<The following article appeared in the Woking News and Mail on Thursday 17^th June 1976>

SAD DUTY FOR SCHOOL’S LAST HEAD

West Byfleet Secondary School is to close on July 23^rd despite a long battle to keep it as a school for the community.

The closure marks the end of a bitter fight by the Friends of the School to save it from falling victim to the reshuffle of Surrey schools in the change to comprehensive education.

The energetic headmistress Mrs. Wyn Wilson was busy this week sending out invitations to pupils and former staff for final farewells.

She confessed to feeling desperately sad at the closure. It had served children and the community so well, she said.

She stressed there were no hard feelings about Fulbrook School, New Haw, which will take most of Byfleet’s older pupils.

NUMBERS ROSE

When the Byfleet school opened in 1937, with Mr. C.V. Jenkins as headmaster, there were 295 children on the roll and 11 teachers.

Over 35 years the numbers rose to 600 pupils and 35 staff.

The school has had four head teachers. Mrs. Wilson is one of only two women ever put in charge of a mixed secondary school.

A dynamic and popular figure she is proud that West Byfleet has managed to keep a full staff during times when other schools in the Woking area have been dogged by severe shortages.

VERY SPECIAL

To her praise for the staff she adds admiration for the parents.

“The support has been fantastic. They are a very special group of people,” she said. “Everything the school has wanted to do; the parents have supported 100 per cent”.

She only disagreed with them over publicity, which she had always shunned. “I don’t believe in selling the school. “If it is good it speaks for itself”.

She is proud, too, of the community spirit among the pupils, who come from Byfleet, West Byfleet and Pyrford, they were a nice friendly mix she said.

In her six years at the school the percentage of children going on to further education after the age of 16 rose to 75 per cent, which is very high.

An open scholarship to Cambridge won by a pupil who went to Woking Grammar School, was one of the school’s highlights, she said.

The lively annual fetes, opened by television personalities, became a popular event in West Byfleet during Mrs. Wilson’s time as headmistress. Funds from these and other functions organised by the Friends brought a minibus, a garage and a recreation centre for the school.

The affection which pupils have for their school was demonstrated by a petition from fourth year children asking to continue at West Byfleet until the school closed on July 23^rd, instead of spending a few introductory weeks at Fullbrook.

The school will continue to be used. In September, it will re-open as a middle school with about 300 pupils. Mr. Brian Brampton will be headmaster.

Mrs. Wilson plans a coffee evening on July 7^th, when all old pupils will be welcome, and a farewell buffet party on July 15^th – when former staff and governors have also been invited.