Pitsea Schools – Page 1: Early Education and Pitsea School

Education in Old Pitsea

For much of the nineteenth century Pitsea was a small rural parish, so education developed on a much smaller scale than the school network familiar today. Population growth following the arrival of the railway in 1855 gradually created greater demand for permanent local school facilities.

Pitsea Council School Opens

A major milestone came on 1 March 1909 when Pitsea Council School opened in the High Road. The school became a long-standing local landmark and later operated as separate Pitsea County Infant and Junior Schools. Historical directory material from the period records the school as serving hundreds of local children as Pitsea's population expanded.

The High Road School Site

The school stood on the north side of the High Road and survived enormous changes around it. As roads and housing were developed during the New Town period, part of the school's front playing field was lost when the Pitsea Road junction with the High Road was created in the 1970s.

A School That Kept Changing

The original building was extended during its early decades as pupil numbers and educational needs changed. A small swimming pool for the infant school was officially opened in June 1970 after volunteer parents helped assemble it on site.

Len Wastell Infant School

From September 2003 the infant school was renamed Len Wastell Infant School in memory of a popular long-serving school governor who had died in 1999. The junior school continued under the Pitsea name.

Maple Grove Primary School

In September 2015 the infant and junior schools were brought together as Maple Grove Primary School. The change gave a new name to an educational site whose history stretched back more than a century.