By Nikki Mace, headteacher, Hamsey Green Primary School
75 years ago, the area of Hamsey Green began to thrive, following the end of the Second World War and the 1944 Education Act. Local community groups, such as the Residents’ Association of Sanderstead, Selsdon and Riddlesdown, the Sanderstead Women’s Institute, the Sanderstead Housing League, the Sanderstead Communist Party, the Sanderstead Liberal Party, and the Labour and Conservative parties of Sanderstead and Selsdon, campaigned successfully for a new primary school to be built in Hamsey Green.
And thus, in 1949, two separate schools opened on Tithepit Shaw Lane, on one campus. The middle school opened first, catering for pupils from nine to 12 years old.
50 years ago, as the number of children on the roll continued to increase, a second site was used to house the first school, for pupils aged four to nine. The middle school then became a three-form entry school. A time capsule was buried under the first school hall foundations, and a single form school opened!
Over time, the schools became known as Hamsey Green Infant School, a then three-form entry school, and Hamsey Green Junior School. Again, due to an increase in children in the area, the infant school doubled the number of classes. Eventually, in 1988, extra classrooms were built, allowing Hamsey Green Infant School to become a three-form entry school. It was in this year that the present headteacher, Mrs Mace, joined the school as a new teacher. She has served the school for 25 years!
In 2009, the two schools amalgamated to become Hamsey Green Primary School under acting headteacher Mrs McClelland, and then Mrs Morgan. In 2017, the school was one of five founding schools that formed Tandridge Learning Trust. As headteacher from 2019, Mrs Mace has overseen the new addition to Hamsey Green Primary School, Acorns Nursery, on the former infant school site. Acorns Nursery was opened in September 2020 with 16 children: it is now thriving with over 60!
The whole school celebrated in an assembly, on Friday, 24th May. Each year group presented music and dances from the last seven decades to over forty previous staff members. The staff and children learned about the history of the school through an archive gallery of school logbooks and photographs, and of course there was cake! The Hamsey Green community celebrated on the field in style, with bouncy castles, hot dogs and ice-cream, and memorabilia the children had made to sell.
We wonder what will happen in 25 years’ time, when the school will be 100!
