Sculthorpe ES/JHS (a.k.a. Sculthorpe Dependents' School) History
Opened: 1949
Closed: 1964
Constant expansion was the theme of the Base Dependents’ School at RAF Station Sculthorpe, Norfolk, England. When officially employed by the Strategic Air Command in the late 1940’s, the RAF Sergeants’ Mess Hall was converted to a one room school to serve the approximately fifty children who were then in attendance.
The arrival of the units of the 47th Bombardment Wing at Sculthorpe during the period between 1951 and the beginning of the 1953 school year increased the number of military dependents in the area on a long-term basis and fostered the expansion of the school facilities on base.
The first of Sculthorpe school's many growing pains was felt in 1951 when it became necessary to provide educational training for 150 students in grades one through eight. The teaching staff consisted of four Americans and two English educators. Textbooks used by the students were donated by the state of Texas. In 1953 a library service was provided with books that had been loaned from the Norfolk (England) County Council. Gradually these were replaced, and the library now offered twenty-five hundred books.
By 1955, the growth of Sculthorpe school warranted the creation of a Junior High School. Seventh and eighth grade students were enrolled in a primary school until the new section was established. In its first year, the Junior High School at Sculthorpe had an enrollment of sixty-five students served by three teachers. In the 1956-57 school year, a ninth grade was added along with three teachers. The Junior High enrollment reached 104.
The school was closed in 1964.
Information from the 1957 Vapor Trails