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Fortismere School
Fortismere School (simply referred to as Fortismere) is an 11–18 coeducational comprehensive foundation secondary school with sixth form in Muswell Hill, Greater London, England.
In 2016, it was ranked by The Sunday Times as the 12th best comprehensive school in the country. In its most recent Ofsted inspection, it was rated "Good".
Tollington Park College, a private educational establishment for boys, was founded by William Brown in 1879 in Tollington Park, London N4. Rapid population growth around Muswell Hill created the need for a new school. Campbell Brown, the founder's son, established Tollington Boys School in Tetherdown, Muswell Hill in 1901. Brown then opened Tollington High School for Girls in nearby Collingwood Avenue in 1910. In 1919 both schools were purchased by the local education authority. Aside from the senior management, the two schools operated independently.
After World War II, this became a state grammar school and the attached preparatory school became Tetherdown Primary School (this moved from the site in 1958 when it exchanged premises with the girls' grammar school). In 1958 the current building was erected and Tollington High School for Girls and Tollington Grammar School for Boys merged to become Tollington Grammar School (co-ed). In 1955, William Grimshaw Secondary Modern School (named after a local councillor) opened on an adjoining site in Creighton Avenue, taking the senior classes from Coldfall Council School. It offered extended classes from 1961.
With the introduction of comprehensive education in Haringey in 1967, Tollington Grammar School and William Grimshaw Secondary Modern School were merged to form Creighton School. Charles Loades, head of William Grimshaw since 1958, became head, remaining until his retirement in 1974.
In the early 1970s, Creighton School became the centrepiece of a Labour Party educational experiment. Situated in the middle-class, largely white suburb of Muswell Hill it was decided to integrate a large number of Afro-Caribbean and other ethnic minority children into the school from distant parts of the borough in an attempt to maximise education choice and social interaction – a policy based heavily on the United States' then-current system of desegregation busing. In 1975, before this new intake had worked through the school, around one-third of the Sixth Form was either a first-generation immigrant, or had a surname of Cypriot or Asian origin. The head who was charged with overseeing this experiment was Molly Hattersley, a leading socialist.
As a part of the continuing debate about comprehensive schools, Creighton School became the subject of a series of articles in the Sunday Times and a subsequent book by Hunter Davies, The Creighton Report, illustrated by an A-Level Photography student at the school and the Sunday Times photojournalist Frank Herrmann.
After further reorganisation, Creighton School and another comprehensive, Alexandra Park School, were combined under the new name of Fortismere School. It opened in September 1983. Andrew Nixon, who had been headteacher of Alexandra Park School from 1980–3 prior to the merger, became Fortismere's first headteacher from 1983 to 2005, and played a major role in the development of the school's liberal and progressive ethos that emphasised pluralism, as well as gaining Technology College status in 1997, which lasted until it became a foundation school. Technology College status helped fund major developments to the school's infrastructure during Nixon's tenure, including construction of a new science block in 1999, a sixth form learning resource centre in 2002, and a county-standard sports hall, tennis courts and artificial pitch in 2004. During Nixon's tenure, the school routinely achieved 70% or more of students attaining five A*-C grade GCSEs, including in English and maths, was ranked among the top 100 non-selective comprehensive schools in the UK, and was noted for "valuing inclusiveness and egalitarianism". He was succeeded by David Jones, who served as interim headteacher in 2005-6, before the appointment of a permanent successor, Aydin Önaç. Önaç, who led the school in a very different direction in his three and a half years as headmaster 2006-9, told the Evening Standard of his contempt for the school's pre-existing ethos: "When I joined in April 2006, I inherited a school held back by an egalitarian mindset that was stuck in the Seventies."
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Fortismere School
Fortismere School (simply referred to as Fortismere) is an 11–18 coeducational comprehensive foundation secondary school with sixth form in Muswell Hill, Greater London, England.
In 2016, it was ranked by The Sunday Times as the 12th best comprehensive school in the country. In its most recent Ofsted inspection, it was rated "Good".
Tollington Park College, a private educational establishment for boys, was founded by William Brown in 1879 in Tollington Park, London N4. Rapid population growth around Muswell Hill created the need for a new school. Campbell Brown, the founder's son, established Tollington Boys School in Tetherdown, Muswell Hill in 1901. Brown then opened Tollington High School for Girls in nearby Collingwood Avenue in 1910. In 1919 both schools were purchased by the local education authority. Aside from the senior management, the two schools operated independently.
After World War II, this became a state grammar school and the attached preparatory school became Tetherdown Primary School (this moved from the site in 1958 when it exchanged premises with the girls' grammar school). In 1958 the current building was erected and Tollington High School for Girls and Tollington Grammar School for Boys merged to become Tollington Grammar School (co-ed). In 1955, William Grimshaw Secondary Modern School (named after a local councillor) opened on an adjoining site in Creighton Avenue, taking the senior classes from Coldfall Council School. It offered extended classes from 1961.
With the introduction of comprehensive education in Haringey in 1967, Tollington Grammar School and William Grimshaw Secondary Modern School were merged to form Creighton School. Charles Loades, head of William Grimshaw since 1958, became head, remaining until his retirement in 1974.
In the early 1970s, Creighton School became the centrepiece of a Labour Party educational experiment. Situated in the middle-class, largely white suburb of Muswell Hill it was decided to integrate a large number of Afro-Caribbean and other ethnic minority children into the school from distant parts of the borough in an attempt to maximise education choice and social interaction – a policy based heavily on the United States' then-current system of desegregation busing. In 1975, before this new intake had worked through the school, around one-third of the Sixth Form was either a first-generation immigrant, or had a surname of Cypriot or Asian origin. The head who was charged with overseeing this experiment was Molly Hattersley, a leading socialist.
As a part of the continuing debate about comprehensive schools, Creighton School became the subject of a series of articles in the Sunday Times and a subsequent book by Hunter Davies, The Creighton Report, illustrated by an A-Level Photography student at the school and the Sunday Times photojournalist Frank Herrmann.
After further reorganisation, Creighton School and another comprehensive, Alexandra Park School, were combined under the new name of Fortismere School. It opened in September 1983. Andrew Nixon, who had been headteacher of Alexandra Park School from 1980–3 prior to the merger, became Fortismere's first headteacher from 1983 to 2005, and played a major role in the development of the school's liberal and progressive ethos that emphasised pluralism, as well as gaining Technology College status in 1997, which lasted until it became a foundation school. Technology College status helped fund major developments to the school's infrastructure during Nixon's tenure, including construction of a new science block in 1999, a sixth form learning resource centre in 2002, and a county-standard sports hall, tennis courts and artificial pitch in 2004. During Nixon's tenure, the school routinely achieved 70% or more of students attaining five A*-C grade GCSEs, including in English and maths, was ranked among the top 100 non-selective comprehensive schools in the UK, and was noted for "valuing inclusiveness and egalitarianism". He was succeeded by David Jones, who served as interim headteacher in 2005-6, before the appointment of a permanent successor, Aydin Önaç. Önaç, who led the school in a very different direction in his three and a half years as headmaster 2006-9, told the Evening Standard of his contempt for the school's pre-existing ethos: "When I joined in April 2006, I inherited a school held back by an egalitarian mindset that was stuck in the Seventies."