Woodley Church of England Primary School was built in 1855 on land given by Robert Palmer of Holme Park, Sonning, and opened on May 14th that year. In 1872, he gave land next to the School to build St Johns Church and the community of Woodley Green began to grow.
The School was a country school until well into the 20th Century and children walked each day from as far as Bulmershe, Colemansmoor and Lands End. It was often closed for weeks due to snow or floods or because of epidemics of measles or diphtheria. A fire in 1879 almost destroyed the school, but the ‘Twyford Strollers’ arrived in under an hour with their new steam fire engine and put out the blaze, saving the building, but not the contents.
During World War I, the boys followed the progress of the war on maps, while the girls knitted socks for soldiers. Woodley began to grow in 1926 with the arrival of Phillips and Powis and the subsequent expansion of the airfield, and by 1939 the school was full to overflowing.
Since World War II, Woodley has grown rapidly with the housing development known as the Airfield Estate. The school moved to the present spacious and well landscaped site on the airfield estate in September 1988.
