The school dates its foundation from 1895 when a Science Day School for boys was opened in the Wandsworth Technical Institute, at that time an aided establishment. In 1896 girls were admitted: it was subsequently reorganised on a dual basis and in 1909 the girls were transferred to join the new school established two years before at Mayfield in West Hill.

Meantime, by 1897 the school had developed an ' advanced course ' recognised and subsidised by the Department of Science and Art. In 1900, the appointment of Mr. (later Dr.) Waite as the first headmaster marked the rapid and successful growth of the school which thus became ' self-contained ' within the Institute. Dr. Waite retired in 1932 when the present Headmaster was appointed.

Under the 1902 Education Act, the school became the Wandsworth Technical Institute Secondary School, received grants from the Board of Education and played its part in the great expansion of the secondary system in those early years. The curriculum was broadened and liberalised; in 1908 the school won its first Open Scholarship to Cambridge and an Engineering Scholarship to Liverpool University. By 1920 the school had expanded to over 500 boys to become one of the largest of the London secondary schools.

The first inspection by the Board of Education in 1906 had urgently recommended building improvements and the report of the full inspection by the London County Council in 1914 urged the transfer of the school to new and self-contained buildings. Owing to the war and post-war difficulties, this transfer was not brought about until 1927, when the school became a county secondary school, maintained by the Council in new buildings in Sutherland Grove. It assumed the name of Wandsworth School and was permitted the privilege of using the Borough Arms as school badge with the motto: 'We Serve'.

In 1948, under the gradually developing London Plan for the reorganisation of secondary education, the school associated itself with what during the evacuation period had constituted the London or home section of the Brixton Secondary Technical School. This school with its experience and tradition of Building Courses is now part of the general organisation and courses in Engineering have been added.

A gradual expansion of recruitment of boys of eleven for academic and technical courses began four years ago in anticipation of the present development and, finally, in September 1956, 420 boys covering the whole ability range were admitted to the first form.

Hence, at the present time Wandsworth School has some 1,600 pupils, is fully 'comprehensive' in the Lower School (11-13) and will become so in the Main School (14-18) as the younger pupils move up according to their abilities and aptitudes to take suitable secondary courses of wide range and varied bias: academic, technical, practical, literary or aesthetic, flexibly organised so as to keep open for all the door of opportunity and, for many more than hitherto, the road to courses in advanced study.

Wandsworth School has always regarded itself as a social community and has endeavoured to develop a right relationship to the wider community outside. In 1932 its ' tutorial' system was added to a ' House ' organisation that had been instituted in 1910 and reorganised in 1929, when the school adopted as its House patrons famous men with local historical connections. Regular Parents' Evenings were started in 1920 and formed a precedent for the Parents' Association which came into being in 1932 as a logical outcome of the tutorial system, and which has proved, under the guidance of its elected council, one of the school's most helpful assets.

The Old Wandsworthians Association dates from 1906, and the Wandsworthians Lodge from 1932.

Efforts within the school, backed by parents and old boys, have added much to the buildings and equipment provided by the Council in 1927 and in 1957; a games pavilion in 1929, a swimming bath in 1931, and fives courts (as a result of parental initiative) in 1937; and, since the war, a fine stage proscenium. In the present year, a field has been purchased for conversion into an Old Wandsworthians Sports Ground, an ambitious project for the new school and its associated bodies.

Clubs and societies of great diversity, some with a continuous history dating back to the early years of the century, promote educational opportunity and social relations. The annual Hobbies Exhibition, around which an ' Eisteddfod ' gradually took shape, dates from 1919 and the annual school play from 1921. From 1917 a school magazine, the ' Link ', has regularly appeared with its term-to-term account of school happenings.

A marked feature of the life of the school has been the active promotion of good relations between its pupils and staff and schools abroad, and since the war it has undertaken a variety of projects for U.N.E.S.C.O.

From this brief account of developments the strength can be gauged of the foundations upon which the school is building for its wider sphere of service: its academic tradition and standards, an associated tradition of technical education, a well-tried system of human and social relations in school, a record of initiative in responding to the expanding demands upon secondary education, a spirit of independent enterprise and an overall sense of unity amid diversity in the education of boys.

NOTES ON THE NEW BUILDINGS

The new buildings to house 1,620 boys had to be built on the existing school site and the presence of the earlier buildings, and the character of the houses which surround the site, influenced the grouping and scale of the buildings.

The Assembly Halls are planned as a link between the three blocks of teaching accommodation which are ranged round the main quadrangle—these are the Classrooms, Laboratories and Workshops. The three Gymnasia form a separate block which also contains the Boiler House. Staircases are arranged to give the most direct access for staff and pupils, both to the classrooms on upper floors and to the balconies of the Assembly Hall.

The cost of the buildings is estimated at about .£385,000 and the furniture and equipment at about £49,000. The net cost per place on the Ministry of Education's standard was £228.

The architects for the new buildings were Messrs. Hening and Chitty, a.r.i.b.a., and the contractors, Messrs. E. H. Smith (Croydon), Ltd. Messrs. R, T. James and Partners were the structural engineering consultants; the electrical consultant was Mr. J. Rawlinson, c.b.e., m.eng., m.i.c.e., m.i.mech.e., Chief Engineer to the Council, and the school grounds were laid out under the direction of Mr. L. A. Huddart, f.i.l.a., f.inst.p.a., Chief Officer of the Parks Department. The heating and mechanical services were designed by Messrs. G. H. Buckle and Partners.

W. F. HOUGHTON, Education Officer