History of the School

The school, then known as Headstone Council School, started life on April 8^th 1929 under the headship of Mr C.J Boyden and 6 teachers.

At the cost of £15,000, the red brick building in Pinner Road had been newly built to educate 292 five to fourteen year olds (average class size of 50). The school soon expanded to meet the ever growing number of children resident in the rapidly expanding North Harrow and Pinner (Pinner grew from a population of 9,462 in 1921 to 24,500 in 1931), with class sizes reaching the sixties and never less than the fifties. The Second World War interrupted the education of many young people. Many of the male teachers were called up for military service and the playing field was dug up for trenches and air raid shelters. The children attended on only every 3^rd day and lessons were constantly disrupted by air raid sirens (1227 alerts in total); the girls were expected to have knitting with them at all times to occupy them during their frequent visits to the air raid shelters! The threat was very real; among many bombs landing in the vicinity, in 1944 a V2 rocket landed in the cemetery behind the school. School uniform was first introduced in 1946.

In the late 1950s a new school building was planned which opened in the early 1960s.  Another block was added in 1972 and further buildings were taken into use in 1978.  Nower Hill High School came into existence on 1^st September 1974. 1993/94 saw the start of a £2.75 million development programme, which included a new 13 classroom block and the Gristwood Centre housing Music, Dance and Drama studios, a fitness suite and the sports hall. More recently all Science laboratories have been refurbished, the canteen expanded and refurbished and new sports changing rooms built. ICT provision, through sets of Chromebooks, has been extended to every faculty and every teaching room has up to date presentation facilities.

The school first admitted 6^th Form students in September 2006 and in September 2009 we moved into our £4 million 6^th Form extension, housing first class facilities for our large and growing 6^th Form. Our facilities were further enhanced in September 2010, by the addition of a new block of 5 Science laboratories (giving us a total of 16) and a 13 classroom English teaching block, as we welcomed Year 7 into the school for the first time since it had become Nower Hill High School. We are now a school of just over 2000 students.

Much has changed in the last 94 years but I am pleased to say that the sentiment expressed in the words written by the very first headteacher in his school log, dated May 24th 1929, remain true to this day. Mr Boyden wrote “I would like to place on record the excellent work of the staff and the exceedingly successful results of their efforts”. We are a forward looking and innovative school rooted in the timeless qualities and traditions of excellent schools.

Throughout its 94 year history, the school has only had 9 headteachers:

Mr C.J. Boyden   (1929-43)

Mr A.W. Manson   (1943-63)

Mr E.J.R. Dey   (1963-69)

Mr F.R.H. Gristwood   (1969-83)

Mr S.P. Hensby   (1983-99)

Mr H. Freed   (2000-2013)

Mr C.J. Livesey   (2013-2019)

Ms L. Voden  (2019 -2024)

Ms J Skelhorne (2024 - date)