| Type | State Sixth Form College |
|---|---|
| Principal | Mr Keith Murdoch |
| Location | Woodhouse Road Finchley London N12 9EY England |
| Local authority | London Borough of Barnet |
| DfE number | ???/8600 |
| DfE URN | 130427 |
| Ofsted | Reports |
| Students | 1060 (2008/9) |
| Gender | Co-Educational |
| Ages | 16–19 |
| Website | Woodhouse College |
Woodhouse College is a single site state sixth form college situated between North Finchley and Friern Barnet on the eastern side of the London Borough of Barnet. It is on the site of the former Woodhouse Grammar School.
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The college caters mainly for full-time students aged 16 to 19 whose primary aim is to progress to Higher Education (HE).
After the First World War, the former house of ornamental plasterer Thomas Collins (1735–1830) in the Woodhouse area of Finchley was reconstructed and became Woodhouse Grammar School in 1923. A blue plaque commemorating Thomas Collins is on the wall outside the present college office. The school coat of arms with the motto 'Cheerfulness with Industry' is still displayed above the stage in the college hall. A pink chestnut tree was planted behind the main school building to mark the coronation of King George VI in 1937. This tree had been presented by the Third Reich authorities to a member of the British team who attended the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and subsequently became known as 'the Hitler tree'. During the Second World War, the school continued to function but the basement was used by the ARP service. The names of the forty seven former pupils who died during the Second World War are recorded in a hand illuminated Roll of Honour which hangs at the foot of the main staircase near the front entrance to the college. The Roll of Honour also records the names of the four houses of the old grammar school - Gordon, Livingstone, Nightingale and Scott.[1]
In May 1978, two 18 year old girls dressed up in boys' school uniforms to protest about two patronising 'sexist' books they found in the school library called Frankly Feminine and Good Grooming for Girls. They were briefly suspended from the school.
Woodhouse Grammar School later was reconstituted as Woodhouse Sixth Form College. There were plans to merge the school with Friern Barnet County Secondary School in 1971, but these were blocked by Margaret Thatcher. Mrs Thatcher gave a speech at the college in May 1983.
The school had its first three students attain places on the Prime Minister's Global Fellowship programme in 2009.[2]
It gets very good A-level results, about the fourth highest in Barnet LEA. Woodhouse College's 2011 results was 65.4% for grades A* - B