Linslade Schools Since 1965

From the transfer of Linslade to Bedfordshire on 1st April 1965 until the abolition of Bedfordshire on 1st April 2009 the schools in Linslade fell under the control of Bedfordshire County Council as Local Education Authority. From 1st April 2009 responsibility was transferred to a new unitary council - Central Bedfordshire.

Between 1965 and the early 1970s the schools in Linslade remained the same as when they were in Buckinghamshire - as set up the the Education Act 1944 which 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. 

In the 1970s Bedfordshire County Council introduced comprehensive education, doing away with the 11+ examination and grammar schools and introducing 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.

Cedars Upper School October 2008

Cedars Upper School

Cedars School began in Church Square, Leighton Buzzard but by the early 1970s it was clear that the site was too small. The school  owned land off Mentmore Road in Linslade which it used as playing fields. It was decided to build a new school on that site which would be an upper school under comprehensive reorganisation. The school moved to Linslade and changed its designation in 1973.

Linslade Middle School October 2008

Linslade Middle School

Linslade had a County Secondary School at least as early as 1953, when the governors minutes begin [SGM24]. This school became a middle school on comprehensive reorganisation and shares the Mentmore Road site with Cedars Upper School.

Linslade Lower School October 2008

Linslade Lower School

By 1965 Linslade County Primary School occupied the site in Leopold Road first used for Linslade Boys Council School in 1913. In 1956 conditions were so cramped that the Local Education Authority negotiated with Mentmore Road Methodist Church to lease their Sunday School for weekly lessons. New building later eased this problem and now [2003] only the younger children occupy the 1913 buildings.

Southcott Lower School October 2008

Southcott Lower School

This school was built on Bideford Green, some distance from the hamlet of Southcott, in 1973 to educate children from this rapidly expanding part of Linslade. It was briefly a County Primary School, taking children up to the age of eleven, before becoming a Lower School in 1979.

Greenleas Lower School October 2008

Greenleas Lower School

This is the newest school in Linslade, being built at the end of the 1970s as a Lower School, It is in Derwent Road and serves the newest estates in the town.