Canons High School (CHS) is an

academy school An academy school in England is a state-funded school which is directly funded by the Department for Education and independent of local authority control. The terms of the arrangements are set out in individual Academy Funding Agreements. Most ...

situated in

Edgware Edgware () is a suburban town in northern Greater London, mostly in the London Borough of Barnet but with small parts falling in the London Borough of Harrow and in the London Borough of Brent. Edgware is centred north-northwest of Charing Cros ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

in the eastern part of the

London Borough of Harrow The London Borough of Harrow () is a London borough in northwest London, England; it forms part of Outer London. It borders four other London boroughs Barnet to the east of ancient Watling Street (now the A5 road), Brent to the southeast, Ea ...

. It also has an attached

sixth form In the education systems of England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepare for A-l ...

centre which forms part of the

Harrow Sixth Form Collegiate Harrow may refer to: Places * Harrow, Victoria, Australia * Harrow, Ontario, Canada * The Harrow, County Wexford, a village in Ireland * London Borough of Harrow, England ** Harrow, London, a town in London ** Harrow (UK Parliament constituency) ...

. The school was formerly known as Downer Grammar School.

Admissions

The school currently teaches pupils aged 11 to 18 across six year groups. The school is currently preparing for admission of Year 7 pupils. The current Headteacher is Mr Bartle. The main feeder schools are Stag Lane, Glebe, Little Stanmore and Aylward. The school is oversubscribed. It is situated just east of the A4140, 300 metres north of the boundary between Harrow and Brent. Queensbury Underground station is close to the south (which is on the Harrow/Brent boundary), and the

Jubilee line The Jubilee line is a London Underground line that runs between in east London and in the suburban north-west, via the Docklands, South Bank and West End. Opened in 1979, it is the newest line on the Underground network, although some secti ...

passes close to the west. ''

Edgware Road Edgware Road is a major road in London, England. The route originated as part of Roman Watling Street and, unusually in London, it runs for 10 miles in an almost perfectly straight line. Forming part of the modern A5 road, Edgware Road undergoes ...

'' (A5) is about a half-mile to the east. It lies in the parish of All Saints', Queensbury.

History

Grammar School

It was formerly known as Downer Grammar School. It was built in 1952 and was the first grammar school to have been built in Harrow after World War II. It was named after Thomas Downer, a magistrate from Harrow, who died in 1502. It was officially opened by the

Bishop of Stepney The Bishop of Stepney is an episcopal title used by a suffragan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of London, in the Province of Canterbury, England. The title takes its name after Stepney, an inner-city district in the London Borough of ...

, the Right Rev

Joost de Blank Joost () was an Internet TV service, created by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis (founders of Skype and Kazaa). During 2007–2008 Joost used peer-to-peer TV (P2PTV) technology to distribute content to their Mozilla-based desktop player; in la ...

in 1955.

High school

In 1974 Downer Grammar School took in the pupils of Camrose Secondary Modern School (which had opened in 1932) to form Canons High School (on the Downer site), with the Camrose site becoming a middle school. Canons had been the name of one of the four

houses A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

of the grammar school, each named after a local former country estate. Mr Becker was the headmaster during this time. The school achieved

Technology College In the United Kingdom, a Technology College is a specialist school that specialises in design and technology, mathematics and science. Beginning in 1994, they were the first specialist schools that were not CTC colleges. In 2008, there were 59 ...

status in 2002 and then gained a second vocational specialism. For many years Canons High School consisted of four year groups, with the first year group being Year 8. However, in September 2008, the school established a sixth form, adding two more years (Year 12 and 13) to the school. A new Sixth Form Centre opened in September 2009. In 2010/2011 the school changed its status from a Technology college to a Science college and changed its intake years to have Year 7's in attendance.

Academy

On 1 August 2011, Canons High School officially gained academy status.

Ofsted

The latest

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a Non-ministerial government department, non-ministerial department of Government of the United Kingdom, His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament of the U ...

report from Canons High School was on 27 March 2019 which was graded 'Requires Improvement'.

Examination Performance

GCSE Examination Performance

* ''The table above shows the percentage of students gaining five A* to C grades, including English and Maths'' * ''The rightmost column shows the percentage of students gaining five A* to C grades, in five core subjects - maths; English; two science qualifications; a foreign language and either history or geography. * Source: Department for Education * Full GCSE results for the London Borough of Harrow

Notable former pupils

Downer Grammar School

Long John Baldry John William "Long John" Baldry (12 January 1941 – 21 July 2005) was an English musician and actor. In the 1960s, he was one of the first British vocalists to sing the blues in clubs and shared the stage with many British musicians including t ...

, singer *

Roger Bootle Roger Bootle (born 22 June 1952) is a British economist and a weekly columnist for ''The Daily Telegraph''. He is the chairman of Capital Economics, an independent macroeconomic research consultancy. He and Capital Economics were awarded the Wol ...

, economist *

Tessa Peake-Jones Tessa Peake-Jones (born 9 May 1957) is an English actress having appeared in ''The Danedyke Mystery'' (1979), ''Pride and Prejudice'' (1980), ''When We Are Married'' (1987), ''Up the Garden Path'' (1990–1993), ''So Haunt Me'' (1992–1994), ' ...

, actress *

Keith Riglin Keith Graham Riglin is an Anglican bishop in the Scottish Episcopal Church. Having ministered from 1983 within Baptist and Reformed churches, he took holy orders in the Church of England in 2008. In January 2021 he was elected Bishop of Argy ...

, bishop

Canons High School

Muktar Said Ibrahim Muktar Said Ibrahim (born 24 January 1978), also known as Muktar Mohammed Said, was found guilty of involvement in the attempted 21 July attacks on London's public transport system in 2005. He attempted to detonate a device on a London bus and ...

, notorious terrorist *

Jonjo Shelvey Jonjo Shelvey (born 27 February 1992) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for club Newcastle United. Shelvey began his career at Charlton Athletic, becoming their youngest-ever player at 16 years and 59 days old.

, football player *

Stephen Simmonds Stephen Guy Simmonds is a Swedish recording artist born in Täby, Sweden, 26 June 1975. Born to a Jamaican father, a musician by profession, and a Swedish mother, he was raised in Sweden, the United States, and Israel. He studied at Adolf Fre ...

, financial director *

Young Adz D-Block Europe, often abbreviated to DBE, is a British hip hop collective consisting of Adam Nathaniel "Young Adz" Williams, Ricky Earl "Dirtbike LB" Banton and Lil Pino from Lewisham, London. Their name is a reference to The Lox (also known as ...

, rapper *

Andrei Balauca Andrei, Andrey or Andrej (in Cyrillic script: Андрэй , Андрей or Андреј) is a form of Andreas/Ἀνδρέας in Slavic languages and Romanian. People with the name include: *Andrei of Polotsk (–1399), Lithuanian nobleman *And ...

, sigma

References

External links

Official website

EduBase
{{authority control Academies in the London Borough of Harrow Educational institutions established in 1952 Secondary schools in the London Borough of Harrow 1952 establishments in England