Elm Wood Primary School - History

History

In 1929 Carnac Street Central School (or Carnac Street Central Council School), a Secondary Elementary School, was opened for children up to the age of 14. This was built by the London County Council, reducing the burden placed on earlier established neighbouring schools (such as Salter’s Hill School (now known as Kingswood School) and Gipsy Road School (which stood on the site later occupied by Norwood School, Norwood Park Primary School, and now is the temporary home for Elmgreen School). In the 1930s (c.1933/34), the school became known as West Norwood Central School (or West Norwood Central Council School) . The name was not indicative of the geographic position of the school within South London, given that the school buildings were on the very edge of West Norwood’s border with West Dulwich (with two of the four roads enclosing the block in which the school stands are in West Dulwich). Following the Education Act 1944, when the schooling system in the United Kingdom was restructured into primary, secondary and further education, the school became a Secondary School under the name West Norwood Central Mixed School in 1951/1952, also known as West Norwood Secondary School or West Norwood Comprehensive.

In this form, the school was deemed to have been a pioneer. However, in the late 1950s a number of schools were established by the London County Council to form the vanguard of comprehensive education. A large number of pupils and staff from West Norwood Central moved to the brand new Kingsdale School which opened in 1958. Of the remaining pupils within West Norwood Central’s former catchment area, a great many went to the newly established Norwood School for Girls, based at that time on the same premises as the former Gipsy Road School. For those wanting boys only education, the giant Tulse Hill School for boys had been established in 1956 and had already been taking in pupils that may formerly have done to West Norwood Central.

After this, in 1960/1961 the school became a primary school for children up to the age of 11 under the new name of Elm Wood Primary School. Colloquially, the school’s name has been spelt both as Elmwood and Elm Wood but the school is officially Elm Wood School, a Junior and Mixed Infants School.