Comments & Editorials 02
The Foundation of the School
(1956)

THE FOUNDATION OF THE SCHOOL

By P. Gosden

IN 1936 Middlesex County Council acquired land between Joel Street and Wiltshire Lane as a site for a grammar school and an elementary school. Almost twenty years elapsed before a school did in fact appear. How the shades of those who founded our ancient grammar schools must laugh when they observe what is called the speed of modern life!

It was on the 1st October, 1946, that the public was given official notice of the intention "to establish a new County Secondary School for about 1,000 children mainly of age 12 to 16 at Joel Street, Northwool, in the urban district of Ruislip-Northwood."  The school was to be comprehensive and co-educational and was to take about 180 boys and girls each year. As a first instalment it was hoped that 300 places would be ready by September, 1949, so that the grammar component of the new school might then open.

Actual building had not begun when the need for additional modern-school accommodation in South Ruislip led the NorthWest Middlesex Divisional Executive to recommend priority for the construction of Oueensmead Secondary Modern School and the postponement of the building at Northwood. In spite of protests by the Ruislip and Eastcote Associations, the matter was once more set on one side.

On 28th November 1951, the County Council finally resolved to build a grammar school in Northwood Hills at an estimated cost of £162,000. In a letter of March, 1953, the Minister of Education gave her consent to the project which, by now, was estimated to cost £172,875. On 12th May the order to commence work was sent to Holland, Hannen and Cubitts.

The decision to build separate schools for boys and girls was taken after work had begun; the plans were amended accordingly and some thought was given to building a girls' school nearby.

On 14th January 1955, the North-West Middlesex Divisional Executive Committee considered a recommendation from its schools sub-committee that the new school should be named "Ruislip-Northwood, Northwood County Secondary Grammar School." After some discussion an amendment that the school be named " St. Nicholas Grammar School " was carried. During the late winter and early spring of 1953 the first steps were taken in founding the school itself, as distinct from providing a building, when the Head Master and his assistants were appointed. In the following September the school began its first session and the work of founding a community dedicated to the pursuit of truth was carried a step further.

P.G.