In 2005 the school was given Performing Arts status for its Drama, Dance, Music and Art courses and currently has a silver artsmark from the English Arts Council.[1][2] The school has an Investors in People award,[citation needed] and in October 2021, it became the first school in London to receive the Stonewall School Champion Gold award.[3][4][5]
As of late 2023, 1098 students were enrolled at the school, including 219 enrolled in the sixth form.[6] This was down from 1255, including 231 sixth form students, in late 2021.[7]
History
Forest Hill Comprehensive School opened in September 1956. It was built on the site of St. Magnus, a large house that was the home of Baron Johann Knoop from 1870 and 1900. In the Second World War it became a Heavy Recovery Centre, dealing with bomb damage. After the War it fell into disrepair.
The School was a flagship of the London County Council's new policy of building comprehensive schools that aimed to breakdown the previous national policy of selecting children, largely on 11-plus results, to attend grammar, technical or secondary modern schools. It eventually grew to around 1,500 boys.
The first head teacher was Alexander E. Howard, who was a leading national figure in technical education.[8] In its early years the school attracted considerable interest from educationalists. The following is a report of a visit to the school in July 1957 by the American educationalist Flaud C. Wooton.
I spent June 4, 1957, with William H. Perkins (Educational Director, Imperial Chemicals, Ltd., London) and John Aseltine (San Diego educator) at the London County Council comprehensive school at Forest Hill. That school was opened in September, 1956, and currently enrolls 900 to 1000 boys. Its buildings are new and among the best I saw last spring in eight countries of Europe. The teaching staff is relatively young, well trained, vigorous, and enthusiastic. Above all, the headmaster, Mr. A. E. Howard, in frank discussion, revealed educational ideas and described the school's purposes and practices with combined competence and optimism. As the English comprehensive school spreads, it will, if it lives up to Forest Hill, brighten the future of secondary education in Great Britain.[9]
Forest Hill School from Mayow Road, late 1950s. The prominent position of the distinctive Library indicated the academic ambitions of the School.
The academic quality of the early cadre of teachers is indicated by the careers that some went on to. Paul Ashbee became Professor of Archaeology at the University of Anglia. Laurie Taylor (sociologist) taught English and Drama and went on to a distinguished career in Sociology and broadcasting. Brian Brookes, who taught botany, went on to become a leading naturalist, with expertise in the plants of the Scottish Highlands, and an environmental consultant, being awarded the MBE in 1983 for his services to education.[10] David Stanbury, who taught Biology and became the School's third Headmaster, researched and wrote on Robert Fitzroy, the captain of HMS Beagle, on which Charles Darwin was naturalist.[11] Christ's College Cambridge holds a collection of Stanbury's papers.[12] The historian Al Richardson also taught at the school for 30 years.[13]
The School attracted press attention with many of its activities in the 1960s.[14] In 1962, the School organised a trip to the United States, which the Daily Mirror headlined: 'An Exceptional School ... With Exceptional Boys: 76 Ambassadors from London SE23'.[15] It was described as "a grammar, technical, commercial, central and modern school – all in one", with one boy quoted as saying "None of the boys would change Forest Hill School for Eton."[15] The school also had its own film unit and produced feature-length films including Twenty Four Hundred Pennies (1962)[16] and The Custard Boys (1979)[17] which starred pupils and staff from the school.
In 2016 the school was forced to cut costs by an annual £1.3M, as funding had been cut as part of a political decision at Westminster.[18] The school has since stabilised its financial situation.[citation needed]
Current
In 2005 the school was given Performing Arts status for its Drama, Dance, Music and Art courses. The school has an Investors in People award,[citation needed] and in October 2021, it became the first school in London to receive the Stonewall School Champion Gold award.[3][4][5]
Houses
The four houses of Forest Hill were named after famous people of the 16th, 17th, 18th and early 20th centuries. Originally there were six houses, but two were later dropped: Browning and Newton. When there were six houses, Browning's house colour was red, Drake's dark blue, Reynold's light blue and Newton's maroon. The houses went on to become Drake (Red), Harvey (Yellow), Reynolds (light blue) and Shackleton (dark green).
