School History
The ICT club have created a timeline of our school and added information about national and international events that happened at the same time. Many thanks to David Bond from the Hampshire Record Office who came to visit and share lots of information with us about our school.
Sparsholt Primary School is situated in the village of Sparsholt on the outskirts the historic city of Winchester. It occupies an idyllic site surrounded by fields, opposite the Parish Church.
Before the present school was built there was a “dame school” in Sparsholt in a cottage, which was demolished in the 1950s. Prior to that, lads were taught their letters and numbers by craftsmen of the village. It was in the 1850s, still long before education was compulsory, that the Church of England set up the forerunner of the present school.
In 1850 the Vicar of Sparsholt, the Reverend Edward Stewart, acquired the present site by a deed of gift from the owner of Lainston House. The new church school in Sparsholt was to be built of brick and flint with a tiled roof. The schoolroom was built to accommodate 60 children.
In 1874 it was decided to enlarge the school building in accordance with the requirements of the Education Department following the Forster Education Act, which made education compulsory for all up to the age of 11 years. In 1876 the work on the brick and flint building was complete and the school was re-opened as the Sparsholt National School.
In 1926 the playground was enlarged. Temporary buildings erected in the late ‘60s and ‘70s, remained until 1997. The school moved into its present surroundings, in November 1997, the result of a long and determined campaign to replace temporary accommodation with extended permanent facilities.
The original building has been wonderfully transformed into spacious teaching and resource areas with an area for food technology and a craft resources room. An entrance area and information centre link the administration areas and special educational needs room with the four class teaching areas: the brick and flint is contrasted with a pale colour render on the lower classrooms. All classes in the new building have direct access to outside areas in addition to the use of shared internal resource areas. There is a computer suite equipped with personal computers and eight laptops fully loaded with educational software.
The newly constructed village hall on the same site is available to us throughout the day. It is a marvellous space with a sprung floor which we use for P.E., lunch and daily assemblies. We also have a sports field where the full range of winter and summer sports are enjoyed. In 2008 we added a further teaching space (as a mezanneine floor above one of the classrooms). The future development will build on the school's long traditions – and provide quality education at the heart of the community.