APS Celebrates 75 years - Sept 2011

Altrincham Preparatory School celebrated its 75th anniversary by a raising a flag to its future as families from across the generations joined together for a special exhibition.

The event was opened by Chairman of Governors Robin Hill, whose father Arthur was on the first Board of Governors in 1936. Robin, a distinguished professor of Physics at Salford University, said: "Boys are the very much the same today as they were 75 years ago, and though the school has fundamentally changed with magnificent new buildings and state of the art facilities we believe out ethos exactly meets the needs of boys in the same way it did 75 years ago."

Robin said: "Academic rigour is important and developing good working habits is essential, but we are not exam pushers; we want to give boys a breadth and depth of experience that will equip for all the challenges of the modern world."

Robin told today's parents that his schooldays had not all been rosy: "When I first joined the school during World War Two the infant class was located in an old wooden scout hut alongside Altrincham Grammar School's playing fields and I remember being marched out of the classroom and taken in lines two by two across the playing fields, asking "where are we going" to be told "toilets, boy, the toilets."

Fellow long standing governor Bill Furness, who joined the school in 1939, and whose father William was an early Clerk to the Governors, said: "I enjoyed my school days, well I survived my school days and the experience has set me up for life."

While District Judge John Geddes, another long serving governor, added: "I learned the value of hard work at APS and I don't think I would have had the same life without that early grounding. Altrincham Preparatory School was born out of the demise of Bowdon College, which closed in 1935. At that time, concerned parents asked the Headmaster of Altrincham Grammar School Walter Hamblin for help and four of his senior teachers William Crabb, Arthur Hill, Edward Mason and Alexander Sherriffs
founded a junior school for 5 to 11 year olds. The company, Altrincham Preparatory School Ltd, was incorporated on 5th June 1936, and the school opened in the September with 23 boys.

The Company set the fees at one guinea per term per year of a boys' life with a reduction for younger pupils. One guinea was 21 shillings, and as there were 20 shillings in one pound the fees were £1.05 per term per year of age.

Under successive governing bodies, APS has dramatically expanded, first using the former Bowdon College on South Downs Road, before in 1950 purchasing a former Ladies College on West Road, where the current Infant Department remains today.

History is brought up to the present day, with the release of the South Downs Road site and the creation of a modern, purpose built Junior School in 1997 on Marlborough Road, Bowdon, opposite Altrincham Grammar which had been
so influential in its original foundation.

Caption: One of the youngest current Altrincham Preparatory Schoo pupil Alistair (4) and oldest current boy Arun (11) raise APS's new flag to mark their 75th anniversary.