Park Wood Middle School Brickhill

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.

Park Wood was created as a middle school as part of this comprehensive model. It opened its doors to children aged 9 to 13 in 1970. In 1991 it was merged with Brickhill Middle School to form a new school - Beauchamp Middle School on the Park Wood site.

The following list gives all the sources relating to Park Wood 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.

• CA7/8: correspondence and schedules of accommodation: 1967-1968;
• AO/C9/4: school site file: 1968-1970;
• SDBedfordParkWood2: admission register: 1970-1972;
• EBGM1: Bedford Borough school governors’ minutes: 1970-1974;
• SDBedfordParkWood1: school logbook: 1970-1991;
• SDBedfordParkWood3: admission register: 1972-1980;
• CA8/508: building maintenance file: 1974-1981;
• SGM45/1-2: school governors’ minutes: 1975-1988;
• SDBedfordParkWood4: admission register: 1980-1990;
• E/TE3/2: return of teaching staff: 1981;
• E/PM3/2/4: information on Travellers’ children at the school: 1982-1987;
• SDBedfordParkWood13: assembly notices: 1983;
• E/TE2/2: details of the school: 1984;
• SDBedfordParkWood14: press cuttings: 1985-1989;
• SDBedfordParkWood6-12: pupil records: 1985-1992;
• E/TE3/7: return of teaching staff: 1986;
• E/MS3/2/1: kitchen and other details: c. 1987;
• E/ME6/3/1: school’s refusal to take part in a pilot project on multicultural education needs: 1987-1988;
• CC/HS3/3/1: poor ventilation in the craft area: 1988;
• SDBedfordParkWood5: admission register: 1990-1991.