Southgate School

Southgate School is a state comprehensive secondary school in the London Borough of Enfield. It has approximately 1574 pupils.

The school is situated just east of the Cat Hill roundabout of the A111 and A110, between Cockfosters and Oakwood tube stations. The Trent Park campus of Middlesex University is nearby to the north, on the northern fringe of Greater London's conurbation. Middlesex University has its Cat Hill campus nearby to the east. Although once historically in Southgate, the school is now in the parish of St Thomas, Oakwood, on the boundary with Cockfosters to the west, and on the western edge of Enfield borough, 500 metres east of the Barnet boundary.

History

Grammar school

Founded in 1907^[1] as Southgate County School, the school was originally housed within Broomfield House, Palmers Green.^[2] The school subsequently moved to Fox Lane (also in Palmers Green). In 1960, the Fox Lane site was closed and a new site, in Sussex Way, Cockfosters, was purchased.^[3]

Comprehensive

School uniform badge
circa 1970

In 1967, the school merged with Oakwood Secondary Modern School which was located in Chase Road, Southgate. The Chase Road site became the lower school, for children in their first three years of secondary education (currently referred to as years 7, 8 and 9). In 1991, the Lower School also moved to the Sussex Way site, with the Chase Road site being sold partly for housing and partly to a private school. The school was awarded Specialist Science Status in September 2004, which it gained through raising £50,000 and being provided with the necessary funding for a science specialist school. It used the funding to generally improve science facilities purchasing new equipment and renewing laboratories as well as building a hanging laboratory in the middle of the East Wing building (the original Upper School building).

The school uses a two week time-table with 5 lessons per day, each lasting one hour. The lower years (7,8) have lunch at 12.20 alongside sixth formers and the upper years (9,10,11) have lunch at 1.25. Every school year is split into different groups, to make classes more efficient. There are two halves to each year; LY and CD halves. The LY half consists of LY, L1, L2, Y1 and Y2. Each being a separate tutor group. The CD half consists of CD, C1, C2, D1 and D2, each again being separate tutor groups. Each tutor group is assigned two colours groups. E.g. Y1 = White and Grey. The people who have white chosen as their colour have classes with others who are also from the white group (however, this may be others from other tutor groups, but never the other half of the year) and the greys, the same. The school years are distinguished by the ties the students wear (or emblems on the blouses, which are available to female students once they start year 9). The current colours are, Yellow = Year 7, Red = Year 8, Green = Year 9, Purple = Year 10, Blue = Year 11.

Centenary

Summer 2007 saw the end of the hundredth year of Southgate School.

Ofsted Report

On 11 February 2009, Southgate was awarded Outstanding Status, one of only two in the London Borough of Enfield.

Notable former pupils

• Air Vice Marshal Jonathan Lamonte, Station Commander from 2002-4 of RAF Brize Norton
• Jake Hook Multi-Platinum songwriter and producer 1991 - 1998
• Victoria Shalet 1993-2000
• Phil Tufnell^[4][5]
• Stephen Twigg,^[6] President from 1990-2 of the NUS

Southgate County Grammar School

• Peter Baker (footballer born 1931)^[7]
• Sir John Bourn CB, Comptroller and Auditor General from 1998–2008
• Prof Alexander Dalgarno, Phillips Professor of Astronomy since 1977 at Harvard University
• Cecil Hunt^[7]
• Lena Jeger, Baroness Jeger, Labour MP from 1953-9 and 1964-79 of Holborn and St Pancras South
• George Mitchell,^[7] who devised The Black and White Minstrel Show
• Warren Mitchell,^[7] actor known for Alf Garnett
• Ron Moody, film actor, who played the part of Fagin in the 1968 British musical Oliver!
• L. J. K. Setright, motoring journalist

References

External links

• EduBase
• Former school