Parkfields School Toddington
Parkfields School March 2016
On 22nd April 1963 Toddington County Secondary Modern School moved into new premises built adjacent to the old school. The new school was renamed Parkfields County Secondary Modern School to reflect its position off Park Road. The roll comprised 83 boys and 85 girls and staff included the headmaster, deputy head and eight full-time teachers [SDToddpark1/4]. The log book states: Programme for the first morning:
(a) Staff meeting 8.50 am
(b) Assembly 9 am
(c) Children returned to the classrooms to discuss and write out the school rules.
(d) Children toured the building under the direction of the specialist teachers: Rural Studies room, Science room, Woodwork room, Needlework room, Domestic Science room, Hall and Changing rooms, offices and Art room.
(e) An Account of "My First Impression of Parkfields School" was then written.
A modified time table was followed in the afternoon, the following rooms not being available, technical drawing, needlework, housecraft, library and gymnasium".
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. Parkfields became a middle school which it remains at the time of writing [2016].
In 2009 the Local Education Authority, Bedfordshire County Council, was abolished. The county was divided into two unitary authorities with Central Bedfordshire Council becoming the LEA for Toddington.
