Christ's College (Finchley)

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This article is about a school in London. For other colleges of the same name, see Christ's College.

Christ's College is a secondary school in East Finchley, London, United Kingdom. It falls under the London Borough of Barnet Local Education Authority. It is a boys' school up to and including Year 11, and the sixth form is mixed, admitting up to 25% girls. The school presently has 967 students.

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[edit] Motto and Badge

The school badge since 1906 has been a combination of the three scimitars of the old county of Middlesex and a finch over an oak tree, the old unofficial arms of the Urban District of Finchley. The Motto, since March 1906, is Usque Proficiens meaning "advance all the way".

[edit] History

The history of the contemporary Christ’s College has its roots in two different schools. The junior is Chapel Street School, later Alder School, and the senior is Finchley Hall School, later Christ’s College.

Alder School Badge, the tree is an Alder Tree, but the hunting horns are taken from Borough of Finchley's coat of arms
Alder School Badge, the tree is an Alder Tree, but the hunting horns are taken from Borough of Finchley's coat of arms

[edit] Alder School, Long Lane

A British School in Chapel Street East Finchley was opened by local Congregationalists in 1842, but in 1876 fire destroyed the original build, and the new building became in turn Finchley’s first Board School in 1881. East Finchley grew rapidly in the 1880s, and the Finchley School Board decided to build a new building in Long Lane which was opened in 1884, with the staff and pupils being moved to the new premises at the end of that year. In 1931 the school opened a secondary wing and was renamed Alder School, after a chairman of Finchley’s Education committee. It was organised into three school houses, Rangers, Archers, and Foresters.In 1944 it became a mixed Secondary Modern School, and an all boys school in 1958. It was organised into four school houses, Rangers (Yellow), Archers (Red), Foresters (Green) & Rovers (Blue).The school was seen as providing a necessary education for skilled workers in the light engineering works of Finchley such as Simms Motor Units, Hendon and Barnet, and was well thought of. It was also host to Bob Cobbing, the Concrete Sound poet and Jeff Nuttall author of the best seller, 'Bomb Culture' during the 1960s.It was merged with Christ's College in 1978 and the buildings at Long Lane were demolished.

[edit] Christ's College, Hendon Lane

In 1857 the Revd. Thomas Reader White, Rector of St Mary’s Finchley opened Finchley Hall School, in Hendon Lane (on the site of Church End Library) in what had been a local inn, The Queen's Head. The following year he had the stable block, and the village "cage", removed and a new school built to designs by Anthony Salvin. The school was an Anglican School intended to provide a public school education at a reasonable rate. The school became popular and a new building was constructed by across the road in 1860, with money provided by White's brother who was a rich London Merchant, and renamed Christ's College. The designs were by the architect Edward Roberts, and its main feature was a 120 foot tower. The school flourished as a private school during the 1860s and 1870s, when its Headmaster was the Rev T C Whitehead. It was under Whitehead that the school was first divided into four houses: North, South, East, and West. With the loss of its founder, then the self styled Warden, to a disorder of the brain in 1877, the school went into decline. In 1902 the school was taken over by the Middlesex County Council, as the first Middlesex County grammar school, but under John Tindal Phillipson, headmaster since 1895, attempts made to rename the school and change its character were resisted, and on the whole the transition was a smooth one. A rifle club was formed in 1904, which soon became a cadet corps. Until 1906 the school playing fields were directly behind St Mary’s church but in 1906 new fields were acquired further down the hill near to Dollis Brook. In 1927 the school increased in size with building of new buildings, and ceased to be an Anglican institution. In 1972 a new annexe, for design and technology, was built on land in East Finchley. As a county grammar the school had a strong academic reputation, particularly in the sciences, with many pupils continuing their education at Oxford and Cambridge.

[edit] Christ's College, East End Road

With the foundation of the present school in 1978 the school was split into the, older upper school, which used the Hendon Lane site, and the lower at new school. The whole school moved to the new site in 1991 under the Headmastership of Brian Fletcher. In 2002 Mr O'Shea expanded the sixthform with the introduction of girls. Christ's College has in the past few years become a specialist Mathematics and Computing College which means that the school receives additional funds for investment in the Mathematics and Computing departments.The school's current headmaster is Mr Gary fucker.

[edit] Rugby union

The school has made four major contributions the the sport of rugby union. The scrum cap was invented at the school and first worn by the school's 1st XV. Three alumni went on to make notable contributions to the sport: C. J. Monro (at Christ’s College 1867–69), introduced rugby to New Zealand; R. W. Shepstone Giddy (at Christ’s College 1871–74) and later Solicitor General, Cape Colony, was one of the men who introduced rugby to South Africa; and W. P. Carpmael, who was at the school from 1876 to 1883, founded the Barbarian Football Club that is the team that by tradition plays the last match in a tour of the UK by Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.[1]

[edit] Notable Alumni

[edit] Alder School

  • Ray Lovegrove producer of The Kinks
  • Andre Jacquemin [1]producer for a number of the musical scenes for the comedy team Monty Python.

[edit] Christ's College

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ Staff Christ's College, Finchley, [nzrugby.co.nz], 21 December 2005. Cites New Zealand Rugby Museum

[edit] Further reading