The History of Kimberley School
Kimberley School Secondary - An 80 Year Legacy
In 2025 we celebrate the school's 80th year of public education. As the surrounding communities have grown over the years so too has the school. Beginning with only the humble red brick building overlooking Newdigate street, the site has continuously expanded and adapted to meet the needs of the ever increasing catchment and curriculum. Today over 1200 students may learn from 29 subjects with specialised facilities over ten buildings, the latest of which was added as recently as 2019.
The demand for a new school in Kimberley was evident from the early 1930s; the impatience of Nottinghamshire County Council to ensure Kimberley was provided with a new school led to plans being laid out by the end of 1934. Construction began in 1935.
Within two years, the initial part of the Newdigate Lane School (a range of modern ‘Technical Rooms’) had been erected at a cost of £4,997. In January 1937, plans for the rest of the building had been made, with the aim to extend the Technical rooms in order to create a square building with a series of inner courtyards overlooked by a School Hall and a Library
By February 1938, the expansion had been approved and work began in the autumn to finish the school building. A year later, nearing its completion, Kimberley’s first Headmaster, Mr T. J. Kirk, was appointed.
In the early months of 1940, four classrooms and the gymnasium were in use by pupils from the British School (now the site of Kimberley Parish Hall). However, within a year - as the military presence in nearby Watnall grew - the decision was made by the War Department to requisition the newly built school for use by the Anti-Aircraft Command, which was occupying the nearby Cloverlands Hall and its grounds. The Anti-Aircraft Command maintained control of the school grounds until the war ended in 1945.
The 1944 Education Act (often referred to as the ‘Butler Act’) further-expanded the education provision by raising the school leaving age to fifteen and enforced the division of primary and secondary pupils. These changes prompted Nottingham Education Committee to push for the return of all schools requisitioned by the military. It was thus agreed that the Anti-Aircraft Command would vacate the main building at Kimberley by September 1945, and the kitchen by January 1946.
The Butler Act sought to fund school improvement across the country. One suggestion was that schools were to be bright and colourful places where high-quality lessons could be delivered. Consequently, before its reopening in 1946, the new classrooms, with high ceilings and globe-shaped pendant lights, were repainted in an array of bright colours.
Kimberley was officially handed back to Nottingham Education Committee on 5th July 1946. Its reopening was widely celebrated by the local community and the ceremony, attended by Mr James Griffiths (the Minister for National Insurance) was well-documented by the local press.
‘We are making another milestone in the great progress of making education what it ought to be: the opportunity of every child and not the privilege of the few’.
James Griffiths (the Minister for National Insurance), July 1946
Since reopening to pupils in 1954, we have continued to expand our school in order to serve our local community. We are continually striving for excellence in the present whilst investing in the future of both our school, its staff and of course our students.
O Tuck 2025
With thanks to R Plumb for research and contributions