Before the opening of the National School opposite St Lawrence Church in 1829 children in Gotham were educated at Sunday School classrooms at the chapels or tutored at home, especially the rectory and manor.
In 1879 the pupils were relocated from the National School to the new Board Schools on Kegworth Road. The school, the Head Master’s house, the outdoor toilets and the boundary wall around the yard were built at a cost of £2,937.10s.
The children were segregated; the boys entered the school by the top gate, the girls and infants by the bottom gate. A wall divided the yard all the way, so that the girls and infants were completely segregated from the boys, and everyone played on a gravel surface.
The children went to the school until they left for work.
During the Second World War the numbers in school swelled with evacuees from London, Birmingham and Sheffield, causing significant overcrowding which was alleviated by moving the Infant department to the Memorial Hall.
In 1956 the senior students were relocated to the Harry Carlton Secondary Modern school in the neighbouring Village of East Leake and Gotham re-opened as a Junior and Infants’ School.
In 1963 the schools in the neighbouring villages of Barton and Thrumpton were closed and the children were brought by bus to Gotham and absorbed into the school.
In 1965 four new classrooms were opened to accommodate the Juniors in a new CLASP building on the playing field opposite the Victorian building.
In 1983 the school had its first computer, and at last, in the same year, indoor toilets were installed in the Victorian building.
In January 2006 the children and staff took up occupation in the brand new school building which had been erected adjacent to the 1965 CLASP building. There were 117 children taught in six mixed-year classes when we moved into the new building,.
In 2014, as pupil numbers continued to rise, we converted our library space into an additional classroom and began teaching in seven single year group classes.
Click here to see a PowerPoint of the history of our school. a-history-of-gotham-school
Click here to see a PowerPoint about the building of our new school in 2014-15 10-years-on-the-building-of-gps