Woodside High School, Wood Green

Updated on Dec 25, 2023

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Type Academy DfE number 309/4034 Phone +44 20 8889 6761 Number of students 900		Chair Andre Davies DfE URN 137745 Tables Date founded 1884 Gender Mixed-sex education

Established Earliest predecessor: 1884 Location White Hart Lane Wood Green London N22 5QJ England Address Caretakers House, White Hart Ln, London N22 5QJ, UK Headteacher Dame Joan McVittie BSc (Hons), MA Ed, NPQH Profiles Twitter

Woodside High School is now an academy located in the Wood Green area of the London Borough of Haringey, England. Having just over 800 students, Mrs McVitte has made a dramatic improvement to the school since being the new headteacher.

In September 2006, the school was renamed from 'White Hart Lane secondary school' to 'Woodside High School'. Having had such a bad reputation, McVitte decided to give the school a 'make-over' giving the school new uniforms as well as a new reputation. The school is now one of the best schools in Haringey, being 3rd in the Haringey league tables and in the top 25 of the most improved schools in the country. It carries a new reputation that is highly valued by the students. The school was built in 1962.

History

The history of Woodside High School can be traced back through a number of renamings and mergers since its first predecessor schools were founded in 1884. In 1884 separate boys' and girls' Higher Grade schools were founded in Wood Green but by 1898 had become overcrowded and in 1899 merged when they both moved into a new building in Bounds Green Road. Wood Green Higher Grade school, as it was called, was taken over by the Middlesex education committee in 1921, closed and then reopened as Trinity county grammar school. Technical education, started in 1892 under the Technical Instruction Act of 1889, developed quickly after the opening of Tottenham Polytechnic in 1897.

Wood Green county school was established by Middlesex County Council in Glendale Avenue as a mixed grammar school in 1910 and was later renamed Glendale county school. It amalgamated with Trinity county grammar to form Wood Green county grammar school in 1962 and then moved to White Hart Lane, leaving the Glendale Avenue site for Woodside school whilst Trinity county grammar's premises were taken over by the newly established Parkwood school. St. Thomas More upper school took over the Glendale Avenue site in 1967 and at the same time Wood Green county grammar became Wood Green comprehensive school. The new Wood Green comprehensive school also absorbed boys from Woodside school and some girls from Parkwood school.

In Tottenham in 1901, Tottenham County School was founded at Grove House in anticipation of the Education Act 1902. It was the first school that offered an alternative to the Tottenham Grammar School in the area and was also the first co-educational school of its kind in Middlesex. It originally shared Grove House with Tottenham polytechnic but in 1913 moved into a new building on the Green. Like Tottenham high school for girls, established in 1885, it was modelled on the grammar school and these three schools along with the Roman Catholic St. Ignatius's college, provided for Tottenham's educational needs. Tottenham County School in 1963 moved to new buildings at Selby Road, Devonshire Hill, next to the playing fields. In 1967, Tottenham county school premises were taken over by Tottenham school and by 1972 a sixth-form centre and a sports hall had been added.

In 1983 Tottenham School vacated the site when it merged with Wood Green comprehensive school and became White Hart Lane School, the premises on Selby Road later becoming the Selby Centre. In 2006 the school once again changed its name becoming Woodside High School.

Location and buildings

The school is located on White hart lane in Wood Green, in the London Borough of Haringey, North London. It is central to many sport facilities such as a football ground and tennis court opposite the building, New River sport centre and a rugby field for London Scholars rugby league are also nearby. The school is approximately a 20-minute walk from Wood Green Shopping Centre

Redevelopments

Over the past few years, the school has approximately spent 22 million pounds on refurbishment and rebuilding works. The school now benefits from a number of facilities, new buildings and technology. A new school for children with disabilities was built on site with Woodside and was named Riverside School.

Specialist and academy status

The school was given specialist status in Business and Enterprise in September 2004. the school converted to academy status in December 2011.

Ofsted reports

The Ofsted Inspections in 2011 and 2014 both rated the school as outstanding. In recent years the school's reports have increased dramatically.

Wood Green County School

Stanley Owen Green (22 February 1915 – 4 December 1993) - known as the Protein Man, was a human billboard who became a well-known figure in central London in the latter half of the 20th century.

Lester Smith (scientist) FRS, Glaxo biochemist who isolated vitamin B12 in 1948

Glendale County School

Sir William Connor, journalist who wrote under the name Cassandra

Prof Sidney William Wooldridge CBE FRS FGS, the first Professor of Geography at King's College London (KCL) in 1944

Wood Green County Grammar School

Trevor Phillips, OBE (born 31 December 1953) - writer, broadcaster and former politician

Trinity County Grammar School

Roy Close CBE, Director General from 1976-85 of the British Institute of Management

Jack Good (producer), who produced Six-Five Special and played with Lord Rockingham's XI on their 1958 No.1 hit Hoots Mon (There's a moose loose aboot this hoose!)

James Grout, actor

Sir Ernest Harrison OBE, former Chief Executive of Racal, largely responsible for creating Vodafone.

Jack Hawkins CBE (14 September 1910 – 18 July 1973) - actor who worked on stage and in film from the 1930s until the 1970s.

Air Vice-Marshal 'Johnnie' Johnson (August 4 1917 - May 10 2009) - former Director-General of Supply in the Royal Air Force

Gerald McGuire OBE (12 July 1918 - 18 February 2002) - former President of the Council for National Parks and former President of the Ramblers Association.

Norrie Paramor, record producer and music conductor

Rev Canon David Winter, Head of Religious Briadcasting from 1987-89 at the BBC

Kenneth Wilkinson, audio engineer for Decca Records

Tottenham County School

Deryck Abel (September 1918–13 February 1965) - author and political activist.

Francis Dolling, Chairman from 1980-85 of Barclays Merchant Bank

Marsha Elms OBE, Headteacher from 1993-2007 of Kendrick School

Sir Frederick Everson CMG, Ambassador to El Salvador from 1956-60

Maj Alfred Cecil Herring VC (26 October 1888 – 10 August 1966) - recipient of the Victoria Cross

Lancelot Thomas Hogben FRS (9 December 1895 – 22 August 1975) - experimental zoologist and medical statistician.

Jim Holmes, opera conductor

Sir Arthur Knight (died 2003) - former chairman of Courtaulds, the textiles group, and of the National Enterprise Board

John Henry Marks FRCGP (born 30 May 1925) - the Chairman of the British Medical Association from 1984 to 1990.

Julia McKenzie, actress

Dennis Glossop Morrison, 2nd Baron Morrison

Mick Newmarch, former Chief Executive from 1990-95 of Prudential plc

Roy Perry, Conservative MEP from 1994-99 for Wight and Hampshire South (European Parliament constituency)

Prof Ralph Raphael FRS CBE FRSE, Professor of Organic Chemistry, and Head of Department of Organic and Inorganic Chemistry from 1972-88 at the University of Cambridge, and Regius Professor of Chemistry from 1957-72 at the University of Glasgow

Sir Norman Rowntree FICE, President from 1975-76 of the Institution of Civil Engineers

Michael Schneider, actor

Joseph Ivor Silk FRS (born 3 December 1942) - former Savilian Chair of Astronomy at the University of Oxford

References

Woodside High School, Wood Green Wikipedia

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