Forster’s Education Act of 1870 made education compulsory for children aged between five and twelve years, and specified that schools were to be publicly funded. The Rector Rev John Eade Pryor felt that the old school in Bennington was “not quite up to the requirements of the place” and determined to have a new School and residence for teachers more worthy of the Parish. The new National School was built in 1872 and first opened in January 1873.