John Betts history
Thursday June 18, 2009
Headteacher Gill Del Bravo with pupils Ameena Meeran, Daniel Shaw and Lucy Heaton.
With an imposing Victorian facade and low-ceilinged corridors and stairwells, it is easy to imagine what John Betts Primary School was like when it first opened its large wooden door to pupils.
Next week marks the 150th anniversary of the date when Dr John Betts established a trust to raise funds for a Hammersmith school ‘for the free and gratuitous instruction of poor children of Protestant parents’.
But remarkably little is known about its founder, according to former deputy headteacher Anne Rustomji, who is writing a brief history of the school to coincide with the milestone event.
“He was a medical practitioner who lived in Hammersmith,” she said.
“During the 1850s he bought up lots of land and housing in the area. The rents from this land were meant to provide for the building of the school and almshouses for older folk.”
It took another 12 years to raise enough money to complete the project, but it was eventually opened as St Peter’s Free Schools on May 1, 1871.
It is thought Dr Betts had little to do with the school after it opened, leaving its day to day running to a Mr and Mrs Brown, and he died just four years later on July 1, 1875, at the age of 76.
Records now kept at the Paddenswick Road Primary, which h&f news was given a glimpse of during a recent visit, give a fascinating insight into life in the 19th century. Hammersmith in the mid 1870s was in the midst of a building boom, a fact which is reflected in the occupations of the first pupils’ fathers.
Among their ranks were countless labourers, bricklayers, carpenters, gardeners and painters, evidence of the area’s burgeoning working class community.
The first child named on the admission registers from 1872 is 12- year-old Emma Bagge, who lived ‘in very poor circumstances’ at 53 Southerton Road with her family.
In the first few decades of the school’s existence most of its 300 or so pupils were girls, who usually left at the age of 14.
As well as the three Rs, pupils were trained in needlework, fire lighting, scrubbing, dusting and sweeping in
preparation for a life in a trade or service. But their newly acquired skills were also put to good use by the school authorities.
“Local people used to send their mending into school, and the girls did their repairs for them for a small fee which was used to buy ‘useful articles’ to reward the most deserving pupils,” said Anne.
“They also had to clean the school, until parents began to complain in the 1880s and they hired a cleaner.”
However, the records which most fascinate people, especially pupils, are those relating to corporal punishment.
The last entry, in October 9, 1968, reveals how three 10-year-old boys were given ‘one on each hand’ for ‘constant misbehaviour culminating in bad behaviour during harvest service’.
A lot has changed since then.
John Betts, which took on its founder’s name in the 1940s, is now an ‘outstanding’ non-denominational voluntary-aided school.
Gill Del Bravo, its headteacher for 20 years, said with its devoted staff and active parent involvement it is ‘very much a community school, serving the local community’.
“People sometimes write in to say how much they appreciate the good foundation they got here,” she said. “We like to think that still goes on.”
The school is holding a weeklong celebration from Monday with a number of Victorian-themed activities planned.
It is also hosting a party for parents, former pupils, staff and governors on Thursday, June 25, from 6-9pm.
If you are interested in attending, send an email to celebration150@johnbetts.lbhf.sch.uk or call the school on 020
8748 2465.
