100 years of Branton School: rural Northumberland school marks anniversary milestone

Opening in 1925, the current building was built as a county school and has since survived multiple threats of closure.

In 2012, the community rallied around to save the school when there were concerns about falling pupil numbers if the local authority stopped allowing Branton to take nursery-aged children.

The school now accepts children from aged two to 11 offering unique mixed age classes, and opening from 8am to 6pm to offer wrap-around-care for the community.

Headteacher Emma Miller joined the school in 2023 and since then, pupil numbers have tripled.

On how the school has survived so long and is continuing to grow, Emma said: “Since I joined, my thinking has been to try and meet the community needs. We are open from 8am to 6pm everyday and that has attracted a number of families to us.

"We are a rural school and it goes back to that old school way of doing things. With all of the children being mixed, there is more of a nurturing approach to education.”

“It feels exciting to be here for this milestone,” Emma added.

To celebrate the 100th birthday, there will be a summer fair on June 28 from 1pm. The day is open to everybody, and will include games and activities that would have been played 100 years ago, various stalls, raffle, coffee trailer and much more.

The school also plan to have a gallery of photographs of the school and the area from the last 100 years.