The Lafford High School

The Lafford High School, Billinghay was a secondary-level, co-educational Community School in Billinghay, a village in the English county of Lincolnshire. Opened in 1963 to serve several villages near Billinghay, it serving pupils aged 11 to 16 before closing in 2010. The school used a secondary modern admissions system and had a capacity for 365 pupils at the time of its closure.

Planning
The Education Act 1944 made secondary education available to all children up to the age of 15; a 'tripartite system' of secondary schools was established to provide curricula based on aptitude and ability: grammar schools for "academic" pupils, secondary moderns for practical studies, and technical schools for science and engineering. Pupils were allocated to them depending on their score in the eleven-plus examination. There was no dedicated secondary school in the district around Billinghay, so the village schools continued to take pupils up to the age of 14; because they lacked capacity to teach 14 to 15 year olds as well, a temporary HORSA school (Billinghay HORSA Centre) was opened at Billinghay after the Second World War. In 1946, the local education authority, Kesteven County Council, considered proposals to build a new secondary modern school at Billinghay; these plans were approved in 1947, with the school expected to be coeducational and take up to 450 pupils aged 11 to 16 when it opened (planned for sometime between 1952 and 1957).

The construction of the new school was delayed and, after it and two other proposed rural secondary schools (at Billingborough and at Corby Glen) were absent from the Ministry of Education's 1959–60 funding programme, a contingent of Kesteven County Councillors travelled to the ministry to make their case. They received commitments that the Billinghay school would be included in the 1960–61 programme. By 1961, funding had been approved for the Billinghay school and work was underway. The Sleaford Standard was optimistic about the benefits afforded by consolidating secondary education in larger dedicated schools, writing that "new heights of educational prowess will be achieved by the children ... There is a nostalgic regret in the thought of all the consequent decline that may ensue for the smallest village schools, but that will be a short-lived thing that cannot stand by comparison with the opportunities in life a fuller education may bring for the schoolchildren."

Opening
The secondary modern at Billinghay was completed in 1963, with teaching commencing on 23 April. The school did not have an official opening ceremony. The new building was a three-storey block built by Messrs H. H. Adkins (Contractors) Ltd, of Boston; it included a hall with stage and sound and lighting equipment; a gymnasium and changing rooms; a large kitchen; a library; administrative rooms; an art room; a general science laboratory; a needlework room; a domestic science room; a woodwork and metalwork room; and a rural science laboratory with a greenhouse. It was officially named The Lafford School. Accommodating boys and girls aged 11 to 16, there were 137 pupils on roll on the opening day, with the number expected to grow to between 270 and 300 by approximately 1967. The children came from the villages of Billinghay, North Kyme, South Kyme, Anwick, Walcott, Martin, Timberland and Witham Bank; those from Martin and Timberland had previously been sent to Ruskington Secondary Modern School, but existing pupils there had the option to chose to move over to Lafford, which some did. The first headmaster was J. T. Padgett and Dr D. Horton was the inaugural chairman of the governors. There were seven teaching staff (other than Padgett) on roll at the school's opening, plus a secretary, caretaker and assistant caretaker, a cook and four kitchen staff.

Operation: 1963 to 2005
In the late 1970s, Lincolnshire County Council (Kesteven County Council's successor authority) debated proposals for comprehensivising Sleaford's schools, with the possibility of consolidating its three schools into two; opponents of the three-school approach argued that it would require closing Lafford to make it viable, unless the council expanded Lafford's catchment area, though the closure of Lafford was considered to be unpalatably expensive. In 1979, the County Council voted to preserve the three schools in Sleaford, and in the following September it increased the size of Lafford's catchment area as part of a policy of protecting the county's smaller rural schools. The catchment changes, which also affected the secondary modern schools at Ruskington and Billingborough, caused controversy amongst parents in affected areas and governors at the Sleaford Secondary Modern School, where the roll was expected to fall (along with the range of courses) to enable this policy. This led to more pupils being enrolled at Lafford, whose catchment now included Anwick, Billinghay, Dogdyke, Martin, Metheringham, North Kyme, South Kyme and Walcott. In 1982, Lincolnshire County Council approved funding for a £105,000 extension at Lafford, to be built in 1983, which added a science laboratory, design and technology room and cloakrooms to accommodate the increasing number of children on roll and deficiencies in the existing science and technology facilities. In 1984, the local authority also granted permission for the addition of a mobile classroom at Lafford.

The issue of its small roll returned again in October 1986, when a study commissioned by the County Council predicted that Lafford's roll would fall by 17% by 1996, and proposed closing the school in several options for consolidating schooling in the wider Sleaford area; doing nothing was assessed as being the most expensive option. In November that year, the County Council's schools sub-committee voted to retain Lafford and the other small schools, though there were concerns that the Education Reform Act 1988's provisions to enhance parental choice would reduce the roll at Lafford because more parents would be able to send their children to Sleaford's secondary modern school. In 1989, the local authority opened new buildings for Billinghay Church of England Controlled Primary School on a site adjacent to Lafford, and Lafford then shared its playing fields with the primary school. To accommodate the technology teaching requirements in the National Curriculum (introduced in 1988), a new design and textiles room was built at Lafford (costing £75,000) and the existing food technology room renovated in the mid-1990s; they were opened officially by the chef Prue Leith in January 1995. Lafford became a comprehensive school on 1 September 1995.

Federation: 2005 to 2008
Between 1996 and 2001, the school's roll decreased "significantly" so that it sat at 183 pupils at the start of the 2001–2 year. In 2002, Ofsted recommended that Lincolnshire County Council review schools with under 600 pupils. Two years later, the Council's education officers suggested that some of these schools merge, close or federate to make them more economical. They included Lafford, which had been under-performing in GCSE and A-level league tables. St George's College of Technology in Sleaford became federated with Lafford in 2005 (St George's also federated with Aveland High School in Billingborough in 2006). A plan to merge them into an Academy was announced the following year; Coteland's School in Ruskington was allowed to opt-in, and joined the federation in 2007; with that, Paul Watson, principal at St George's, became executive head of all four schools.

Closure: 2008 to 2010
Despite improvements, the village schools continued to perform below the national average. The County Council began consulting parents in 2008 about closing Lafford due to falling numbers. Despite denials from Watson, parents complained that he had lost "passion" for the school and that St George's "cherry-picked" the most able pupils. After a heated meeting with them in March 2008, Watson resigned as Principal at Lafford. By that time, the school had 250 pupils on roll (despite capacity for 400) and only 27 new starters in 2007–08. It was deemed unviable by the county council. A phased closure took place over the next two years, with pupils moving to schools in Sleaford, Ruskington and Branston. By 2010, the school roll had fallen to "over 40" pupils. Lafford closed on 31 August 2010. Its buildings were subsequently demolished.

Notable former pupils

 * Air Vice-Marshal Stuart Butler, former Nimrod pilot, commanded 206 Sqn and Station Commander of RAF Kinloss