Basildon: Primary Education

A school called Puckle's, housed in an annexe at the West end of St. Nicholas Church in Laindon, may well have been the first recognised school in the Basildon area. This was used during Victorian times. The last Schoolmaster, James Hornsby, taught there for 48 years and is buried in the churchyard nearby. Laindon School - now Laindon Park - then a Board School, opened in 1877.
A school in Vange situated near the former Zoo opened around 1858 and the present Vange school dates from 1885.

In 1860 a school was built at Langdon Hills in the High Road at the summit of Crown Hill. The building still survives though the school was later transferred to a larger replacement sited at the foot of the hill in High Road, Langdon Hills. The new School at Langdon Hills opened in 1911 and was still used until the mid 1970s when a new school called Lincewood was built in Berry Lane to replace it. The Langdon Hills building remains but is now used for a different purpose.

In 1909 a Council school at Pitsea opened in the High Road. The infant school was later renamed Len Wastell in the early 2000s but from September 2015 became Maple Grove when the junior and infant schools amalgamated.

The original Nevendon School in Burnt Mills Road built in 1886 as a National School was demolished in 1972. The present building closed in 1983 and is now used as a learning centre.
In 1933 Markhams Chase (later renamed Janet Duke) opened.

Swan Mead, (later renamed Cherry Tree), was the first new Infant & Junior School opened in Basildon following its creation in 1949. This was in April 1954, and followed soon after by Whitmore Infant/Junior in September 1954.

Many more schools have opened since those days like Manor (later renamed Willows Primary), Bluehouse (later renamed The Phoenix Primary), Great Berry, Ghyllgrove, Merrylands, Millhouse, Felmore, Briscoe and Ryedene, while others such as Springfield, Bryn, and Chowdhary have closed, mainly as a result of low pupil numbers.