Our School History
St Edward’s School is the oldest school in Romford and was founded as a Charity School in 1710 to provide education according to the principles and practices of the Church of England. The following text has been taken directly from an entry recorded on 5 September 1710 in the vestry book for St Edward’s Church in Romford:
Whereas a Charity School is Erecting or setting up with all possible speed to be sett up and opened in this town of Rumford… for the Educating of poor Children and teaching them to Read & Write and Instructing them in the knowledge and practice of the Christian Religion as professed and taught in the Church of England…
The school was originally housed in a small room over the south porch of St Edward’s Church in Romford Market Place, with 40 boys and 20 girls ranging in age from 7 to 14. In 1728 the school moved to a building on the opposite side of the Market Place, with two rooms, one for the boys and one for the girls. More buildings were added to this site to accommodate the growing number of pupils and to meet changes in legislation.
In 1926 a new building, built around a quadrangle, was opened nearby and the school remained there until 1965 when the Secondary School, now St Edward’s Academy, moved to its present location in London Road. The Primary School moved to its present site, in Havering Drive, in 1976.
Two statues of pupils in their eighteenth-century uniforms, which came from the first school, are preserved in the entrance hall of our school.
In 2010, the school celebrated its 300th anniversary with a special service in Westminster Abbey. During this year, a motion was passed in the House of Commons to congratulate the school for its years of service to education.
