Northwood School, London

Northwood School, formerly known as Potter Street, is an academy school of about 780 students, ages 11 to 18, located in the northern part of the London Borough of Hillingdon. From September 2016 Northwood School increased the PAN admission numbers and increased its year 7 intake from about 150 students to 180. This means the planned capacity for the new building is of about 1080 students. From October 2016 Northwood school will have increased in size and will be ready to welcome more students when they finally open the doors in the new build.

History/Recent History

The school was opened in 1934 as "Metro-land" expanded. This was the suburban belt build up around the Metropolitan Railway.

In 2012, the school was selected as the site of a brand new aviation college in association with British Airways and Brunel University. Demolition work of the old buildings began in September 2013 and the new complex, named 'Heathrow Aviation Engineering University Technical College' (Heathrow Aviation Engineering UTC), was officially opened in May 2015.^[1]

In 2014, it was confirmed that Northwood School had received the go ahead of a £28 million project to re-build the entire school with modern, state of the art facilities, with scheduled completion of the new complex expected in September 2016.^[2]

Federation with Queensmead, 2009-

Since September 2009, Northwood has been federated with Queensmead School, located in South Ruislip. Graeme Atkins became the new principal and in the last couple of years the school has improved massively with 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 all culminating with the best GCSE results in the school's history. The school has now become among the best in the London Borough of Hillingdon, and among the 100 most improved schools in Britain. In February 2012, the school upgraded to Academy status but it is believed the school will remain known as Northwood School, the name it adopted in the late 1970s.

A-Level results have also continued to rise for Post-16 students since the federation in 2009, with substantial emphasis on progression to higher education. Although a smaller school compared with several other local secondary schools, it has been praised for its environment in which every student is made to feel safe noted in the 2011 Ofsted report.

Northwood has particularly excellent results in Performing Arts (Drama) and Art and Design, with students work even used on display at Northwood Hills Underground station.

2013 marked the fifth successive year where the school broke its record for GCSE attainment with 97% of students achieving five A*'s to C grades, and 73% achieved this with passes in the core subjects. 2014 was also a record breaking year for the school.

Principal Graeme Atkins departed the school in the summer of 2014 after five years at the helm to become Headteacher at Queen Elizabeth High School, Hexham. Mark Anderson became Principal from April 2015.

Notable former pupils

The Olympic boxer Audley Harrison, Television Presenter, Video Game Journalist Larry Bundy Jr, Big Brother contestant Nikki Grahame are all alumni of the school.^[3]

References

External links

• Northwood School website

Coordinates: 51°36′13″N 0°24′22″W / 51.6037°N 0.4060°W / 51.6037; -0.4060