With sixty pupils and two assistant teachers, the school was flourishing under Headmistress Miss Fairey. Attendance varied from year to year, and was affected by seasonal events such as the harvest and Yarm fair. Bad waether frequently prevented the children from Picton travelling to school, and the Picton Attendance Officer was a regular visitor to the school. The Rector of Crathorne, the Rev. Alder Wilson, on the right of the picture, was Chairman of Vice Chairman of the Board for some thirty years. Numbers gradually fell and the school finally closed in 1981.
History does not record whether the young lad on the left of the picture did impale himself on the railings!