The Oaks Primary School, Crawley

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The Oaks Primary School
Established	1958
Type	Community Primary
Headteacher	Mrs P Forbes
Students	340
Grades	Reception - Y6
Location	Loppets Road Crawley, West Sussex United Kingdom
LEA	West Sussex
Reference	131169
Age Range	4 - 11
Website	http://www.oaks.w-sussex.sch.uk/

The Oaks Primary School is a maintained primary school for pupils aged 4 to 11, located in the Tilgate neighbourhood of Crawley, West Sussex. It currently caters for around 340 pupils.

[edit] History

The Oaks Primary School has a history dating back to the opening of a school on the site in 1958. At that time, the Bishop Bell Infant School opened, with the Bishop Bell Junior School opening the following year. The schools were named for the then Bishop of Chichester

On the same campus, in 1964, a new infant and junior school was opened to serve the new neighbourhood of Furnace Green. It was named for Robert May - an alderman of the local authority - Crawley Borough Council. Pupils from both junior schools moved on to the Thomas Bennett School, also in Tilgate.

In 1974, as part of a re-organisation of provision in the town, both pairs of schools were changed to become first and middle schools. However, falling rolls in thea area meant that by 1979, there were too few pupils to sustain both schools. From September 1979, the Robert May School operated as a first school for pupils aged 5-8, with Bishop Bell operating as a middle school for pupils age 8-12.

Nevertheless, the changing nature of the local population meant that by the late 1990s this structure was also outdated. So, in August 1997 both schools closed, with a new combined first and middle school opening on the Bishop Bell site from 1 September that year. The new school being The Oaks First and Middle School

Just seven years after its previous change, the age of transfer for pupils in Crawley reverted to age 11, and so the combined first and middle school became a primary school from September 2004 under its current name.

[edit] Organisation

The school remains in the original Bishop Bell school buildings, although considerable alterations have been made over the years. The school admits around 60 pupils per academic year, and also has an attached nursery school.