buildings – designed to accommodate 160 pupils – were built at a cost of £1,800 (£186,500 in today’s values).
There were originally just 2 gaslit classrooms – a ‘large’ schoolroom and a smaller infants-room with 2 ‘commodious’ cloak rooms and 2 sex segregated playgrounds.
Freshwater’s Council School was opened on 31st August 1906 by then MP Godfrey Baring.
Mr Baring congratulated the local education committee on having:
“in that airy, well-lighted, and well drained building, everything that a school should be, and the very best that money could provide, sanitary and well ventilated, and in all respects as modern requirements demanded.”
The Chairman of the County Education Committee, Alderman G Fellows, expressed the hope that:
“there would go out from that school year by year and generation from generation boys and girls destined to be Godfearing, loyal, honest, industrious and worthy citizens of our great Empire.”
With the introduction of the 11-plus education In 1946 (grammar schools and secondary moderns), Windmill Lane School became West Wight Secondary Modern.
Remarkably – for 21st century readers – the secondary modern included its own farm, designed to give good preliminary agricultural training for girls and boys aged from 13 to 15.
Land was purchased and arrangements made for the midweek boarding of children from the more remote Island villages.
Lessons on the agricultural courses were certainly hands on. Former students have vivid memories of castrating pigs, wringing chickens’ necks and holding electric fences.
One former West Wight Secondary student recalls being taken at 03:00 to milk the cows. One of the worst memories was of fending off an enraged sow whilst attempting to give piglets injections.
One of the most famous former pupils to have attended the school in the 60s was ‘Snowy’ White, guitarist with Thin Lizzy.
West Wight Secondary Modern became West Wight Middle School in 1971. The animals in the school farm were moved to an Isle of Wight Council farm in Branstone (near Sandown).
Some things changed little from the previous regime. Corporal punishment (the slipper) continued at the new school even into the 70s.
In the 60s, pupils from the former secondary modern went on school trips to the ‘exciting’ West Midlands industrial town of Wolverhampton. ‘Highlights’ of the trip included going down a coal mine and a visit to a steel rolling mill. The Midlands children would come to the Isle of Wight in turn, where they would experience the novelty of fields and beaches.
The middle school students were more fortunate. There were trips to the Isle of Arran (Scotland), Llanbrynmair (Wales) and Dinard in France.
Drama productions at the school were memorable. One of the best remembered was the production of Oliver in 1975.
Unfortunately, not all West Wight Middle School drama productions were successful, with one having to be abandoned in the 90s when the curtains caught fire.
Most former pupils have happy memories of West Wight Middle School, one saying:
“It was an innocent time. I wish sometimes nothing had changed. And it’s such a shame it’s not there any more.”
When former pupils were asked in an online poll whether they would send children to the school long after it had been demolished, 86% answered in the affirmative.
However, one former West Wight veteran informed a teacher – after receiving a “bollocking” – that he wanted to “knock the place down”.
His wish came true. After the school had been closed, he went on to help build 50 houses on the site.
West Wight Middle School was not overly successful academically. Its average points score at Key Stage 2 was 26.6 at the time of its closure, compared with the local authority average of 27.6 and the national average for England of 27.8.
For example, 11% of school students achieved Level 5 in English, whereas the comparable figures were 27% for the Isle of Wight and 32% for England.
West Wight Middle School closed for pupils on 21st July 2011 following the decision made to abandon the 3-tier system of education in 2008.
In 2013, the site of the school was sold to Spectrum Premier Housing for £825,000.
A memorial stone made from a block of granite taken from Hatherwood Battery at Alum Bay now marks the site where the school once stood.
Did you go to West Wight Middle (or Secondary Modern)? What do you remember the school farm, school trips or school plays? Let us know in the comments.
