Catalogue description SOUTH HACKNEY SCHOOL

The records of this deposit were donated to the GLRO by the wife of the late Headmaster on 14 Dec 1994. They include the logbook of the Headmistress, Miss Beswick, and contain her thoughts on the eve of retirement as she looks back over the life of the school. (ACC/3454/13). There is also a more detailed history of the school in 'The Diary' - 1910-1955 'The Story of Cassland Secondary School' (ACC/3454/10/1-4).

Further records held at the London Metropolitan Archives relating to South Hackney School:

Admission + Discharge Registers EO/DIV4/SOU/A& D/1 1910-1912

EO/DIV4/SOU/A& D/1 1913-1926

Inspectors Reports LCC/EO/PS/12/573/1-3 1923-1969

LCC/EO/PS/12/C20/1-6 1903-1952

Log Books EO/DIV4/SOU/LB/1 1928-1939 (closed until 2003)

Punishment Book EO/DIV4/SOU/MISC/1 1910-1913

Photographs 22.133 SOU Exterior 1972

22.133 SOU Exterior 1976

For Lauriston County Secondary School:

Inspectors Reports LCC/EO/PS/12/L12/1-39 1895-1963

Log Books EO/DIV4/LAU/LB/1 1892-1913 Boys

EO/DIV4/LAU/LB/2 1913-1926 Boys

EO/DIV4/LAU/LB/3 1913-1929 Senior Mixed

EO/DIV4/LAU/LB/4 1932-1951 Senior Mixed (closed until 2017)

EO/DIV4/LAU/LB/5 1953-1957 Mixed (closed until 2023)

EO/DIV4/LAU/LB/6 1893-1906 Evening

Minutes of Teachers Annual Conference

EO/DIV4/LAU/MISC/1 1899-1924

EO/DIV4/LAU/MISC/2 1893-1898

South Hackney School

Documents deposited in the Greater London Record Office in 1994

• Schools

South Hackney School began its life as Lauriston Road Central School, which opened in March 1911 in an area that was then a fashionable suburb of London. After World War One air raids over London, the school moved into an existing school building in Cassland Road in 1917. It is believed that this Cassland Road building was the last Higher Grade School built by the London School Board before county councils took over responsibility for education in 1904.

The name of the school changed in 1913 to Hackney Central school, which reflected its role as one of the new Central schools established in 1911 by the LCC to provide education for brighter children whose parents could not afford the fees and had not won a scholarship. According to Mr Chew, Hackney Central's Headmaster from 1911-1943, these schools "were intended to put boys and girls on the road they could travel best." Hackney Central Secondary school covered a fixed catchment area of elementary schools, and began with a commercial bias towards shorthand, book-keeping and typing. The syllabus developed towards more general education, although passing public examinations was not the primary aim of the Central Schools.

The school in Cassland Road was bombed during the blitz and many children were evacuated to Northampton. In 1944 the school was forced to use another building in Lauriston Road and a new Headmistress, Miss Beswick took charge. The inter-war years started a tradition of school journeys, music and drama activities that continued to the present. The war had caused severe disruption with pupil numbers falling to 280, but the 1950s saw a period of growth and development in terms of education, both nationally and for South Hackney School in particular.

Although the changes established by the 1944 Education Act redefined the role of secondary education and the Central Schools, Hackney Central was one of a few such schools allowed to select its pupils until the comprehensive system was introduced. But when the Education Committee decided that a school could not be allowed to bear the name of a borough, it was obliged to change its name in 1951 to Cassland Secondary School. The name derived from the old estate of Sir John Cass a prominent educationalist, on whose grounds the school stood. The Sir John Cass Foundation gave permission for the family badges and shield to be worn on the uniform, and old pupils became familiarly known as "Old Casslanders".

The present South Hackney School was formed in 1958 through an amalgamation of Cassland County Secondary School and Lauriston Road Central School.

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