Our School
We are situated in the High Weald AONB - a medieval landscape of wooded, rolling hills studded with sandstone outcrops; small irregular-shaped fields; scattered farmsteads; and ancient routeways. Yet we are only a few miles from the sea - Hastings has the largest beach-launched fishing fleet in Britain.
We have our own swimming pool and the children have swimming lessons from a qualified instructor from Easter until October.
Each classroom is equipped with an interactive whiteboard, laptop, computers and a visualiser for sharing children's work. The latest addition is a tablet for each class. We also have a purpose-built ICT suite..
The governors, staff and PTA are continually looking at ways to improve the learning environment for our children. We are very excited to have built a new facility at our school where we can run nurture groups and hold music lessons and small booster groups. We have decided to call it The Burrow - a bit like the Weasley's House in Harry Potter! We offer Lego therapy, 1:1 and small group counseling, art based therapies such as Drawing and Talking and gardening or cookery based nurture activities.
You can read our school prospectus here.
Our School History
In 1706, Robert Bradshaw came to Guestling as its Rector and realised how few amenities the community had. In his will he left a £15 endowment, to be paid half yearly to a fit and able person to teach reading to 20 poor children of the parish. Children, should their parents desire it, were taught to write, but only up to the age of 14 years.
In 1835, land was given for a two-roomed school to be built, each room to accommodate up to 100 children; boys and girls separately, of course! The building was to provide accommodation for a schoolmaster and schoolmistress, their joint salary to be £46 per annum. The children were to learn the three Rs, and the girls needlework and knitting, with navigation for the boys (the three N’s perhaps?). The school was built around 1840.
The school takes in children from the parishes of Guestling, Pett and Fairlight, as well as children from further afield. The name of the school, which changed to its present one in 1957, was formerly Guestling Parochial School. With the closures of both Pett and Fairlight Schools at that time, Guestling provided an amalgamated school and building improvements increased the school from two to five classrooms, with a hall and kitchen being added. In 1972 a swimming pool was provided and in due course it was housed and heated.
A paved area with benches and an area of decking funded and built by the PTA gave children a quiet place to sit. In 1998 the Reception classroom was extended and in 2001 a new extension was added to replace the 'temporary' classrooms in the playground and provide much improved accommodation for the infant children. A friendship circle in our wooded area, built in memory of a member of staff, gave children some much-needed shade and a place to sit and think. In recent years all of the junior classrooms have been extended, making them light and spacious, and the PTA fulfilled a long-standing ambition to provide the children with an adventure playground.
The Trustees of the Bradshaw School Charity oversee the land on which the buildings stand.