St Clement Danes School

Updated on Oct 12, 2024

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Established 1862 DfE number 919/5421 Phone +44 1923 284169 Founded 1862 Gender Mixed-sex education		Type Academy DfE URN 136901 Tables Motto Loyauté M’Oblige Number of students 1,285

Headteacher Josephine Valentine BSc, PhD Location Chenies RoadChorleywoodHertfordshireWD3 6EWEngland Address Chenies Rd, Chorleywood WD3 6EW, UK Profiles Twitter

St. Clement Danes School is a mixed academy school in Chorleywood, Hertfordshire.

Admissions

It takes students aged 11 (Year 7) through to 18 (Year 13).

The School occupies a large site to the northwest of Rickmansworth in Chorleywood. It is about a mile (1.6 km) from Chorleywood station but there are buses from the station and Watford. It is situated on Chenies Road (A404), which at that point occupies the boundary of Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire for a half mile, adjacent to the north side of the school. The school is less than a mile west of junction 18 of the M25.

History

The school was founded in 1862 by the church wardens of St Clement Danes Parish in Aldwych, London and opened in Houghton Street. It was funded from income from the St Clement Danes Holborn Estate, a charity founded in 1551 which owned a piece of land on the north side of Holborn.

Grammar school

The St. Clement Danes Holborn Estate Grammar School for Boys remained in Houghton Street until 1928, when it transferred to a new site on Du Cane Road in the Metropolitan Borough of Hammersmith, where it flourished as a grammar school until 1975. The school had a well-known choir which featured in a 1975 EMI recording (ASD 3117) of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, conducted by André Previn with the LSO (and chorus). The site was next to Hammersmith Hospital, and is now occupied by St Clements House, a block of flats and Woodlane High School.

On 29 June 1973, 13-year-old Nicholas St Clair from Fulham was killed on the school playing fields at Shepherd's Bush, when he was struck in the chest by a javelin.

Comprehensive

In 1975, under an agreement between the Governing Board of the School and Hertfordshire County Council, it was re-established in its new premises in Chorleywood, as a Voluntary-Aided Mixed Comprehensive School. In April 1994 the School was incorporated as a grant-maintained school. The Du Cane Road buildings were taken over by Burlington Danes Church of England School, sold to Hammersmith Hospital in 2002 and demolished in 2004.

The school receives additional financial support from the St Clement Danes School Charitable Foundation, one of the beneficiaries of the historic St Clement Danes Holborn Estate.

Academy

The school converted to academy status in July 2011.

Houses

The house system was started in 1908 with four houses: Clare, Temple, Clement, and Dane. By 1938 the school had grown and two new houses were added: Burleigh and Lincoln. Essex and Exeter were subsequently introduced in 1952. On the move to Buckinghamshire, the school reverted to six houses, with Clare and Essex not being reintroduced until 2005.

Commemoration

Every year a commemoration service is held in St Clement Danes Church in London to commemorate the beginning of the school. It is a large celebration, in which the orchestra and choir play a big part.