South Harrow - Education

Education

Built in 1938, Roxbourne Junior School and Roxbourne Infant School share a site in Torbay Road. The schools were known as Roxbourne Middle School and Roxbourne First School between 1974 and 2010, when the London Borough of Harrow adopted a comprehensive system of education that transferred children to secondary schools at age 12 (after year 7). In 2010 the borough changed the age ranges catered for, and took the opportunity to replace the additional wing that had been added in 1974 to accommodate year 7, which contained asbestos. The new classrooms are used by Reception and year 6. At the same time a Nursery class was added to the Infant school. The Infant school now covers ages 4 to 7 as Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and year 2. The Junior school covers ages 8 to 11, as years 3, 4, 5 and 6. The Roxbourne schools have three classes in each year, each class numbering up to thirty pupils.

Welldon Park Junior School and Welldon Park Infant School are built on separate sites in Wyvenhoe Road. The original school opened in 1910 and was known as Welldon Park Primary School. At the outbreak of war the deputy headmaster was Mr Goodhead. A pupil at that time was Peter Walker, now Lord Walker, and he lived in Eastcote Lane. Mr Goodhead used a very thin whippy cane when the occasion justified. His particular expertise was Technical Drawing which he taught enthusiastically. Not a subject to be found in modern Primary Schools. The school was overcrowded by 1942 as more people moved from central London and as other schools were destroyed by the enemy. Classes had up to 40 children. In the main hall two classes sat back to back simultaneously. The same hall was used for school meals as well as the central ground floor corridor. The school served pupils from age 4 to 11 years and had a reputation for academic rigour under the headship of Mrs. Cooper in the 1950s and '60s. More recently it was separated into Welldon Park First School and Weldon Park Middle School before changing age ranges and names along with schools in the rest of the Borough. Today, the Infant School has two nursery class (an AM and a PM class), three reception classes, and two each of Years One and Two. The Junior school has three Year Three classes, along with two each of Years Four, Five and Six. For both schools, where there are three classes in a particular year group, this is the result of Harrow Council's policy of 'bulge classes' in schools, to increase the number of pupils offered places: the 'bulge' ripples upwards.

Whitmore High School was formed in 1974 and is now a sixth form specialist science school. It is in the process of being completely rebuilt by September 2010, following a £30 million grant.