Scapegoat Hill Junior & Infant School

We are very proud of our small school situated 1110 feet above sea level, high on the Pennine hills, in the tiny village of Scapegoat Hill overlooking Huddersfield. Our school is a friendly family school – all staff know the pupils well and have high expectations for them.  Pupils enjoy their friendships and say that their teachers help them to do well.

Our school values

At Scapegoat Hill Junior and Infant School, we will ensure that children do their best personally, socially and academically.

Our school values are :

A R C

A – Aspiration

R – Respect

C – Compassion

A brief history of the school

The school was built by the Baptist congregation of the village.  First it was used as a Sunday School, but from 1872 became a Day School.  In 1904 the West Riding County Council took over the running of the School, and the latest re-organisation of 1974 resulted in the school coming under the control of Kirklees Metropolitan Council, as remains the case today.

In the early days the School consisted of just a hall and two screened-off classrooms.  The rising population of Scapegoat Hill and Nettleton Hill necessitated the building of a major extension in 1892, which added an Infant classroom, new cloakrooms, office, an enlarged playground and heating for the first time.  In the early 1920s the accommodation was re-designed to accommodate 289 pupils.  Until the opening of Colne Valley High School in 1956 children stayed at the school for their entire school lives unless they passed exams to go to Grammar Schools.

The building has changed considerably over the years.  Further repairs in the 1960s brought indoor toilets and a new office/staffroom.  Throughout the summer of 1997 major refurbishment resulted in a new roof, new floors, the partial removal of the dividing partitions to make two small classrooms into one larger classroom, and a staffroom/storage area.

In 2006/7 major refurbishments took place in the original building which included building a new classroom on the main building to replace the outside classroom, refurbishment to the other classes and staffroom, the alteration of the main entrance to include a new reception area/school office, and the creation of a headteacher’s office.

In 2022, our school turned 150 years old, and we celebrated with a Summer Fayre and activities around the school.