St Matthew's Primary School

St Matthew’s Primary School is a primary school in Cambridge, England. It is non-denominational, and catering for 615 children aged between 3 and 11 (nursery to year 6), with an affiliated after-school kids’ club. The school was established in 1963, though there have been various schools on the site since 1836. It is a feeder school for Parkside Community College.HistoryThe first schools on the St Matthew’s site were the Barnwell National schools for boys, girls, and infants, opened by the Old Schools in 1836. At the time the site was on the eastern edge of a rapidly expanding Cambridge. The infants’ school was on East Road, the boys’ and girls’ schools accessed through Schoolhouse Lane (off East Road).National schools were founded by the National Society (founded in 1811), which had the aim of founding a Church school in every parish in England and Wales. The Old Schools was a trust founded in 1704 which at the time managed most of the schools in Cambridge. Previously these were dame schools, but from the early 19th century the trust adopted a policy of supporting Church of England schools.From the 1870s, the newly established St Matthew’s parish had a complex history of different schools’ sites and movement of pupils between them. There were four schools opened: Norfolk Street infants in 1875, York Street boys in 1878, Norfolk Street girls and Sturton Street infants in 1883.