Brickhill Middle School

In the early 1970s education in Bedfordshire changed significantly from the model it had followed since the Education Act of 1944 which had established the principle of County Primary Schools for children up to the age of 11, at which time they took an examination to determine the nature of the secondary school they would attend until they were 15, the most academically able going to grammar schools, the rest to secondary or secondary modern schools. The new comprehensive education model did away with the 11+ examination and grammar schools and introduced a tier of school between the old County Primary and County Secondary Schools. Thus Lower Schools now taught children aged 4 to 9, Middle Schools from 9 to 13 and Upper Schools from 13 onwards.

The old Brickhill County Primary Junior School had opened in 1963, sharing a site with an infant school which later became Brickhill Lower School. Brickhill Middle School was created in the mid-1970s as part of the new comprehensive model in the old junior school buildings. In 1991 it was merged with Park Wood Middle School to form a new school - Beauchamp Middle School on the Park Wood site. The Brickhill site was sold to developers McLean Homes North London Limited in 1995 [CCE1310/7] and built on.

The following list gives all the sources relating to Brickhill Middle School held by Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service. Due to the terms of the Data Protection Act records containing personal details of living individuals will be closed in total, or in part, depending on the nature of the information.

• CA2/63: land for the secondary school and building contract: 1957;
• CCE1310/1-7: deeds to the land forming the site of the school: 1959-1995;
• CA7/4: plans for proposed development: 1959-1960;
• SDBedBrickM/6: admission register: 1963-1972;
• CA8/19: building maintenance file: 1966-1970;
• CA8/18: building maintenance file: 1967-1970;
• SDBedBrick/M7: admission register: 1969-1988;
• SDBedBrickM/9: cricket scoring book: 1970-1974;
• EBGM5: Bedford Borough school managers’ minutes: 1970-1974;
• CA2/701: conversion of the buildings into a middle school: 1973-1979;
• SGM39/1: school governors’ minutes: 1974-1986;
• CA2/854: alterations and extensions: 1976-1980;
• CA8/960: building maintenance file: 1979-1984;
• E/OL1/6/1: participation in school foreign exchanges: 1979-1981;
• E/TE3/2: return of teaching staff: 1981;
• SDBedBrickM/1: school log book: 1982-1984;
• X494/33/7 and 13: Save Brickhill Middle School material: 1982-1984;
• E/SC2/B-Brick1-6: closure of the school: 1982-1990;
• E/IL1/5/1: participation in Calvados exchange visit: 1984;
• E/TE3/7: return of teaching staff: 1986;
• SGM39/2: school governors’ minutes: 1986-1988;
• E/MS3/2/1: kitchen and other details: c. 1987;
• SDBedBrickM/8: admission register: 1988-1990;
• SDBedBrickM/2: school finance: 1988-1990;
• SDBedBrickM/3: correspondence regarding merger: 1988-1990;
• SDBedBrickM/4: notes on organisation of merged school: c. 1989;
• SDBedBrickM/5: plans of re-organisation of governing body on merger: 1989-1990;
• CCE1310/1-7: conveyance of school site to McLean Homes North London Limited: 1995.