Oaks Park High School (Ilford)


Oaks Park High School is a school situated in Newbury Park, Ilford. Opened in September 2001, Oaks Park now has over 1500 students, with over 300 in the Sixth Form.

History

Oaks Park High School was built under the private finance initiative to alleviate the growing shortfall of places in schools within the Borough. The school opened on 7 September 2001 with an initial intake of 180 students.
In May/June 2006 the school saw the first cohort of students take their GCSE examinations. The Sixth Form opened in September 2006 and Oaks Park became a Specialist Music School at the same time.
Oaks Park is now one of the largest schools in Redbridge. There are 1260 students in the main school. In January 2016, the £13 million Craig Foster building was opened, hosting facilities for science, drama, and media studies, and creating new spaces for sixth form students.

Sixth Form

The Sixth Form is growing in size and reputation. It retains many students and attracts
still more from Redbridge and neighbouring boroughs.

Achievements

In recent years the school has won a number of awards reflecting the wide range of initiatives undertaken by students and staff. Most recently the Travel Green Team achieved a Gold Travel Award for Sustainable Travel, which was awarded by Transport for London. In October 2011 the school was awarded ‘Outstanding’ status by Ofsted. Oaks Park has been designated an International School since 2011. These include students and staff visiting schools overseas, schools from abroad visiting Oaks Park, and video conferences taking place with schools from a variety of countries. Oaks Park has recently undergone an expansion programme in September 2015, creating 2 new forms of entry into the school.

Criticism

The school came under heavy criticism after a student committed suicide amidst bullying.