Frank Montgomery School
| Motto | "Strive for the Right" |
|---|---|
| Type | Secondary Modern |
| Headteacher | Closed 2007 |
| Location |
Bredlands Lane Sturry Kent CT2 0HD  EnglandCoordinates: 51°18′42″N 1°08′54″E / 51.3116895°N 1.1483164999999644°E |
| Local authority | Kent |
| DfE number | 886/5453 |
| DfE URN | 118925 Tables |
| Students | Closed 2007 |
| Gender | Mixed |
| Ages | 11–16 |
| Colours | Bottle green |
The Frank Montgomery School was a mixed-gender secondary modern school in the village of Sturry near Canterbury in east Kent. It was founded in 1935 and closed in 2007, when the site and school roll was taken over by a new school, called Spires Academy school.
Frank Montgomery School was founded in 1935. The school mainly took in children from the senior classes of existing schools in the nearby farming villages of Sturry and Westbere, and the coal mining village of Hersden. It was originally named Sturry Central School. Mr G.E. Draper-Hunt was the first headmaster, remaining in post until his retirement in 1958. Until its replacement by Spires Academy school in 2007, the school's uniform of bottle green, and shield showing the white horse of the county of Kent, a coal mine tower and wheat sheaves, with the motto Strive for the Right, remained the same.
When it opened in 1935 the school was hailed as a model for future school building design being the first in the local school district to be built entirely on one level. The building cost was £12,548 and was officially opened by Walter James, 4th Baron Northbourne, an admirer of Rudolf Steiner and a sportsman who competed in the 1920 Summer Olympics. The stated aim of the school on opening was to specialise in 'practical education, such as cookery, laundry, gardening, woodwork, metalwork and practical geography'. The initial school roll was 200 pupils, taught by the headmaster and six other teachers, with an initial maximum capacity for up to 280 pupils.
With the enactment of the 1944 Education Act the school was designated a secondary modern school, known as Sturry County Secondary Modern School. It changed its name to Frank Montgomery in 1985. As a secondary modern school the Frank Montgomery School was a non-selective school which meant it almost exclusively took in pupils who had failed to pass the controversial eleven-plus exam, also known as the Kent Test, set by Kent County Council to stream children to attend either selective grammar schools or non-selective secondary modern schools. According to Anthony Sampson, in his book Anatomy of Britain (1965), there were structural problems within the testing process that underpinned the eleven plus which meant it tended to result in secondary modern schools being overwhelmingly dominated by the children of poor and working class parents, while grammar schools were dominated by the children of wealthier middle class parents. To some extent the Frank Montgomery School corresponded to this pattern by being dominated by poor and working class children, and by having both low academic expectations and poor examination results.
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