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Our History

By 1580 there was an established school at Offington. In 1581 a schoolmaster was recorded as being in Broadwater. In 1613 records show the curate of Findon was licensed to teach in the school.

By 1805 the parish rector and his wife had established a Sunday school for poor children.

In 1818 there were separate Sunday schools for boys and girls, whose master and mistress were paid by the rector.

An infants' school was established in 1817 which, with those in Worthing, was claimed to be among the earliest in England. In 1818 it had about 40 boys and girls, and it was supported by the parish and by W. Davison, Chaplain of the Worthing Chapel of Ease.

In 1826 the north transept of Broadwater church was converted for the use of the school. The school was supported by subscriptions and school pence in 1833. By her will (proved in 1835) Lucy Hawes left a quarter of the income from £1,000 to the free schools of the parish, which was still received in 1974. A building grant was received in 1840, and by 1847 the school was united with the National Society. It then had 23 boys and 40 girls on the roll, with one paid mistress, and it was supported by subscriptions and payments.

By 1848 the school occupied a building at the east end of the village, and in around 1849 it moved to a converted barn north of the church. A new school, for both infants and older children, was built in 1873 on a site at the south-east corner of the green given by the ladies of the manor. The average attendance was 92 in 1874. By 1903-4 the school was divided into mixed and infant schools with attendances of 145 and 80 respectively.

In the late 1920s it was reorganized as a mixed junior and infant school and there was an average attendance of 159 in 1932.

In 1937 a new school was built in Rectory Gardens, the old one being demolished for road-widening.

In 1976 the school became a first and middle school with an average attendance of 388.

We became a Primary School in 2016 and now have just under 440 pupils from Early Years through to Year 6.

Above: 1905, Broadwater Green, looking South from what is now Grove Lodge roundabout.
Above: 1908, Broadwater Green, looking South with the school on the right, and the Parish Rooms second down on the left.
Above: 1920, Broadwater Green, showing three children with the school behind them, the pump, and the Parish Rooms on the other side of the road into Worthing.
Above: Now, Broadwater School current site in Rectory Gardens.