St Ives has been part of Haslemere's rich landscape for over 110 years.
It was formally opened as a school in 1911 at a different site to where it is now. At the time, ‘The School House’ at No. 2 College Hill in Haslemere, Surrey, was owned by Herbert Hutchinson (1868-1957) who was the son of Jonathan Hutchinson, a leading doctor of the time, as well as being a lecturer and founder of Haslemere Museum. We believe that Herbert’s sisters taught at the school, so it was very much a family enterprise!
In 1966, St Ives outgrew its first home and left College Hill to move to the other end of the town to its new and current residence in Three Gates Lane. This property, formally known as ‘Oakhurst’, was purchased in June 1965 from Mr Ken Wood (of Kenwood mixers fame). By August of that year, Haslemere Council had granted planning permission to convert the house to a school. It was officially opened as a school on 14th January 1966.
During the seventies, eighties and nineties the school grew and expanded, building new facilities, developing existing space to offer more value to the pupils and making best use of the land and buildings. These changes included the instigation of FOSI (Friends of St Ives) in 1976, the conversion of the garage to an arts and crafts room in 1976, the conversion of residential rooms upstairs to provide administration spaces and a music room in 1984, and the construction of a dining room and covered play area for Reception class in 1986. The nineties alone saw the completion of a new science and technology wing, new ground floor administration spaces, new art, music, computer and library rooms as well as the opening of the Ivies Nursery and Reception building and the launch of the first incarnation of our wonderful Forest School.
More recently, since the millennium, the school gym has been extended and the Ivies building has replaced the former Little Ivies building and now houses larger and better equipped facilities for Early Years, Key Stage One, art and music. In addition, we now have two new sports courts complemented by extensive landscaping that has provided more effective and usable outdoor sports areas.
Since its opening in 1911, the school has seen many dedicated head teachers and staff come and go, not to mention the pupils, many of whom have offered their memories of the their school days at St Ives as part of our ongoing oral history research project. If you have any memories of St Ives that you would like to share, we would love to hear from you. Please contact us by email on office@stiveshaslemere.com