CHAPTER 10.

THE EXPANSION OF THE SCHOOL UNDER MR. ELLIOT
(1927--1955).

John Edmundson Elliot, who was to dominate the story of
Kibworth Beauchamp Grammar School in the second quarter of
the twentieth century, came to Kibworth from Ashby Grammar
School, where he had been Second Master for ten years. During
that time he had seen the numbers at Ashby rise from 100 to 300,
and within a few years he had the satisfaction of seeing similar
progress at Kibworth. When Mr. Elliot came in September, 1927,
there were 35 children on the roll; by July, 1928, numbers had
increased to 62, by July, 1931, to 119, and by July, 1935, to 145.

This increase in numbers was only one sign among many of
the School's rapid development under Mr. Elliot. Thus, within a
short time of his coming to Kibworth, the Governors were able to
report to the Directors, " The prospects of the School have im-
proved considerably at once ". Mr. Elliot sought to develop the
potentialities of the children both in the classroom and on the
playing fields.   One of his first reforms was to make Latin a
regular subject of the curriculum.  Another important item to
which he quickly paid attention was the development of the School
Library. It was practically non-existent when he came, and he
set out at once to get a reasonably good one. In fact, throughout
his Headship, he recognised the fundamental importance of good
books, readily accessible, and towards the end of his career he had
the satisfaction of seeing the School in possession of a first class,
properly-equipped Library.

Games and Physical Education were always considered by
Mr. Elliot a particularly valuable part of School life.   Thus, the
Village Hall was hired for P.E. on wet days; the old tennis-courts
were repaired; inter-school games were arranged in Hockey, Foot-
ball and Cricket; and in 1928 the first Sports Day for many years
was held.   That same summer arrangements were made for the
children to have swimming lessons.

Another important innovation introduced by Mr. Elliot was
the publication of a School Magazine. The first number of The
Beauchamp Magazine came out at the end of Mr. Elliot's first term 
at Kibworth in December, 1927. Until 1931, it was published
once a term, but since then it has appeared once a year.   Mr.
Elliot also introduced the prefect system, the first prefects being
F. J. Goodwin, C. Bale, G. Harris, R. Johnson, P. Briggs, C.
Freeland and W. Holton.

No House system was in existence when Mr. Elliot arrived.
In his first term the House system was applied only to games, but
after that it was used in the classroom as well. Six houses were
established at first, but in 1931 the Picts and Scots were divided
among the Athenians, Romans, Spartans and Trojans.

Mr. Elliot had not been long at Kibworth before he decided
to reintroduce boarders into the School. At one time, especially
under the Rev. Mr. Dawson, Kibworth had possessed a fair quota
of boarders. Numbers had dropped since then, but Mr. Elliot was
anxious to revive this side of the School. In this project, as in
everything relating to the School, he was greatly helped by Mrs.
Elliot, who supervised the domestic side of the boarding establish-
ment. Within a few years, the number of boarders had increased
to twelve. Later on, as day pupils from further afield attended
the School, Mrs. Elliot extended her catering arrangements to
include the provision of a hot mid-day meal for them as well.

These innovations, however, which Mr. Elliot introduced in
his first years at Kibworth, were only incidental to the main task
which confronted him, the raising of the general standard of
education in the School. From the start he steadily concentrated
on this object and thus, from the early days of his Headship,
Kibworth sent forward a steady stream of scholars to Training
Colleges and Universities. For example, in September, 1929, F.
J. Goodwin, P. Briggs, and C. Freeland entered St. Mark's Training
College; in September, 1930, G. Harris went to Nottingham
University College and J. S. Mattock to St. Paul's College,
Cheltenham.

The growth of the School, during Mr. Elliot's period as Head,
was phenomenal. He started in 1927 with 35 pupils; by 1940 the
number had reached 262, and when he retired in 1955 there were
over 500 children in the School. Several factors were responsible
for this remarkable development of the School within a quarter of
a century. First was the restoration of confidence in the ability
of the School to give a good standard of education. This was Mr.
Elliot's great achievement: he won the confidence of parents in
the neighbourhood, so that they began to send their children to
Kibworth once more instead of looking further afield.  Indeed,
Mr. Elliot came to the School at a crucial moment in its history,
for, by 1933, he had improved the School to such effect that, when
the Leicestershire County Council sought to put into effect the
re-organisation of secondary education in the county, the Director
had sufficient confidence in Kibworth to choose it as the Grammar
School for the Wigston-Oadby area and neighbourhood. This
re-organisation followed the Hadow Report, the main proviso of
which was that a child's education should be divided into primary
and secondary stages.   Until 1926, it was the custom for most
children to have the whole of their schooling at the school to
which they went at the age of five. But the Hadow Report put
an end to the all-age school. In future, there was to be a break
at the age of eleven; at that age a child was to be transferred from
his primary school to that secondary school which best suited his
talents. Naturally, it took several years for the re-organisation to
get under way, but by 1931 the County Council was building new
Modern Schools and was preparing to award more scholarships to
the Grammar Schools. The Council decided to use the existing
Grammar Schools, rather than to build new ones, in the provision
of more school places. Thus, children from Wigston and Oadby
now began to be transported to Kibworth, so that between 1935
and 1940 the numbers at Kibworth were nearly doubled.

