All Saints has long been linked with the schooling of village children. In 1811 the National Society was formed within the Church of England with the aim of providing a school in every parish.
The first school in Cleadon opened in 1830 [1] and occupied a site alongside the pond and Sunderland Road (now this site houses the entrance to the Parish Hall). It was known as Cleadon Church School. A map published in 1862 by Ordnance Survey called it the Parochial School [2]. In 1872 it was reopened as Cleadon Church School. This building was superceded by another building alongside to the south on Sunderland Road in 1907 that housed two classrooms.
In 1909 a new building was provided on Cleadon Lane, alongside the church of All Saints. This new building was to accommodate the teaching of children from the Cleadon Cottage Homes, a series of houses each housing 15-20 children who were within the care of the Local Authority which also were opened in 1909 [3]. This building on Cleadon Lane became the Junior School and the newer of the buildings on Sunderland Road the Infant School [4]. The Cleadon Cottage Homes closed for the residential care of children in 1962.
The oldest school building had become the Village Institute and was demolished in the 1930’s as it suffered from occasional flooding of the pond [5]. A new Parish Hall replaced the original village school building.
In the 1963 another new school building was provided on Boldon Lane which became the Junior School with the previous Junior School on Cleadon Lane becoming the Infant School and the building on Sunderland Road used as the Dining Room for the Infant School. The Junior School was a Community School whilst the Infant School was a Church of England Voluntary Controlled School.
Early in the new millennium the two schools amalgamated to become Cleadon Village Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School on three sites, Boldon Lane for the Juniors, Cleadon Lane for the Infants with their Dining Room on Sunderland Road. In August 2007 the School moved into a single new building at the Boldon Lane site which houses the complete school community. On 1st July 2014 the School became an Academy within the All Saints Multi Academy Trust. During 2017 the Academy was awarded funds to build an on-site nursery to extend the age-range. This was opened in September 2017.
The most recent Junior School was demolished so that its footprint could be used as playing fields. The former Infant Dining Room was returned to the Parish in November 2007 as being the rightful owners of it now that it was no longer required for educational purposes. The site on Cleadon Lane of the former Infant School was sold (January 2012) by the Board of Education and has been developed into two residential properties based on the Boys entrance (to the east), and the Girls entrance (to the west). There are to be two further dwellings on the former school play field, one of these has been built.
All Saints continues to value the link it has with Cleadon Church of England Academy. There are regular visits by the school to the worship area, and the School Church Council regularly contributes to the church magazine, the Cleadon Courier. The Vicar regularly contributes to collective worship and is on the Local Academy Council, the school’s governing body.
The centrepiece of the event ‘Experience Christmas’ hosted by All Saints, Cleadon, during Advent 2010 for key stage 2 children of the village school.
[1] Pictures of Cleadon Village: A look back in time, 1994 South Tyneside Libraries, South Shields ISBN 0 906617 10 3 page 2.
[2] “http://www.british-history.ac.uk/mapsheet.aspx?compid=55116&sheetid=3119&ox=1721&oy=387&zm=1&czm=1&x=67&y=23” accessed 9/10/2013.
[3] “http://www.workhouses.org.uk/index.html?SouthShields/SouthShields.shtml” accessed 5/10/2010.
[4] Ordnance Survey map for Durham 1914-1919 “http://www.old-maps.co.uk/maps.html” accessed 5/10/2010
[5] Pictures of Cleadon Village: A look back in time, 1994 South Tyneside Libraries, South Shields ISBN 0 906617 10 3 page 13.