In 1920 the Boys' and Girls' Departments were combined to form Sandy Junior (Mixed) School. The infants remained in a separate department. A further school was created on the site called Sandy Central School, again a mixed establishment.
Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service has a scrapbook of cuttings of visits made to most Bedfordshire Schools by School Inspectors for a period from just before the First World War through the inter-war years [E/IN1/1]. The first report on the Central School took place in March 1923, when average attendance was 89. "This school was re-organised some three years ago. The intention was that, after certain structural alterations had ebeen made, the building should house children from the neighbouring schools who were capable of benefitting from instruction, suitable to the locality, which should be in advance of that usually given in Public Elementary Schools. As a fact, children were admitted experimentally before the alterations were made".
"The minimum requirements as to premises are now nearly completed: a scheme has been rpepared for approval: and the school were therefore visited in order that the capability of those in the school might be verified. A change of Head Teacher was made a year ago".
"It must be at once said that there is, at present, no possibility of approving an advanced curriculum here. Under some unfortunate minsconception little discrimmination in admissions has been exercised, and the children of poor attainments and low mental ability have been allowe to enter. The Head Teacher's judgement in the treatment appropriate to these children has also beens eriously at fault. The work has been proceeding on the assumption, which is not justified, that the children can speak, read, calculate, and write fairly well. Consequently the weakness in all thes essentials has been slurred over or neglected, and the Schemes are too ambitious for the majority to follow with intelligence. The results of the examination which was held at this visit are astonishingly bad in far too many cases. The papers in Arithmetic and Composition have been sent to the Local Education Authority and will, no soubt be returned to the school in due course. The Reading and Recitation heard was inferior: Historical Knowledge is scrappy; Drawing is crude but is being improved gradually".
"The Manual Instruction Centre is used by classes too large for the room: and the work in school has not had close relationship to the work in the Centre. This has been discussed".
"It is recommended that the children now in the school should be given simplet work, and that speech, reading, calculation and formation of handwriting should receive special attention".
"A further point of serious gravity is the presence, in the Boys' Offices, of indecent scribbling and drawing, with a hint of immorality".
This is the only inspection for the CentralSchool, which seems to have been an unsuccessful experiment and closed in 1924. An inspection of the PublicElementaryMixedSchool in 1929 noted: "There are at the present time 233 children on the register. About 60 of these come from six neighbouring villages, Blunham and Roxton accounting for 46 of these”.