Gosford Hill School

Gosford Hill School is a co-educational comprehensive secondary school in Kidlington, Oxfordshire and a Specialist College of Mathematics and Computing; the first school in Oxfordshire to receive this award. In 2007 the school celebrated the 75th anniversary of its founding in 1932.

History

The school, originally called the Kidlington Church of England Central School, was built to teach children over the age of 11 whose numbers had grown during the 1920s to the point where the National School in the village was not able to accommodate them. By combining the number of over-11s from Kidlington with those from the church schools in the surrounding villages of Begbroke, Cassington, Hampton Poyle, Islip, Noke, Oddington, Shipton-on-Cherwell, Thrupp and Yarnton a sufficient number was achieved to justify the cost of a new school.

The first Headteacher, when the school opened on 7th September 1932, was Herbert Chapman who had been the head of the National School [Tossell, T. "Gosford Hill School 1932 - 2007" pp 13-14.]

The original buildings, designed by R Fielding Dodd, ARIBA and GT Gardner consisted of 4 classrooms and a Practical Studies Centre. Two more classrooms were added in 1934. The site of convert|4|acre|m2 had been part of Gosford Hill Farm, which itself had been turned into Oxford Zoological Gardens by Frank Gray by the time the school was built.

In 2007 the school has over 1200 students and over 90 staff. The headteacher since September 2007 is Dr Stephen Bizley. Currently there is major building work going on at the school - a new Design & Technology block and science block are being built and they should both be in use in September 2007.

*for the last four years the school has run a trip to Marlow Camp, this was started by Mr Phillips in 2003 and is a great success.
*In 2007 a year 10 class were in the Shakespeare schools festival they performed Romeo and Juliet. It was directed By Miss Lauri Duncanson who was highly congratulated by many.

Notable alumni

*Ford Ennals - Chief Executive of Digital UK
*David Rodigan - Reggae DJ and radio presenter
*Tim Supple - Theatre and opera director

References

External links

* [http://www.gosford-hill.oxon.sch.uk Gosford Hill School website]