Chiswick School is an English secondary school with academy status in Chiswick,

West London West London is the western part of London, England, north of the River Thames, west of the City of London, and extending to the Greater London boundary. The term is used to differentiate the area from the other parts of London: North Londo ...

. It educates more than 1,200 pupils, aged 11 to 18 years. This number includes 200 pupils studying at the upper school

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 ...

within the school grounds.

Admissions

The school has a wide catchment, encompassing its native borough of Hounslow, but also areas including Kensington and Chelsea,

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

, and

Hammersmith and Fulham The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham () is a London borough in West London and which also forms part of Inner London. The borough was formed in 1965 from the merger of the former Metropolitan Boroughs of Hammersmith and Fulham. The bor ...

. As of 2004, the school's intake was almost 60 percent male, explained by the number of girls' schools nearby. A majority of the school's students are of minority ethnic backgrounds, and a significantly greater proportion than the national average speak English as a second language. The percentage of disadvantaged students receiving help from the pupil premium is also above average.

History

Chiswick County School for Girls opened in 1916 in Burlington Lane, and Chiswick County School for Boys opened in 1926 beside the girls' school. Rory K. Hands was appointed head of the boys school in 1963, and in 1966, he oversaw a merger of the two institutions, to form the co-educational Chiswick County Grammar School. Shortly thereafter, the Borough proposed that Hands' grammar school should be merged with two nearby

secondary modern schools A secondary modern school is a type of secondary school that existed throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland from 1944 until the 1970s under the Tripartite System. Schools of this type continue in Northern Ireland, where they are usuall ...

to form a comprehensive school, following

Circular 10/65 Circular 10/65 was a government circular issued in 1965 by the Department of Education and Science (DES) requesting Local Education Authorities (LEAs) in England and Wales to begin converting their secondary schools to the Comprehensive System. Fo ...

. This amalgamation created Chiswick Comprehensive School, which opened in 1968. The new school operated across two sites, with the lower school (for ages 11 to 14) occupying what had been the secondary modern school's buildings at Staveley Road, and the upper school operating on the old grammar school site at Burlington Lane. In 1973, some of the buildings at Staveley Road had to be closed as they were made of brittle high alumina cement. The school was forced to operate with a "village of huts"; Hands maintained school morale with a production of ''

The Gondoliers ''The Gondoliers; or, The King of Barataria'' is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 7 December 1889 and ran for a very successful 554 performances (at that time the ...

'' by Gilbert and Sullivan. He retired the headship in 1975 after suffering a series of heart attacks. Dame Helen Metcalf was the school's headteacher from 1988 to 2001, providing strong and emotionally intelligent leadership. Sometime after 1978 the school was renamed Chiswick Community School; the name reverted to Chiswick School when it became an academy on 1 March 2012. Today, the North Eastern block from the original girls' school still remains.

Notable former pupils

* John Stuart Archer – vice-chancellor of Heriot-Watt University, president of the Institution of Chemical EngineersFrost's Scottish Who's Who
John Stuart Archer (accessed 7 March 2009) * Henry Badowski - musician * Carlton Cole – footballer * Phil Collins – singer, songwriter and world-renowned drummer, member of rock band

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Bible * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...

Phoebe Fox Phoebe Fox (born 16 April 1987) is an English actress, who was nominated for Olivier and Evening Standard awards for work in theatre. She has appeared in the ''Black Mirror'' episode " The Entire History of You" (2011), '' The Woman in Black: A ...

– actor * John Neville – actor * Nana Ofori-Twumasi – footballer *

Natalie Sawyer Natalie Lorraine Sawyer (born 23 October 1979) is an English television and podcast presenter and Talksport radio presenter. Sawyer parted company with Sky Sports News in March 2018, after eighteen years of service having initially joined the ...

– TV presenter * Kyle Simmons – keyboard player for Bastille * Allegra Stratton – journalist, political aide * Don Taylor – director and playwright * Brian Tesler – chairman of

London Weekend Television London Weekend Television (LWT) (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 un ...

References

External links

Official site

National Archives: minutes of the School Board 1872-1903

Visit Gallery
{{authority control Academies in the London Borough of Hounslow Educational institutions established in 1968 Secondary schools in the London Borough of Hounslow 1968 establishments in England Chiswick Buildings and structures in Chiswick