History of Blaby Stokes Church of England Primary School

The first school in the local area was founded by the Rev. Edward Stokes between 1711 and 1724, when he provided a school for “the poor children of the parish”.  His son, also Rev. Edward Stokes, paid for the building and maintenance of the first school building in the area, around 1750.   This building was in what is now part of the Countesthorpe parish today though it was in Blaby at the time.  These men and their work in laying the foundations of education in the village are remembered through their names, which are taken by our school today.

There has been CE school in Blaby since 1849 on Church Lane, Blaby.  Our school was built as two buildings, Headlands infant school and Stokes Junior school.  The two schools were originally in two different parishes but came together in 1982 when changes to the boundaries of Whetstone and Blaby were made to accommodate building the bypass.  The school was built on the site of a tomato farm which was operated by the Shoults family during the first half of the twentieth century, supplying tomatoes locally and to the war effort in the 1940s.  The farm was renowned for its “Blaby Special” tomatoes, which were believed to have become extinct until they were rediscovered in America, where the Shoults family had emigrated.  The tomatoes are once again being grown on the site and their story and the themes around it form the core of the curriculum the school is teaching.

Blaby Stokes CE school joined Learn Academies Trust in 2018. The school still retains firm links with All Saints Church in Blaby and is proud of its strong Christian ethos, encapsulated in its Christian vision:

‘For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you; plans to give you a hope and a future’ Jeremiah 29:11.