Laura Place, London, E5, 0RB Tel: 020 8985 6641 Fax: 020 8986 4686 cgtc@clapton.hackney.sch.uk www.clapton.hackney.sch.uk

Old Girls’ Centenary Celebrations

28th September 2006

Clapton Girls Are Everywhere!

Clapton Girls’ Technology College

100 Years of Successful Education for Girls

1906-2006

For 100 years the young women of Hackney have had the opportunity to achieve academic success through attending the school currently known as Clapton Girls’ Technology College in Laura Place. The school has existed without a break since 1906.

Although names and buildings have changed, the school’s aim has always been the same:

County Secondary School for Girls’ South Hackney

To provide a safe environment which will

help local girls become well-educated,

generous, confident and respectful women.

The school opened as County Secondary School for Girls’ South Hackney on 21st September 1906. 193 girls aged between 11 and 16 were admitted to the school in its first year.

1906

100 Years of Successful Education for Girls

Ms Day, Headteacher with students past & present at the Centenary Celebrations

On 2nd September 1939 the school evacuated to Bishop’s Stortford as guests of Hertfordshire and Essex High School. A partial return was made to Clapton in 1943. In 1945, the whole school fully reassembled in Laura Place, when the war was over.

‘To do good work whether we live or die’

1916

Clapton County Secondary School for Girls

In May 1916 the school moved to its new building in Laura Place..’a long, low, red tiled sloping roofed building, rising just above the fine old trees, some of which have doubtless been standing since John Howard was born there’, (School Magazine: 1915). The school was now called: Clapton County Secondary School for Girls.

1939

The John Howard School

1947

In 1956 the school celebrated its 50th birthday. Ms Shaw, Headteacher, wrote, ‘May the feelings of tolerance, friendliness and generosity spread and infect all our lives and may we remember that, to help us to live our lives with dignity, it is our duty to ourselves, as well as to a world which needs our gifts, to develop fully whatever talent we possess.’

‘Possunt Quia Posse Videntur’

The school was renamed The John Howard School in 1947, although more frequently it was simply called ‘Laura Place’. The school roll had increased to almost 500 and accommodation for this number of girls was becoming difficult.

1956

In 1975, as part of the Inner London Education Authority’s programme for a comprehensive education system, John Howard School, and the neighbouring Clapton Park School, ceased to recruit. The school on the Laura Place site was extended and reorganised as Clapton Secondary School for Girls. From 1975-1977 three schools existed side by side: John Howard and Clapton Park on the Laura Place site and Clapton School in Chelmer Road.

During the school year 1997 - 1998, proposals by the Local Education Authority to make the school mixed, with boys and girls, were successfully fought off with a campaign entitled: ‘Clapton Girls’ Are Everywhere’. The school was featured on Womens’ Hour and discussed in the House of Commons.

1975

1997-1998

‘Wisdom and Togetherness’

Clapton Secondary School for Girls

The school was awarded Technology College status in 1999 and became known as Clapton Girls’ Technology College. It also became the lead school in a mini-Education Action Zone, called the Clapton Community of Schools’ Project, working with 6 primary schools and 1 special school.

1999

The remains of the London Orphan Asylum, on the school site, were redeveloped in 2005. In 2006 the building was launched as The Portico City Learning Centre, offering free use of computers to local schools and the community.

2005

‘Learning Together, Working Together, Welcoming the Community’

Clapton Girls’ Technology College Clapton Girls’ Technology College

‘First for Learning because learning changes lives’

The school will again have a Sixth Form from September 2007. The school site is also being transformed with a Multi-Use Games Area under construction, and extensive refurbishment planned as part of the Building Schools for the Future programme.

2006

400 former students returned to the school on 28th September 2006 to celebrate the school’s 100th birthday. 100 lilac balloons were released representing years past and future.

The Future