September 1970 saw the opening of the second County Primary School In Stamford, which was situated in the old Bluecoat School, St Peter's Hill and is now the Masonic Hall.
Mr Knight and I welcomed 14 new pupils who were 5 years old and had no older siblings in other schools.
There had been a protest by parents against re-opening an old building and there was a march through the town which appeared on local TV! Not a good start for us.
However, Mr Knight had spent all his summer break making sure that the school was in good repair, cheerfully decorated and well equipped. (Those of you who knew him well would know that only the best was good enough for his school.)
I well remember that when the first playtime arrived, the children stood around the playground, staring at each other, so Mr Knight fetched out some PE equipment and he and I played with the the children. Not having older children to show them how to play was then resolved.
Subsequently, we were granted permission to name the school The Malcolm Sargent School after one of Stamford's most famous celebrities. We found a scholarship honours board In the school which listed Malcolm Sargent's name and we felt it would be a great privilege if we could call our new school after him.
We had lots of fun in that old building and very soon we had 120 children aged 5 to 11 and two more teachers. Mr Knight was busy at this time working with Lincs County Council preparing for the new school building which, at that time, was the last building on Empingham Road.
Mr Knight was a hard bargainer and fought for what he wanted in his new school and he succeeded.
What a hard first year that was! We had our core of 120 children and we gathered another 160 children from other schools in Stamford. It took a while for us to recover and to rebuild the atmosphere that we had previously created at the small school. We now had eight members of staff and under Mr Knight’s guidance we gelled together and made a good team.
Richard Baker, a famous BBC newsreader and Proms presenter, came to open our new school. This was very exciting as he had known Malcolm Sargent personally.
By this time I think it would be safe to say that we were regarded as one of the best schools in Lincolnshire and we had a long waiting list and were attracting children from the villages around Stamford. This was sad in a way as we did not wish to be inadvertently contributing to village school closures. Our school was extended to take in 500+ pupils and grew accordingly. We became a Grant Maintained school which gave Mr Knight greater responsibility and more control over finances. I visited the school recently and was surprised how it had changed. There is now a computer suite, fully equipped concert hall, outdoor infants’ house, lots of paths and roads to cycle on. Very exciting stuff. There is so much more that I could say.

Camilla you can be very proud of your dad. He loved his teaching ,his administrating, trips to the Lake District, concerts, sports days ,etc, and just talking to the children. He and I had great fun together building up the school and he will not be forgotten.
Re-reading this story, I realise that the word I most associate with the Malcolm Sargent school is 'fun'. I loved working at Malcolm Sargent with your dad and even though we worked hard, they were some of the happiest days of my life.

Barbara Stokes
Deputy Head