St. Nicholas is a Church of England Primary School catering for children from 4+ to 11 years.

Until September 2006, the school was situated in the village of Rawreth, between the towns of Rayleigh and Wickford, adjacent to St. Nicholas Church, with which the school enjoys close links.

The school was opened in June 1873 with 17 pupils and was known as Rawreth School.  It consisted of a single school room, later used as a hall, and had separate entrances and playgrounds for boys and girls.  Before an infant classroom was built in 1896 as many as 80 children were taught in the one school room, with infants sitting in raised tiers in one third of the room!

In 1939 electricity was installed and an additional classroom was built in the 1950’s.

During the summer of 1997, the main building was extended to provide improved administration offices, improved staff facilities and a new and enlarged library area.

In September 1999 the school governors changed the name to St. Nicholas CofE Primary to reflect the links with the church.

In January 2000 with 96 children on roll the school was arranged into four classes using the hall as a temporary class base.

During that same year with the increasing number of children on roll and with a lack of space and modern facilities continuing to be a problem, the LEA put forward a proposal to the School Governors to relocate the school to a new purpose built school on part of the old Park School site approximately 1 mile down the road.

However, because this was a long term solution, in the spring of 2000, it was agreed that the toilet area by the back door should be remodelled to become a small room for group work.  The children decided to name it “The Studio.”

The new school project started to take positive shape during the 2004-2005 academic year.  Staff, pupils and Governors were all involved in every stage of the process from design through to packing and unpacking and the school finally opened its new doors to children on 11th September 2006.