East Worlington School Before1870

There was no mention of a school in either East or West Worlington in White’s Directory of 1850.

   There is some evidence to suggest that in 1857 there was a small National School in West Worlington, supported by the Rector, and a National School in East Worlington supported by the Earl of Portsmouth, a major lndowner in the parish. The West Worlington School was run by Sarah Boundy as Mistress. The East Worlington School appears to have initially been run by R. Sleep.

  By 1870 there was no further mention of a school in West Worlington. 

  In 1870 John Francis Lemon was appointed schoolmaster. He  trained as a teacher at St Luke’s Training College in Exeter. The college had opened in 1861 and John must have been one of their first students. He lived in the school house with his mother and stayed at the school for three years until the school closed in 1873 in response the the 1870 Education Act which created a new national approach to providing school for all children by establishing local School Boards who were responsible for the governance of their specific school/s.