Chiswick School is an English secondary school with academy status in Chiswick, West London. It educates more than 1,200 pupils, aged 11 to 18 years. The school also includes 200 pupils studying at the upper school sixth form, which is located within the school grounds.
Academy status
On 1 March 2012, Chiswick Community School changed from a local council school to an Academy, to reflect this change the school's name changed from Chiswick Community School to Chiswick School, the name it had when it first became a comprehensive school.
Admissions
Chiswick School is located beside Chiswick House and has adopted a picture of the house as its logo. Most of the buildings are new, however the North Eastern block still remains from the original girls' school. Before the school was built a farm was on the site. Due to its location it has a very wide catchment area taking pupils from the borough of Hounslow as well as Kensington and Chelsea, Richmond, Hammersmith and Fulham and Ealing. Chiswick School prides itself on being a very multicultural school; its students have ethnic backgrounds ranging from Asian to African. Due to this diversity, it has double the national average of students for whom English is a second language. Because of the prevalence of prominent all-girls schools in the local area, Chiswick School's intake is roughly 60% male. It is situated next to Alexandra Avenue, south of Chiswick House and near the Civil Service Sports Ground. Joan Ann Maynard is a teacher.
Academic performance
In 2011, 92% of Chiswick School students achieved 5 GCSE or equivalents at grades A* to C in a school record for this measure, whilst 60% achieved 5 good grades including English and Maths. In 2011, 33% of A Level results were in the A and A* category. This was double the number achieved last year and the highest in the Hounslow Borough.
History
Chiswick Community School comes from the amalgamation of three schools:
Chiswick County School for Girls, which opened in 1916 in Burlington Lane.
Chiswick County School for Boys, which opened in 1926 adjacent to the girls school. These two combined in 1966 to become the co-educational Chiswick County Grammar school.
A "central" school which opened in 1927 in Staveley Road, becoming a secondary modern school, then merging with the grammar school to become Chiswick Comprehensive School in 1968. The school continued on two sites with the lower school on the Stavely Road site and the Upper school on the Burlington Road site. In the summer of 1973 serious weakness were found in one of the buildings on the Stavely Road site and the building was forced to close. A village of huts was erected on the Burlington Road site and the "third year" moved from the lower school to the upper school site. Many years later the school was partially re-built and all the school moved to Burlington Road. In the entry year of 1971 there were 12 forms of 30 pupils and the school approached 1800 pupils.
During the amalgamation period and after, R.K Hands was the Headteacher. He was thus the first Headteacher of the Comprehensive School, having been Headteacher of the, previous, boys grammar school. He was popular amongst staff and students although very "old school" by modern standards. He encouraged traditional sports such as Rugby, Cricket and Rowing but was also interested in the arts and sciences. He took part in many plays and when the building fell down, in 1973, encouraged the staff to produce a Gilbert and Sullivan Opera, in which he starred. The strain of the amalgamation and running a very large school took its toll and he had a heart attack in 1975 and left the school. He was also a governor of the Froebel Institute in Roehampton, and later became a governor of the Roehampton Institute of H.E. A Portrait of R.K Hands hung for a long time in Froebel College. R.K Hands was succeeded by Mr Brian Hurrell. Sometime after 1978 the school was renamed Chiswick Community School.
Comprehensive
Dame Helen Metcalf was the headteacher for 13 years. It became Chiswick Comprehensive School in 1968.
