ABSTRACT
The appearance during the inter-war years of growing numbers of senior elementary and modern schools run by the local authorities posed a threat to the existing secondary schools by offering a vocationally orientated curriculum to children of secondary-school age. The Wade Deacon Grammar School, Widnes, moved into a fairly plain building in 1932 which had a few neo-classical touches, yet the hall was dignified by stained-glass inserts in the main windows. The school adopted a system of main and subsidiary courtyards, with classrooms, hall and library around the one, and a dining hall, gymnasium, swimming bath and changing rooms around the other. Elementary schools, which at the beginning of our period were among the leading expressions of Victorian civic pride, became functional, cheap and unpretentious. School buildings also provide evidence of the very gradual development of the curriculum.