The third factor in the growth of Kibworth was the Education
Act of 1944. This Act completed the work of the Hadow Report
and abolished fee-paying at the School. Henceforth, children in
the neighbourhood—and that included a vast area stretching from
Billesdon to Wigston—who passed the Qualifying Examination,
were awarded a place at Kibworth. So, between 1944 and 1954,
the number on the School roll rose from 300 to over 500. Another
effect of the Act was to bring Kibworth back again to what its
founders intended—a Free Grammar School.

The tremendous growth of the School brought with it prob-
lems of accommodation. In 1936, new buildings were completed
at a cost of £5,445. The following is a description of them:—
" The building consists of a hall, which can be used for assembly
and P.T.  It is provided with a stage for dramatic and other
purposes. The stage will serve also the purpose of a dining-room.
A large,, kitchen and larder is attached.  Changing rooms and
shower baths are also attached.   An Art Room, Lecture Room
and additional cloakrooms, together with Headmaster's room and
staff commonroom, are also included."   Then comes a most
revealing detail: "A large room in the old hall has been converted
into a Science Laboratory".  This is a reminder of the great
development on the Science side which took place at Kibworth
during Mr. Elliot's Headship.

These new buildings, however, were totally inadequate to deal
vith the numbers that flocked into the School after 1945. Class-
oom accommodation was sought in the village outside the pre-
;incts of the School. The Village Hall, the dining centre (now the
Beauchamp Buildings) and the Methodist Schoolrooms were
messed into service.  Finally, during the Summer term of 1949,
lew pre-fabricated buildings were erected; these included a biology
laboratory, geography, music and art rooms-and new cloakrooms.
[t is slightly ironical that these buildings were actually finished on
the very day that the Leicestershire County Council decided on
the School's ultimate closure.

The School's rapid development threw a great burden upon
the shoulders of the Headmaster, but his load was considerably
lightened by the constant support and encouragement he received
from the Governors and by the untiring efforts of his senior staff.
In his early days at Kibworth, he had as Chairman of Governors
the Rev. Canon Fletcher, who had already occupied that position
for the past twenty years. Canon Fletcher continued as Chairman
until his death in 1933. He was succeeded by Mr. Robert Rowley,
but the latter was Chairman for only two years. During the middle
period of Mr. Elliot's headship, he had another Rector of Kibworth
as his Chairman, the Rev. Canon Eacott, who continued in this
office from 1936 to 1943.  The next Chairman was Dr. J. S.
Macbeth, who occupied the post during the vital period when the
effects of the 1944 Act were being felt in the School. He continued
to serve until 1949, when he was succeeded by the present Chair-
man, Mr. A. G. Briggs.

In his first few years at Kibworth, Mr. Elliot received in-
valuable support from Mr. J. R. W. Shell, who was Senior Master
from his coming to Kibworth in 1928 until his sudden death on
June 8th, 1944. Since then, the Senior Master has been Mr. J. W.
Martin, who came to the School in 1930 and who has, therefore,
spent over a quarter of a century in the service of the School. The
Senior Mistress from 1935 to 1944 was Miss C. A. Williams, and,
on her departure, the post was taken up by Miss N. Waddington,
who is still Senior Mistress.

The 1944 Act had several effects upon the School. One, as
we have seen, was to abolish fee-paying, for clause 61 of the Act
laid down that " no fees were to be charged in respect of admission
to any School maintained by a local education authority".
Another effect was to close the Preparatory Department, for the
only means of entry to Kibworth after 1944 was by the award of
a place there, based mainly on the result of the " eleven plus
examination.

