Draft:Churchfields Junior School

Churchfields Junior School is a co-educational junior school for pupils aged 7 – 11 years old located in South Woodford, London Borough of Redbridge.. The school has 480 pupils, who are taught in 16 classes from Year 3 to Year 6.

Founded 150 years ago in 1874 as Churchfields School, it consisted of two schools, the Boys' and a combined Girls' and Infants' then later became three schools and then during the inter-war period the Girls' and Boys' schools formed to make a mixed Junior School. The Infants' school is called Churchfields Infants' School.

History
Churchfields School first opened to the children of Woodford, and the surrounding area, on the 5th January 1874. Originally, Churchfields consisted of two Schools – the Boys and a combined Girls’ and Infants’. In 1878, the Infants became a separate department. Churchfields continued in the form of a 3-department school with the leaving age raised to 14 in line with the Education Act 1918. In 1937, it was decided that children over 11 would be transferred to the new South Woodford Secondary School – St Barnabas – now called Woodbridge High School. The Boy’s and Girls’ Departments were amalgamated to form a Junior Mixed School in 1937, the Infants’ retaining their independence except for a short period during the Second World War.

The land and school buildings
The land on which the Churchfields School was built was part of the Woodford Hall Estate and was offered for sale by auction in 1871. The School Board bought 4 of the 34 plots for a total of £420. The road known now as Churchfields was then called Chelmsford Road East. It is not known why the school was called Churchfields. In 1885 a new Infants’ School was opened. A further 2 plots were bought in 1888. The new Girls’ School was built in 1891 to the north-west of the original building. The Hall was in 1908 and shared by the Infants’ and Girls’ School An area of land had already been bought from A.Lister-Harrison’s family before 1921 when 2 more sections of field were purchased for playing fields by the Essex Education Committee. Another piece of land, east of the original plots, was bought in 1949 for the construction of the Dining Hall and Canteen – hutted classrooms and the New Hall also stood on this land. The new Infants School was constructed close by and opened in 1974 followed by a nursery school in 1975. Design and construction of a new Junior School building was approved in 2004 and construction delayed until 2009. The old Junior School building was demolished in 2011. The nearby Redbridge Drama Centre is sited in the building that was part of the school.

Curriculum
The school uses specialist teachers for art, computing, D&T, French P.E and music.

In 2012, the school was featured nationally as one of six case studies by Ofsted for music provision. In 2019, the school was visited by Veronica Wadley as part of an Expert Panel to support the creation of the Model Music Curriculum. and the National Plan for Music Education. The school was featured as a national case study in The power of music to change lives: a national plan for music education by the Department for Education.

Pupils in 2019 performed in the English National Opera’s production of Noye’s Fludde at Theatre Royal Stratford East as the children's ensemble. The children’s ensemble won the 2020 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera. The school holds residential school trips to France and North Wales. It hohas held accreditation marks, including Artsmark, and the Eco-School Green Flag and has campaigned for reductions to air pollution including meeting Sadiq Khan

In 2018, the author David Walliams visited pupils at the school. The school was visited by the British Council and School Standards Minister Nick Gibb MP in 2019.

Notable former pupils

 * Peter Erskine, businessman
 * Peter Greenaway, film director
 * Mimi Keene, actress
 * Tolga Kashif, composer
 * Gordon Laing, musician
 * Seal, musician
 * David Jaymes, musician
 * Johnny Coppin, musician
 * Derek B, rapper
 * Reece Prescod, sprinter
 * Paul Ince, footballer
 * Sam Dalby, footballer
 * Chloe Morgan, footballer
 * David Holdsworth, footballer
 * Dean Holdsworth, footballer
 * Mick Leach, footballer