Sir George Monoux College is a sixth form college located in Walthamstow, London.[3] It is a medium-sized college with around 1,620 full-time students as of 2018.[2]
He was a wealthy man who spent much of his time in Walthamstow. He erected the Almshouses, associated school and feast ball for the poor of Walthamstow on a former parcel of St. Mary's Churchyard in 1527 in Walthamstow Village. The Monoux School operated there for 353 years until moving firstly to West Avenue then to High Street, and finally to Chingford Road in 1927. The western end was rebuilt in 1955 following bombing in October 1940.
From 1659 to 1968, the institution operated as a grammar school for boys. From 1968 to 1986 the school was a comprehensive while in 1986 the school became a sixth form college and girls were admitted for the first time. Following the 1992 Further and Higher Education Act, in 1993, Monoux became an Incorporated College, which it remains today.
Sir George Monoux Grammar School 1885-1968
The school was re-established following a scheme made under the Endowed Schools Act in 1885 in temporary premises in West Avenue, a different part of Walthamstow, and then a purpose-built site in High Street. It moved to the present premises in July 1927. There have been additions to the buildings in 1961, 1977, 1990, 2002 and 2004.
The school remained independent, but came to depend increasingly on local authority grants. Following the death of the then headmaster, William Spivey, in 1916, it can be regarded as effectively a selective boys local authority grammar school until 1968 catering 11 to 18 year olds.
Following reorganisation of secondary education by Waltham Forest council (devised by a Labour council but instituted under a Conservative one), during the years 1968 - 72 it gradually became a comprehensive Senior High School for boys aged 14–18 admitting most of its pupils from the Junior High Schools Chapel End, William Fitt, Warwick Boys School and Aveling Park. The last entry of boys to the main Monoux building was in 1987 who were taught separately to the sixth form but within the same building in Chingford Road. The last entry of boys however was in 1988 who were not taught in the main building but in an "annexe" located in Brookscroft Rd in the old Chapel End Junior High School. This was closed in 1990.
In 2001 the FEFC was replaced with the Learning and Skills Council (LSC). The college driven by government growth targets increased in size from 600 students in 1986 to approximately 2000 students in 2006. The college offers A-level and vocational courses.[5] The college draws students from a wide geographical area of north and east London and from a very wide range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds. At present over 95% of the students are from minority ethnic communities.
The Principals
Since 1986 the Principals of the college have been:
Mrs Corine Moffett 1986-1993
Arthur Harvey 1993-1996
Stephen Grix 1996-2000
John McMinn, Acting Principal April–September 2000
Richard Chambers 2000-2006
John McMinn, Acting Principal November–March 2006
Kim Clifford 2006-2010
Paolo Ramella 2010-2015
David Vasse 2016 - current
Notable former students
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.(February 2019)
Chris Pond (born 1949), from 1961 to 1969, founding head of the House of Commons Information Office, author and historian, wrote the history of the school in 1977 and updated it in 2002
Sir Fred Pontin, founder and managing director of Pontins holiday camps, attended Monoux between 1918 and 1922
^Beales, Derek, "Thomson, David (1912–1970)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, September 2004. Retrieved 3 March 2024. (subscription required)