The school traces its origins back to Christ Church National School and later Christchurch Church of England Girls School. In 1929, Christchurch moved to Astor Avenue Elementary School, subsequently Astor Primary School, named after Violet Astor, wife of John Jacob Astor, 1st Baron Astor of Hever, Unionist MP for Dover with the avenue joining Tower Hamlets and Elms Vale after her husband. During the 1930s, the school operated from the same locale but as Astor Avenue Council School and, in 1939, for senior girls only but including boys and infants during the war and temporarily evacuated to Monmouthshire.
Post-war developments
Astor Secondary School opened in 1948 and one of two new secondary modern schools founded in the immediate post-war years serving Dover, the other, Castlemount Secondary School, closed in 1991. In 1951, with the recent introduction of a secondary modern, staff and pupils transferred to a new adjoining building to the elementary school comprising an assembly hall and practical rooms and a new headmaster was appointed in 1953. Astor Primary School continued, albeit separately. In 1974, the secondary modern split into 2 sites with the senior or "upper" school moving to a multi-purpose building and mobile classrooms set into the hillside alongside Dover Grammar School for Boys. In 1990, with the impending closure of Castlemount and projected growth in student numbers to circa 1,400, a proposal was submitted by Kent County Council for the adjacent grammar school to relocate to the Castlemount site on the east side of Dover with ex-buildings and playing fields to be taken over by Astor School but this was abandoned. In 1995, the KentEducation Committee upgraded the school from 'high ability', principally serving pupils aged 11–16, to 'wide ability' and up to age 18. In 1999, the school consolidated into a single site and a major building and refurbishment programme was completed that included a new science block. Astor Primary, renamed Priory Fields Primary School moved into the original 1951 "modern" structure which was upgraded until final demolishment and a complete rebuild in 2017. In 2002, as part of the specialist schools programme, Astor was allowed to concentrate in the arts, and in particular, the visual arts. Astor also participated in a post-16 consortium with other secondary schools in the area and a college of further education, East Kent College. In 2008, it federated with 3 other schools, Barton Junior School, Shatterlocks Infant and Nursery School, and White Cliffs Primary College for the Arts to form the Dover Federation of the Arts, as part of the Dover Services Extended Forum in the area catering for pupils of primary age. In 2012, it became an academy with The Dover Federation for the Arts Multi Academy Trust.
In popular culture
Astor Secondary School featured in the first episode of Telford's Change, a 1979 BBC television series set partly in Dover.
