Forest Hill School is a boys' secondary comprehensive school located in Forest Hill, in the London Borough of Lewisham. The school is in federation with the girls' secondary, Sydenham School, which is nearby. In 2005 the school was given Performing Arts status for its Drama, Dance, Music and Art courses and currently has a silver artsmark from the English Arts Council. The school is now often oversubscribed and the catchment area has recently been reduced by around 200 yards. The school has an Investors in People award.
History
Forest Hill Comprehensive School opened in September 1956. It was a flagship of the London County Council's new policy of building comprehensive schools that aimed to breakdown the previous national policy of selecting children, largely on 11-plus results, to attend grammar, technical or secondary modern schools. It eventually grew to around 1,400 boys. The first head teacher was Alexander E. Howard, who was a leading national figure in technical education. In its early years the school attracted considerable interest from educationalists. The following is a report of a visit to the school in July 1957 by the American educationalist Flaud C. Wooton. The academic quality of the early cadre of teachers is indicated by the careers that some went on to. Paul Ashbee became Professor of Archaeology at the University of Anglia. Laurie Taylor taught English and Drama and went on to a distinguished career in Sociology and is for his broadcasting. Brian Brookes, who taught Botany, went on to become a leading naturalist, with expertise in the plants of the Scottish Highlands, and environmental consultant, being awarded the MBE in 1983 for his services to education. David Stanbury, who taught Biology and became the School’s third Headmaster, researched and wrote on Robert Fitzroy, the captain of, on which Charles Darwin was naturalist. Christ’s College Cambridge holds a collection of Stanbury’s papers. The School attracted press attention with many of its activities in the 1960s. In 1962, the School organised a trip to the United States, which the Daily Mirror headlined: ‘An Exceptional School … With Exceptional Boys: 76 Ambassadors from London SE23’. It was described as ‘a grammar, technical, commercial, central and modern school – all in one’, with one boy quoted as saying ‘None of the boys would change Forest Hill School for Eton.’ The school also had its own film unit and produced feature length films including Twenty Four Hundred Pennies and The Custard Boys which starred pupils and staff from the school. In 2016 the school was forced to cut costs by an annual £1.3m, as funding had been cut as part of a political decision at Westminster. The school has since stabilised its financial situation.
Current
In 2005 the school was given Performing Arts status for its Drama, Dance, Music and Art courses and currently has a silver artsmark from the English Arts Council. The school is now often oversubscribed and the catchment area has recently been reduced by around 200 yards. The school has an Investors in People award.
Houses
The four houses of Forest Hill are named after famous people of the 16th, 17th, 18th and early 20th centuries. While the house only initially determines which form the student is in, it also forms the basis of sport teams throughout each pupil's career at the school. Originally there were six houses, but two were later dropped: Browning and Newton. When there were six houses Browning's house colour was red, Drake's dark blue, Reynold's light blue and Newton's maroon.
Redevelopment
Sports Hall
In 2006 the school's new £4.5M state-of-the-art sports facility was opened with lottery funding and help with Sport England and The FA Charter Standard Schools Program. The facility features a large air conditioned sports hall with basketball nets, indoor cricket, indoor football markings and goals and a scoreboard. The other part of the gym includes a fitness suite, cafè, space for trampolining and table tennis, new changing room facilities with showers and also two of the old three gyms. The sports centre opened on top of Gym 3, but was also expanded towards Bampton Road on the other side of the school.
Main building
The school began a major redevelopment project in July 2006 which completed in January 2008. The only part of the school which remains unchanged is the current art block, which was built recently. The rest of the school was demolished and rebuilt from the ground up with the three floor plan changed to a higher four story building. The new school building now features a huge atrium which doubles up into a fully functioning theatre, two fully equipped drama rooms, a separate theatre, a fully equipped music department with a Recording studio and a Mac computer room. There is also a dance studio with sprung floors, mirrors, and a 600 watt speaker system.
Notable people educated at Forest Hill School
Brian Jacks, Olympic judo medalist and TV sports personality
