History

In their words (expressed in minutes of their meetings), the Committee decided to found a school that would be ‘as good as Corona School in Lagos and the University of Ibadan Staff School in Ibadan’. As demanded by the educational laws of the time regarding the establishment of voluntary agency schools, the group decided to submit the name of the Anglican Bishop of Ibadan to the Western Region’s Ministry of Education as the proprietor of the School. Not long after opening, the number of pupils increased enough to require renting an additional building inside the Railway Compound for the main school and a small bungalow at Kudeti Avenue, Onireke for the Nursery/Infant section. The School remained in these locations until April 1966. The first Head Teacher (more of the coordinator of the growing school) was Mrs Okubadejo. Later, we had Mrs Jenny Salako who was assisted by Miss Ogunbodede (later Mrs Olowe) in the Infant Section. Some of the other early teachers include: Miss Hall, Mrs D.M. Horne, Mrs Langford, Mrs Esan, Mrs Oyawoye and Mrs T. Kolawole.

Chief Olu Akinkugbe remained the Chairman of the Management Committee and later Board of Managers till 1989, a period of over 27 years. During this period, he was instrumental to securing land in the exclusive area of Jericho Reservation and piloting the building of the blocks of classrooms now on the school’s permanent site. People like Mr. Godwin Brown, Mrs R Brain, Lady Quashie-Idun, Mrs Brunning, Mr. R. Hughes, Mr. Myers, Mr. D Mayer, Mr. & Mrs Keay, Mr. Lokulo-Sodipe, Mr. Richmond, Mr. Cook, Mrs Spencer, Mrs Croally, Mr. Lennox, Mrs C.F. Oredugba, Mrs Duffus, Miss Hecklotts, Mrs Davies also gave time, skill and money towards the project. Mrs N Oniyinde came in early as the School’s Secretary. During this period, the school witnessed phenomenal growth even though conscious attempts were made to keep the population of pupils low.

All Saints’ Church School moved to its present site in 1966. The buildings and site layout were designed by Arc D.M. Webster, a parent, working with the Design Group. Construction was executed by T.A. Oni & Sons, whose Chairman was also a parent, under a contractor-financed arrangement. Other benefactors of the school at that time included Z.O. Ososanya. The buildings in the school have increased over the years. There are now 22 classrooms, an Art Room, a Music Room, a Computer Laboratory, E-Learning Room, Sick Bay and Administrative offices as well as a Library Block.

At inception, the Proprietor of the School was the Lord Bishop of Ibadan Anglican Diocese. Under this system, the following were proprietors: Rt. Rev. S.O. Odutola (1961-1969) Rt. Rev. T.O. Olufosoye (1969-1984) Rt. Rev. G.I. O. Olajide (1984-1998) Rt. Rev. J.O. Akinfenwa (1998-2002)

In 2003, the Oyo State Ministry of Education approved the change of proprietorship of the school to the Incorporated Trustees of All Saints’ Church Jericho. Under this system, the proprietors of the School are:

Engr. N.O. Oyelola (2003 to date) Mrs Omotayo Morgan (2003 to date) Mrs Phyllis Adeniyi-Jones (2007 to date) Lady F.O. Akinsipe (2009 to date) Chief Olu Akinkugbe (2009 to date) Prof. B.O. Onadeko (2009 to date)

The Chaplains of the School have been: Rev. H.W. Mance (1961 – 1967) Rev. Simonson (1967 – 1972) Rev. H. W. Mance (1972 – 1978) Rev. Canon S.O. Adesina (1978 -1983) Rev. Canon Lapese Ladipo (1983 – 1993) Rev. A Fagbemi (1993 – 1995) Venerable G.B. Daramola (1995 – 2009) Very Rev. Olusoji Mewoyeka (2009 - 2014) Very Rev. O.A. Kuyebi (2014 to date)

There are now 22 Class Teachers, 6 Class Assistants, 8 specialist teachers, a school nurse, a Bursar, an Accounts Clerk, a Store keeper and 6 Cleaners. The staff of the school are well motivated so that they could put in their best in the discharge of their duties. The efforts of the teachers are borne out by the high level of performance of the pupils in external examinations and programmes. The school has a vibrant and supportive Parents/Teachers Association.

The school at the moment operates an e-Learning mode of teaching and learning. It also exposes its pupils to the learning of at least one orchestral instrument in the course of their period in the school. Pupils are also exposed to acquire various elocution skills to enhance their spoken-English prowess.

PERFORMANCE AND LAURELS

Many old pupils of All Saints’ Church School hold key positions in Nigeria today. All along the way, pupils of the school have been performing very well in academics and sports. In academics students have been doing very well in various entrance examinations, Mathematics Olympiads and essay competitions. In sports the pupils always did very well in competitions. There are 12 clubs in the school with the pupils belonging to one or the other of them. All the clubs are well equipped, doing the school proud in all internal and external engagements.

One day, some 40 years ago, I had a telephone call from a lady I had never met, the wife of the Head of a CMS teacher training college on the other side of Ibadan (Reverend David Anderson): could she come and see me? I was mystified, but of course said yes.

Mrs Anderson was very concerned at the difficulty of educating the children of expatriates and thought it would be difficult to recruit young missionaries with families if there was no suitable school for the children. She and her husband were going on leave the following week and she was not coming back because they had three young children. She knew that we had been involved with the setting up of All Saints’ Church (John was the Secretary). Couldn’t I get a primary school started under the wing of the Church, whose membership at that time was mainly expatriate?

I was very doubtful, I was trained to teach nurses, not young children but said I would think about it. (During a year spent in Cameroon Doreen had taught our oldest son David via a correspondence course from the Parents’ National Education Union, and I think it was on their syllabus that the school was started) I spoke to a few friends, including the headmistress of the staff school at the University of Ibadan. She was very enthusiastic and confirmed that, as the university was growing, it would be difficult to continue taking in other English-speaking children as she did as present. Another primary school would solve the problem. So I asked the Church Secretary to put it to the management committee (of the church). They suggested I formed an ad hoc committee of interested expatriates and Nigerians and that they would discuss the idea again. We formed our committee, with a very talented Nigerian as Chairman (Mr. Olu Akinkugbe) and the Bishop of Ibadan’s Chaplain (Revd. Bertie Mance) as a member and I was to be the secretary, treasurer and sometime teacher!

The school would be a fee paying one and we made no financial appeal, but many folk gave help in kind and time. We borrowed an old disused bungalow from the Railway Department. It had two good rooms and was soon cleaned up and adapted. A climbing frame ‘’appeared’’ in the compound. We managed to provide simple equipment – old tables with most of the legs sawn off and small chairs made by a local carpenter. Books, paper, crayons etc were bought or gifted and in 1961 All Saints’ Church Primary School opened with 8 children (my son Peter was one). In the second term we had 13. After that the numbers grew slowly and steadily. Soon we had two classes and later another empty bungalow next door was taken over. We then had four classes, with children of four or five different nationalities, and we were able to buy proper desks for the older children. But most important, we were recognised by the Education Department and obtained ‘’provisional approval’’ to run the school!’’

By the time we left Nigeria in 1964 there were children from Nigeria, India, Canada, and USA as well as Britain and two full-time teachers, Jenny Salako and a Canadian lady (Caroline Birse)

Mostly from an article written by Doren Horne for Carver Calendar, the magazine of Windermere Unite Reformed Church. Annotations in italics by her husband John.