Page 10 - HB- Further Education

Redditch Heritage Further Education in Redditch

Redditch was one of the few towns to have a secondary technical school, as in 1948 the
Redditch Secondary Technical School was established. This school selected students from
the Secondary Modern School and other schools at the age of 13 plus, with entry in
September following a selection examination in March. Although the school was called a
secondary technical school, pupils started such schools when they were eleven, and
therefore in practice this school was a junior technical school. Thus the new school
provided a full-time two-year course in Engineering Principles for boys and in Commerce
subjects for boys and girls. Before the Second World War a report had recommended
that the Technical High Schools be housed in Technical Colleges and this was what
happened in Redditch. Its classes were held in the Technical School, and sometimes pupils
of the ‘Secondary’ Technical School were drawn from as far afield as Droitwich and
Bidford-on-Avon. In September 1953 Worcestershire’s Assistant Director of Education
met the Redditch County High School Governors and outlined the proposed development
of the High School as a five-form entry Grammar/Technical School. In 1955 the County
Education Committee did not favour a cessation of admissions to the Secondary Technical
School in that year, so the transfer to the County High School nearby, was done in two
stages, in 1956 and 1957.

Redditch College of FE

By 1951 the Technical School had nine full-time members of staff and 26 part-time
lecturers. In July 1953 Worcestershire County Council agreed that the Technical School
should be renamed Redditch College of Further Education (FE), so that the new title would
reflect the full scope of the college’s work. In the 1950s full-time courses in Engineering,
Business Studies, and Ordinary and Advanced Level GCEs were established, while
recreational classes were also developed. In 1961 there were enough students and staff
to merit three departments: Engineering, Commerce, and Liberal and General Studies.
There was also a Department of General Agriculture which did not continue into the 1970s.

By 1961 the School of Art had
become part of Redditch
College, but remained in the
same premises, as the college
already had insufficient
rooms. In 1957 the College
of FE was still based in the
Technical School building in
Easemore Road that had been
opened in 1900. By the
1957-8 session there were
1,269 college students, and
even though the Junior
Technical School had
departed, students
overflowed into five annexes
in the town. The annexes
were St. Stephen’s Church
St. Stephen’s Church Institute, Easemore

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