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The History of All Saints
All Saints History
All Saints School dates back to the year 1835, when it opened in All Saints' Street as the 'Hastings Parochial School'. The site was donated for the purpose by Mrs. Sarah Milward (later Countess Waldegrave). She had strict views about how the school should be run, and insisted that the boys and girls be taught separately, and must enter through separate entrances (a theme that was obviously echoed at other schools in the town, as can be seen by the front entrances of our existing building!
Parents had to pay a penny a day for their children to attend, and could expect them to be taught in one large room with ages ranging from 2 years upwards. There were nearly two hundred boys and almost as many girls, so it must have been a hard job for the teachers.
The school had to face many of the same issues we have today - attendance, truancy, how to improve exam results, inspections, recruiting new staff and maintaining old buildings, but despite the diffuclt conditions they had to work under, the teachers offered encouragement and knowledge to their pupils and some went on to become prominent individuals in the town and the wider world.
By the early 1900's the building was not really suitable for continued use as a school, and by 1913 a new site had been found in Harold Road. On March 6th 1913 the whole school attended a ceremony to see the foundation stone laid, and by September of the same year they had moved into the new building (which is now our feeder school - Dudley Infants).
There was one more move to go! In 1959, with improvements to primary education being introduced by the government, the school moved to its present site, and took over what had been the old Clive Vale School building. There are many parents and grandparents who can remember their school days here.
The school has always enjoyed close links with All Saints' Church having been founded in the Parish, and despite moving further up the hill and out of the Old Town valley, these links are still fiercely maintained. The children regularly walk down to All Saints' Church for special services, and the parish priest comes into school to do assemblies.
The latest phase in our history is that the school became the first academy member of the newly formed Diocese of Chichester Academy Trust (DCAT) on 1st February 2015.