Following a review process that began in October 2019, the school decided to update the names to reflect the diversity of the school and the surrounding community, as well as modern values.[19] A selection process, which included consultations with students, resulted in four new figures being selected as the house names. These were: Ofosu-Asare (formerly Drake), named after Kwame Ofosu-Asare, a former student of the school who was killed in a knife crime due to mistaken identity in 2012,[20][21]Turing (formerly Harvey), Parks (formerly Reynolds) and Tull (formerly Shackleton). These changes were put into effect in September 2020.[19]
The new main building of Forest Hill School seen during redevelopment in September 2007
Redevelopment
Sports Hall
In 2006 the school's new £4.5M state-of-the-art sports facility was opened with lottery funding and help with Sport England and The FA Charter Standard Schools Program.[22] The facility features a large air conditioned sports hall with basketball nets, indoor cricket, indoor football markings and goals and a scoreboard. The other part of the gym includes a fitness suite, cafè, space for trampolining and table tennis, new changing room facilities with showers and also two of the old three gyms. The sports centre opened on top of Gym 3, but was also expanded towards Bampton Road on the other side of the school.
Main building
The new school during redevelopment
The school began a major redevelopment project in July 2006 which completed in January 2008.[23] The only part of the school which remains unchanged is the current art block, which was built recently. The rest of the school was demolished and rebuilt from the ground up with the three-floor plan changed to a higher four-story building. The new school building now features a large atrium which can also act as a fully functioning theatre, two fully equipped drama rooms, a separate theatre, a fully equipped music department with a Recording studio and a Mac computer room. There is also a dance studio with sprung floors, mirrors, and a 600 watt speaker system.[citation needed]
Notable people educated at Forest Hill School
This article's list of alumni may not follow Wikipedia's verifiability policy. Please improve this article by removing names that do not have independent reliable sources showing they merit inclusion in this article AND are alumni, or by incorporating the relevant publications into the body of the article through appropriate citations.(April 2020)
^Hamlyn, Bob; Drysdale, Rebecca; Swidenbank, Heidi; Jordan, Mark; Okolo-Angus, Ogugua (2 February 2024). Inspection of Forest Hill School (Report). Archived from the original on 6 March 2024. Retrieved 20 June 2024.
^Quaye, Jeffery; Southworth, Mark; Kennedy, Rosemarie; Clemens, Nigel; Maguire, Susan (8 February 2022). Inspection of Forest Hill School (Report). Archived from the original on 1 September 2022. Retrieved 1 September 2022.
^"YOUNGEST EVER TO HOLD BLACK BELT". Lewisham Borough News. 18 September 1962. p. 9. Retrieved 30 September 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive. Then came his chance to go to Japan while still a pupil at the Forest Hill Comprehensive School.
^Smale, Kelly (7 June 2010). "FOREST HILL: Twist and Pulse claim second spot on Britain's Got Talent". News Shopper. Archived from the original on 30 August 2022. Retrieved 30 August 2022. Glen, who previously attended Forest Hill Boys School in Dacres Road, Forest Hill, works as a professional dancer and choreographer, teaching in various schools.
^Lamont, Tom (24 January 2016). "King Krule: 'We're two halves of a puzzle'". The Observer. ISSN0029-7712. Archived from the original on 14 April 2023. Retrieved 14 April 2023. When he turned 13, Archy started to have difficulties at his secondary in Forest Hill, difficulties, by the sound of it, that stemmed from his never being there.
^Hester, Lacey (13 June 2014). "Interview with Sean Scully". Financial Times. Have you ever taken an IQ test?. Archived from the original on 20 August 2021. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
^"The Shouting Men: A chance to shine". Kent Online. 10 August 2018. Archived from the original on 30 August 2022. Retrieved 30 August 2022. My school, Forest Hill, had a lot of footballers in it too, the likes of Joe Gomez (Liverpool) and Kasey Palmer (Chelsea).
^"Ellington is golden boy who Don good". News Shopper. 23 July 2003. Archived from the original on 1 September 2022. Retrieved 15 January 2021. Outstanding among those victories and easily voted the performance of the meeting, was that of James Ellington, who is 18 and attends Forest Hill School.
