Nower Hill High School

The school, then known as Headstone Council School, started life on April 8th 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 3rd 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 and the navy blue blazer remains to this day.