In 1707 Richard Piggott, a local boy who had become a cutler of Westminster, founded the first Shinfield School. The original building is now Shinfield Infant & Nursery School and an inscription showing the year 1707 is to be found on the front of the School House on School Green.

The school house was the first part of the school. It was built as a school for 20 poor children. Rich families also sent their children here but they had to pay fees, which were used to help the poor children.

Richard Piggott also provided £42.00 a year to run the school, which included a new set of clothes every year for each boy and girl.

In 1858  the Trustees of the school were finding it very hard to run the school on this 80p per week. The school master’s salary had not changed for 151 years, since 1707.

Fortunately, another Shinfield villager, Mr Field, left some money in his will to the school. There was even enough to build another classroom and to provide a clock to strike the quarter hours. The clock is still there and working. Mr Field’s name is on the front of the school, near the clock.

The Reverend Hulme was a Trustee of the school. When he died in 1889, his own children decided to build more classrooms – it was enough to allow another 60 children to join the school. His name is also on the front of the school. That shows how we named three of the four houses in the Junior School.

The fourth, Druett, is named after Beatrice Druett, who joined the school in 1905 as a five year old. At 14 she finished being a pupil and became a monitor and finally a teacher. She died in 1959 after fifty years in the same school.

The school grew in numbers over the years. The Junior School building was completed and opened by the Bishop of Reading on 16th May 1968. More classrooms were added in 1975. Both the Infant and Junior Schools were run by one Headteacher, Mr Jackson.

In July 1976, the school became separate Infant and Junior Schools with two Headteachers.

As was in 1707, our aims are the same – to educate children in our care: intellectually, socially, morally, aesthetically, physically and spiritually and to enable every child to realise his or her potential in a caring Christian environment.

There is a wealth of information about the local community at the Shinfield Parish Council web site where a character statement may also be downloaded.