by Peter Taylor

My association with Heronsgate School began on 3rd February 1988. My daughter was six then and attended Simpson School. The Local Education Authority was looking for volunteer parent governors to help develop a new school in Walnut Tree, where there were hardly any residents as house building had only recently started. Since I had been a School Governor before in Old Stratford I volunteered to join the temporary governing body thinking it wouldn’t take up too much of my time. Twenty one years later I am still on the Governing body!

We met at the Education department, next door to the present police station in the City Centre. The minutes record there were six people present together with the Local Authority representative Andrew Flack. The first action of the Governing body was to appoint me as the Chair of the temporary governing body of Walnut Tree Combined School.

The building of the school was well under way but we needed to appoint a Head Teacher. The position had been advertised and the interviews for the Head Teacher took place in mid March. The interviews lasted two days. The first interview took place at Willen Combined School since we wanted to make the candidates feel at home in a school setting - Heronsgate was still a pile of bricks.

On the second day interviews took place at the city centre and Mrs Iles was appointed the first head of Heronsgate Combined School (or Walnut Tree Combined School as it was known then).

The second governors meeting took place on 17th May 1988. The school was to be completed in the following January and so we started making plans for the opening. We anticipated 150 pupils with 5 teachers plus the Head Teacher. Our first teacher appointed was Ms Holly Payne who planned to move across from Shepherdswell First School. We also aimed to appoint a Deputy Head Teacher to start in the January.

One of the aspects of the curriculum that I was keen on was Information Technology, IT. In those days there weren't that many computers around and the Local Authority were happy to set Heronsgate School up as an IT school to provide leadership in the use of IT in Milton Keynes - a role it still maintains.

Our first visit to the school took place on 30th June 1988. I remember being shown round the school by a very proud architect, Ali, from Buckinghamshire County Council. In those days the shared areas and the home bases were not separated by doors and so the school looked to have plenty of space. However, a few years later when we had over 600 pupils it didn't look so spacious at all.

Over the Summer and the Autumn I met with the Head Teacher, Mrs Iles,  many times as we began to imagine what the school would be like and started ordering chairs, tables, televisions, computers, books and all manner of PE equipment ñ it was just like Christmas. The school was still not available for us to use in the Autumn term and so the Head, and all the equipment, were based in Loughton School.

About this time we also had to think of a new name for the school. There already was a school called the Walnuts in Simpson and having another school called Walnut Tree Combined was thought to lead to too much confusion.

The Governors meeting of the 3rd November shows a number of suggestions for the name of the school;

Stevensfield

Willow Close

Gablethorne

March Meadow

Pikes Close

All based on field names from farms that made up the area

Then there was the river named Caldecotte Brook

Finally there were some names that came from looking at the surrounding area;

Bellbrook

Willowmere

Heronsgate

The latter was suggested because there were many Herons around Caldecotte Lake and it was thought that they would disappear once people started moving into the area and so the school name would be a reminder of their presence ñ luckily they are still with us. It was this name that most people liked, but it wasn’t completely agreed until February 1989!

In the Autumn we also began to realize that families were not moving into the area as quickly as we had thought and it looked as though we would not have sufficient children to open the school in January 1989. We thus decided to open the school in April of 1989. This was lucky because the building of the school had still not been finished in December with delays from laying the carpet and other fixtures and fittings.

However, the children living in Walnut Tree still needed a school to go to in January 1989 and so around 50 Walnut Tree pupils were taught for one term at Simpson School, by Mrs Payne and another teacher, Mr Penny.

So 1989 began with Walnut Tree School children in Simpson school and no building yet available ñ it was finally handed over to us on 27th January. By this time we had also appointed a Deputy Head teacher ñ Mr Buckles.

Between January and April we appointed two Teaching Assistants (welfare assistants as they were known then), Mrs Christmas and Mrs Drake. We also appointed a new teacher, Mrs Megram, a School Secretary, Mrs Romeo and the caretaker, Mr Arbery.

There were so many things to sort out for the opening of the new school that the governing body meeting of the 20th March didn't finish until five minutes before midnight!

The School opened in April of 1989 with about 60 pupils and three teachers (Mr Buckles, Mrs Payne and Mrs Megram). On our opening day there was a band from Sir Frank Markham School, two local bakeries donated celebration cakes, the Development Corporation provided food and drink for the guests, McDonalds donated the soft drinks and Cramphorns lent us some plants. We had a new logo, which is still in use today, designed by Mr Payne, the husband of one of the teachers. We were also given a  BBC computer by the Post Office to commemorate their Public Education first day cover.

And so the school that we know and are very proud of began its journey to the school we have today. In the summer term we had a Medieval Fayre complete with jousting and fighting on horse back, organized by one of our Governors, Mr Mason. In fact Mr Mason offered to lend the Headteacher his armour for that first term. At Christmas we had a school play based on the Jolly Postman we also had a staff and governors pantomime for the pupils at the school. We put on Cinderella and I played Cinderella's father, Baron Hardup (Mrs Payne played Cinderella).

The minutes of the governors meeting in October 1989 tell of the appointment of two new teachers to start in January of 1990  Mr Robinson and Mrs Evans, who, I am pleased to say, are still with us today. But the longest serving member is Mrs Battams who joined us in the autumn of 1989.

In January 1990 we had over 100 pupils and the school continued to grow at about 100 new pupils a year until we reached 600 pupils with temporary classrooms, but that is another story. When we began we were a combined school with children starting with us in year 1 and progressing until year 7  that was before Heronshaw was built, but that again is another story.