THERE was not much room to move in this classroom.

With rows of wooden desks and benches and 40 children, space was at a premium.

This was the scene in the top infants’ class at St Andrew’s School, Headington, in 1937-8.

As we have noted at other schools, the children were clearly told not to smile for the camera – nearly all of them look glum!

The picture comes from one of the pupils, then Barbara Jacobs, now Barbara Manger, who lives in Devon.

Apart from herself, she has managed to identify nine of her classmates – Percy Blake, John Hall, Kenny Rogers, Ray Holmes, Eileen Trafford, Michael Norgrove, Rosemary Jones, Evelyn Goodin and Jill Cambray.

John Hall was a member of the 8th Oxford Scouts and went on to become a sales manager. Ray Holmes later worked as a lecturer in mechanics at the old Rycotewood College, in Thame.

St Andrew’s School, in London Road, opposite Bury Knowle Park, is Headington’s oldest school, having occupied its site since 1847 when brewer Charles Tawney gave half an acre of land to the vicar of Headington to set up a National School.

The laying of the foundation stone brought widespread delight.

Jackson’s Oxford Journal reported: “So great and universal was the interest which the proceedings excited in the villagers, that we believe there was scarcely an inhabitant left at home; the place looked like a deserted village.”

According to Headington historian Stephanie Jenkins, the original red-brick Gothic building consisted of a boys’ schoolroom and a girls‘ schoolroom.

Ninety children were crammed into each room – and they shared three toilets in the yard.

The rapid growth of Headington in the late 19th century, coupled with the introduction of compulsory education for all children between five and 10 and the raising of the school leaving age to 11, meant new buildings were needed.

In 1894, new schools opened on the site for boys and girls.

Although the official name was Headington National School, it was known locally as the Field School, because it was on an isolated part of the Quarry Field.

Today, the school continues to educate children aged five to 11 as St Andrew’s Church of England Primary School.

Can anyone identify more of the pupils?