History of the School

Our school has a long and fascinating history.  It has had four different names, survived two world wars, and been rebuilt twice.

On both of our sites we have exhibitions of artefacts from the school’s history.  We have tried to divide up the original artefacts equally between sites, for example GR has the original World War One memorial, whereas UL has the original World War Two memorial.

This section of the website can give you a taster of our exhibition.

West Ham Municipal Secondary School

Stratford School Academy’s History can be traced back to 1906, when a new school was created for the community around West Ham Park - West Ham Municipal Central Secondary School.  The original building is still there today, on Tennyson Road.  It opened as a mixed school and provided teacher training for East London, although in 1917 many of the male trainee teachers left to fight in World War One.

Our World War One Memorial

When war broke out in July 1918 over a million men volunteered to join the British army.  However, due to high death and injury rates from trench warfare, the Military Service Act of 1916 enlisted most men aged 18 to 41 into the British armed forces.  This included young men from local colleges and sixth forms and recent school-leavers. 

The words “We died for England – We bid you live for her” introduce the names of those who died, and are explained in words the school magazine of 1920 – “All can live for England if they remember that the nation is but the sum of the individuals who compose it, and that if each one of us practices love and tolerance to his neighbour, truth and honesty in word and deed, and diligence and earnestness in his [or her] life-work, then he [or she] will be living for England and maintaining at a high level her old traditions of liberty, justice, honesty and diligence”.

The memorial is on display above the reception doors on our GR site.

Our Honours Board

Our Honours Board shows the names of top performing students from 1908 until 1949.  Many of them went to universities such as Oxford (Oxon.), Cambridge (Cantab.), London School of Economics, and Medical Schools.  Some students were invited to exhibit their work in prestigious university exhibitions.

If you know any of our alumni (ex-students) who have been acknowledged for achieving great things then please let us know!

We now have a new honours board, where each year one student wins the “Above and Beyond Award” for outstanding effort in each subject.  Students names are displayed on plaques on both of our sites.

Our School’s World War Two Evacuations

When World War Two broke out in September 1939, the government evacuated huge numbers of children from the cities.  However, very little bombing of London took place until September 1940.  This meant that many parents chose to bring their children back to the city.  Therefore, headteachers wrote to parents about further opportunities to have their children evacuated from the cities.  Read the two letters from the then-headteacher and see what you can find out about evacuation from West Ham Municipal Secondary School.

Blitzkrieg In Our Local Area

During World War Two, West Ham Municipal Secondary School remained open, although with reduced student numbers.  This is because some sixth-form students and staff joined the British Armed Forces and many students were evacuated to safer areas, away from Nazi bombing raids.  One raid hit the school playground, damaging windows and meaning lessons for some students had to take place in temporary huts.  For some unlucky residents their homes, places of work and public buildings such as schools were bombed.  This map shows local bomb sites – was anywhere familiar to you blown up during Nazi bomb-raids?

The Nazis Blew-up Upton Lane School

17 days after the final evacuation letter from the Head of West Ham Municipal Secondary School, Upton Lane School (just around the corner) was hit by a V1 “Doodlebug” Rocket during a Nazi bombing raid.  People were using the basement as an air-raid shelter.  A family of seven people escaped. However, two women who had been sleeping on the ground floor were brought out dead from the wreckage. They were later identified as Mrs Macer, a nurse and Mrs Skingle, a local resident.  The site of Upton Lane School is our current Upton Lane site.

Our World War Two Memorial

On our Upton Lane site you can find our World War Two Memorial.  It was made to commemorate students, ex-students and staff who died whilst fighting against our country’s enemies in World War Two.  See if you can work out what they did to help our country in the war, their military rank and unit are included.

The Creation of Stratford Grammar School

Following World War Two, the government decided to spend a lot of money on the education system.  West Ham Municipal School moved to Upton Lane in 1958, into a brand-new building on the site of the old Upton Lane School.  The new school was a great example of modernist architecture.  In 1972, Newham Council shut all Grammar Schools, and our school became known as Stratford School.  The school also expanded into “the Annex”, now known as our Grosvenor Road site.  These buildings had previously been part of Sarah Bonnell Grammar School (now Sarah Bonnell School).

The Creation of Stratford School Academy

On 1st August 2011, Stratford School became Stratford School Academy.  Alongside the new name, the government agreed to rebuild our school.  Our new Grosvenor Road building opened in 2013, and our new Upton Lane building opened in 2015.  We have continued to improve our school with a bigger canteen on GR and improved sports facilities on UL.

Since academising our school has gone from strength-to-strength and is now acknowledged to be in the top 20% of the schools in the country for pupil progression.  The school has also achieved many nationally recognized awards including:

• Wellbeing Award
• Personal Development Award
• Debate Mate Champions