In the 1860s a new house was built for the school master - this is the Laurels in Middle Street between the Playground and the Old Sun. The Education Act of 1870, which required all children to have a basic education meant that a new modern school was required. The current school building was opened on 5 January 1880 as three departments, Infants, Girls, Boys with Henry Smith as Schoolmaster. The Girls & Infants entered by the doorway indicated by the carving above it. The boys entered via the "Boys Entrance", removed in 1911. The boys and birls were not allowed to mix, and there was a six-foot-high wall between the infants'/girls' playground and the boys' playground. Three schoolmasters were sacked during the next 20 years: one for 'playing his flute around the villages', one for 'playing football with the boys' and one for refusing to teach a night school without any extra pay.