History

Booker Hill Primary School opened on 4^th January 1954 to meet the needs of families on the newly built Bookerhill estate.  The first pupils transferred from Castlefield and Sands Primary schools and were under the care of Headteacher, Miss Rachel Evans and Deputy, Mr John Pratt.   The school originally catered for children aged 5-11years but over the years it changed from 5-12 years and back again.  Parents of some of the first pupils can remember queuing up on the first morning with their little ones and being ushered into the hall to await news of where to go and what to do.

The school served a large area including the RAF community at Clayhill. The children from there were driven to and from school by special bus until the new schools were built along the Cressex Road.  In the school’s early years classrooms were set up in the assembly hall and dining hall to accommodate the demand for places.  Terrapins (portable classrooms) were later built on the playing field.  A permanent classroom was built (affectionately called the annex) and later still, a new permanent classroom joining the original classrooms with the new annex.  In more recent years a covered walkway has been enclosed to give the school a complete indoors.

In the early days when children lived on the estate, many went home for lunch but a purpose built kitchen with a team of cooks provided a hot meal every day for those who wanted to stay.

Unlike today, the playground was very sparse with no outdoor play equipment.  During the 1960’s there was an above ground swimming pool and changing rooms in the centre quadrangle of the school which was available for swimming lessons for the children of the school . Due to the cost and upkeep of the pool it was taken away – the children went to the newly built Sports centre at Handy Cross for their swimming lessons.  The quad area gradually became an environmental area with a pond and today is home to a “state of the art” solardome. They have their very own Eden centre!

The Coppice Nursery school was built in the school grounds and officially opened in June 1964.  Although it was independent from the main school the children loved being invited to various activities at “Big school”. The Coppice was very popular with parents and children from all over High Wycombe but many of the children transferred to Booker Hill at the age of 5 years.  The Coppice Nursery was amalgamated with Booker Hill in 2002 and the two schools became Booker Hill School and Nursery.

In the early years there were not many out of school activities apart from the popular football and netball clubs.  There was an accent on music, mainly the recorder but some children tried the guitar and clarinet.

The 50 year anniversary occasion bought together many of the names on the first pages of the admission book of 4^th January 1954.  Many of the visitors on that day were parents and grandparents of the present children at the school.  Along with the stories and entertainment from the youngsters of the year 2004 many happy memories were passed around. 

Click here to read the programme from the official opening in 1954