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Shirley Community Primary School

History of Shirley Community Primary School

The interesting history of the two schools and their sites is explained by Nicky Morland in her monograph of 2022.

See Chesterton Primary / Shirley School

Overview by Nicky Morland (2022)

In September 1932 with an expanding population in East Chesterton, Cambridge Corporation opened a new Infants school in Green End Road, the Shirley School, that accommodated children from the Infant section of St Andrew’s Church of England School, High Street, Chesterton, so providing separate Infants and Junior Schools. 

The individual Infant and Junior schools were maintained until 2006 when Cambridgeshire County Council closed St Andrew’s Church of England Junior School following the school being put in special measures for a 2nd time. Shirley School Governors at the request of the Local Authority agreed to extend the age range of the Infant and Nursery School to include the Junior School and this led to the formation of Shirley Community Nursery and Primary School. 

A new all through Primary School, was built by Cambridgeshire County Council on the Nuffield Road site previously that of St Andrew’s CoE Junior School. St Andrew’s had relocated to that site in 1982 from its original site in High Street, Chesterton, the location now of Primary Court.  Children from the original Shirley Infants school in Green End Road were transferred over to the Nuffield Road school over a period of 2 years. 

Education provision had completed a full circle from a C19 St Andrew’s School for Junior and Infant, through individual provision, St Andrew’s CoE Junior School & Shirley Infants School est 1932, back to the full Primary age range provision, Shirley Community Nursery and Primary School, est 2006. The school in Nuffield Road is now (in 2022) called Shirley Community Primary School 

The original site of Shirley Infants School in Green End Road was due to be sold by the Local Authority however the demands of a booming population in the area required the establishment of a new Primary school. Since at this point in time all new schools were to be academies, a selection process was undertaken. The site is now occupied by Chesterton Primary, an Academy School of ALT, Active Learning Trust which opened in September 2013. 

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