Our History

Rakegate’s first school was built in the early 1950’s as a response to the growth of housing estates in the Oxley/Fordhouses area of Wolverhampton. The original building on the Renton Road site was designed as a primary school for children aged 5-11. However on the opening day there were so many children wishing to attend that the queue trailed down the drive towards Renton Road. In consequence it was agreed that a further building was needed to cater for children from the area as there was not enough space to build extra classrooms on the existing site. A site close to the original with an entrance from Sandwell road was then built. This building was designed for older children with the Renton Road site being designated for infant children.

Rakegate Infant and Rakegate Junior were thus formed in 1957 and the two schools worked successfully together from that time until 2002. At this time due to the impact of a falling birth rate and falling school rolls across Wolverhampton, it was decided to rationalise the schools, merging the infants with the juniors to once again form Rakegate Primary School.

The new school opened in January 2003, using the existing infant and junior buildings, supported by the staff of the two schools. Following a successful merger, plans were made to integrate the two sites into one purpose built facility. Original intentions was for this to be an enlargement of the infants on the current infant site but restrictions in space on the site and other factors has consequently allowed the school to take advantage of a scheme to demolish the junior site and build a purpose built school, capable of catering for modern educational trends, to the highest standards, for the benefit of the children, parents and the community of Rakegate.

The junior site was closed in the summer of 2006, with the junior children transferring to temporary accommodation on the old infant site, during a 12 month development period. This is facilitating the demolition of the junior building and the erection of the new school with an access road and entrance from Renton Road. The school will be enhanced with the additional facility of a “Children’s Centre”

The new school building opened in September 2007 and is a high quality learning environment of which we are very proud. This is a time of great expectation for the school and the community, we are enjoying the challenges that we are facing and the completion of this exciting project that will see a fantastic new Rakegate emerge from the old!