Southend-on-Sea is a city in the English ceremonial county of Essex. Formal education started in Prittlewell in 1727 with a church school. With the growth of the city, education expanded into primary, secondary and further education during the 19th century. In the late 20th century, University of Essex opened a campus in the city.
The first school in the city opened in Prittlewell in 1727, after the Reverend Case campaigned for one to be set up. Land was provided by the Lord of the Manor Daniel Scratton in North Street for establishment of a school, and by 1739, Scratton had donated a further 21 acres of land. The school was by subscription of 1d a week, with 16 free places provided, and the remainder of the funding provided by a partial subscription of the parish and collections at St Mary's. The parliamentary commission into charities of 1819âÂÂ37 described the school as "a house of lath and plaster, situate in the village near the bridge; it comprises a schoolroom of about 30ft. in length and 20ft. in breadth, and several other rooms which are appropriated to the use of the schoolmaster".
After Southend became a separate ecclesiastical district in 1842, the church of St. John's the Baptist founded the subscription National School in 1855 in Lower Southend. By 1876, the Board of Education called for a local board of education be set up and extra places be created. At the time of their report Southend had the following schools providing education for under 12s:
It was reported that the National School had closed and that Southend required a further 220 places. Many parishioners were against a local school board being set up, but Daniel Scratton was for the development, and by 1877 the Prittlewell School Board was formed.
By 1879, a new school was created called the London Road Schools which had places for over 500 pupils, and Prittlewell Church of England school had moved to East Street. However, by 1892, with further expansion of Southend, the Brewery Road School (now called Porters Grange) opened, followed by Leigh Road (which would become Hamlet Court County School) in 1897, Southchurch Hall in 1904, Bournemouth Park in 1907 and Chalkwell Park in 1909. The local board was dissolved by the Education Act 1902 (2 Edw. 7. c. 42) and replaced by the education committee of the council.
The Science and Art Department formation in 1853 had seen the government push for education in art, science, technology, and design in Britain and Ireland. The movement did not arrive in Southend until 1882 when two evening classes were set up at the London Road Schools for Art and Physiology. By 1883 the classes were moved to Clarence Street in a building shared with the council.
The Technical Instruction Act 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c. 76) and the Technical Instruction Act 1891 (54 & 55 Vict. c. 4) allowed councils to provide evening classes for technical subjects. The local board set up the Technical Instruction Committee, and soon classes were started at the council offices in Clarence Road. They were extremely popular, and the following year the newly created Southend Corporation purchased further land in Clarence Road to build a Technical Institute. In 1895 the foundation stone was laid, but prior to it opening it was decided to also open a day technical school for about 20 pupils, influenced by the Bryce commission of 1894. The first headmaster was J Hitchcock from Woolwich and was supported by one assistant teacher. A one-day a week art school was opened, which by 1899 was a fully organised art college.
A foundation stone was laid by Lord Avebury in 1901 for the new Day Technical School, School of Art and Evening Class Institute with the completed building being opened by the Countess of Warwick a year later. The Day Technical School soon outgrew the Clarence Road site, and in 1902 a new building opened at Victoria Circus to host them, the Evening Technical Institute and the School of Art. In 1907, Essex County Council formed a new Higher Education committee, who decided that education should be split into separate boys and girls schools. In 1912, a foundation stone was laid in Boston Avenue for a new girls school, and a year later the girls left the Day Technical School to the new Southend High School for Girls. The Day Technical School was renamed as Southend High School for Boys. In 1914, Southend became a County Borough, taking charge of all education in the town, including the High School, School of Art and the Evening class institute all located still in the same building. After the war the number of pupils increased, so in 1919 the School of Art moved out of the top floor to make room for the High School, into temporary wooden buildings at the rear of the building. In 1920, The Commercial School was a co-educational school opened for the town's rapidly expanding population in Bellsfield, a former large house located on Victoria Avenue. Two years later, the school's name changed from The Commercial School to Westcliff High School, and by 1926, boys attending the school had moved to the school's present site on Kenilworth Gardens, becoming Westcliff High School for Boys. The accompanying girls' school, Westcliff High School for Girls, remained on the Victoria Avenue site until 1930, following their relocation to the same site as Westcliff High School for Boys. The plans for the purchased land at the corner of Victoria Avenue and Carnarvon Road was changed in 1934 when it was decided to use this as the site of a new town hall.
In 1922, the School of Art grew by adding a School of Architecture The School of Art would become the nucleus of the newly formed Southend Technical and Commercial School. A Junior Technical department was opened at Fairfax Drive in 1929, but moved to Victoria Circus in 1934 to make way for Fairfax Senior Mixed School, and in 1935 the Technical and Commercial school was renamed Southend Municipal College, who took over the whole site after Southend High School for Boys moved to Prittlewell Chase in 1938. The college was restructured in 1963 to include in its teaching commercial and industrial skills for education in courses like plumbing, and renamed as the Southend College of Technology. The college became South East Essex College of Arts and Technology (SEECAT) in 1991, with the college formally merged with Thurrock and Basildon College on 1 January 2010 and was renamed South Essex College.
Southend has a mixture of secondary school offerings. The mainstream secondary schools are mixed-sex comprehensives, however, the city retained the grammar school system and has four such schools. Additionally, there are two single-sex schools assisted by the Roman Catholic Church.
The main higher education provider in Southend is the University of Essex which has a campus in Elmer Approach, that opened in 2007 and is on the site of the former Odeon cinema. The university has operated from the city since 2003 when they opened a new satellite campus at Princess Caroline House in the High Street. It also operates the East 15 Acting School Southend campus at the Clifftown Theatre. It was announced in December 2025 that the Southend campus would close in Summer 2026, with courses transferring to the Colchester campus.
In addition to a number of secondary schools that offer further education, the largest provider is South Essex College in a purpose-built building in the centre of town. Formerly known as South East Essex College, (and previously Southend Municipal College) the college changed name in January 2010 following a merger with Thurrock and Basildon College.
Additionally there is PROCAT, (an arm of South Essex College) that is based at Progress Road, while learners can travel to USP College (formerly SEEVIC College) in Thundersley. The East 15 Acting School, a drama school has its second campus in Southend, while the Southend Adult Community College is in Ambleside Drive. Southend United Futsal & Football Education Scholarship, located at Southend United's stadium Roots Hall, provides education for sports scholarships.