Another important effect of the Act was to alter the constitu-
tion of the Governing body.   Under the terms of the 1909
Constitution, there were to be nine Representative Governors, five
of whom were to be appointed by the Leicestershire County
Council, while the Parish Councils of Kibworth Beauchamp,
Kibworth Harcourt and Smeeton Westerby and the Council of
Birmingham University were each to appoint one Governor. The
1944 Act stated that "For every county school there shall be an
instrument providing for the constitution of the body of Governors
of the school".   (Clause 17 (1)).  In 1946 the Instrument of
Government for Kibworth was approved by the Minister of
Education, and the core of the governing body in future was to be
the four Foundation Governors.   They need not necessarily be
County Councillors, but were to live in the vicinity of Kibworth,
for whose children the School was originally founded.' The
Instrument actually named the first four Foundation Governors,
together with their terms of office.   Dr. Macbeth, of Kibworth
Beauchamp, was to serve for five years; Mr. A. G. Briggs, of
Kibworth Harcourt, for four years; Mrs. Hilda Deacon, of Smeeton
Westerby, for three years; and Mr. Stops, of Kibworth Harcourt,
for two years. In addition to the Foundation Governors, there
were to be eight Representative Governors, appointed by the
Leicestershire County Council.   Of these eight, however, since
many children were now drawn from a much wider area than
Kibworth itself, the Rural District Councils of Market Harborough
and Billesdon, and the Urban District Councils of Oadby and
Wigston were each to nominate one Representative Governor.

The School's rapid growth did not prevent Mr. Elliot from
maintaining a strict watch over its educational development. The
early years of his rule saw a number of children leaving the School
for places of higher education, and this feature continued through-
out the whole of his Headship. An Appendix contains a list of
some pupils who left Kibworth for Training Colleges and
Universities while Mr. Elliot was Head, but, at this juncture, two
honours should be specially noted.  They were the awards of
State Scholarships made in 1947 to D. A. Greenwood and C. B.
Cotterill. This fine performance did, indeed, set the seal on Mr.
Elliot's work at Kibworth. The Governors could feel that, at long
last, the education in the School had reached a really high standard.

The success gained by the School in 1947 continued till the
end of Mr. Elliot's Headship. In 1948, D. A. Greenwood won
an Open Scholarship to Cambridge; in 1949, P. A. Sharpe gained
a State Scholarship; in 1951, E. J. Preston won an Open Scholar-
ship to Peterhouse and in the same year gained a State Scholarship;
and in 1952 Ann Evans made history by being the first girl of
Kibworth Grammar School to win a State Scholarship. Thus, in
five years, the School gained five State Scholarships.

Mr. Elliot did not insist solely on work; he firmly believed in
the value of games in school life. As we have seen, he introduced
inter-school games in Football, Cricket, Hockey and Tennis; he
had new Tennis Courts made; he made provision for Swimming,
and a Sports Day became a regular feature during his Headship.
He was sufficiently broad minded to allow the girls to play Cricket
and to introduce Rugger into the School, but these two innovations
did not find favour and were soon dropped.

Another important innovation in Mr. Elliot's time was the
production of school plays. He believed in a balanced education,
and was prepared to encourage acting and music. It became the
custom to produce a School play or opera in alternate'years, and
the following are some of the recent productions: 1937, She Stoops
to Conquer; 1938, Twelfth Night; 1947, The Mikado; 1950, A
Midsummer Night's Dream; 1952, Merrie England; 1954, Quiet
Week-end. Moreover, since 1949, an Eisteddfod has been held in
alternate years; in this competitions on a house basis take place
in Music, Recitation, Art, Needlework and Folk-Dancing.

One good indication of the health of a school is the number
of after-school societies to be found flourishing there. Many such
societies have met at one time or another at Kibworth, but the
main after-school society has always been the School Society.
This first started in 1930, and is still flourishing today. It was in
the beginning mainly a debating society, and the first debate was
on the motion: " It is better to travel by rail than road ". Of late
years the School Society has widened its scope so as to include
talks on a variety of subjects, visits to places of general interest,
and film-shows. In addition, there have appeared at various times
an Art Group, a Choral Speaking Group, a Chess Club, a Gramo-
phone Club and a Cycling Club.

In all aspects of school life, then, Kibworth Beauchamp
Grammar School made rapid development while Mr. Elliot was
Head. He paid keen attention to the standard of education in the
School, he developed the Science side, he encouraged the more
cultural activities, such as drama and music, and he was ready to
promote out-of-school activities. It can truthfully be said that Mr.
Elliot lived for Kibworth Grammar School, and, unfortunately, his
last years at the School were clouded by the knowledge that there
was talk once more of its possible closure.