Foundation

Hendon School now occupies the site where the 16th-century mapmaker John Norden lived, and only a pond survives from the park of Greenhill.

The County School, Hendon opened as a fee-paying school of 350 pupils in September 1914, just a month after the outbreak of the First World War. By 1927, the field at the back of the school was levelled and trees planted, and in 1929–1930 the building of the gymnasium was started. In 1931, the intake of pupils rose from a two form entry to a three form entry, and by 1932–1933 the extension on the north side of the original school building was finished to enable accommodation of 480 pupils. In 1936 former pupil Harold Whitlock planted an oak tree sapling in front of the entrance to the gymnasium which he had received, along with his gold medal for the 50 kilometres (31 mi) walk, from Adolf Hitler at the Berlin Olympic Games.

Hendon County Grammar School

By 1955 the school had 620 pupils and 32 staff, resulting in a necessary extension on the east side of the main building, which included a new Hall, Dining Hall and Kitchens. This was officially opened in 1961. In the late 1960s, when plans for the reorganisation of secondary education were passed by Parliament, the London Borough of Barnet suggested the amalgamation of Hendon County Grammar School, situated in Golders Rise, with St David's County Secondary School for Boys, in St David's Place, West Hendon. Hendon Grammar School Choir released commercial recordings with Owen Brannigan, with traditional British songs.

Former St David's County Secondary School pre-1971

On 1 October 1929, Barnfield Senior Boys’ School opened in Silkstream Road, Burnt Oak, Edgware with 267 boys. In January 1964 it amalgamated with Brent Secondary Modern School on its site in Sturgess Avenue, West Hendon. Brent Modern School, a mixed school, had opened on 7 January 1936 having been formally inaugurated the previous October by Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, the daughter of Queen Victoria. In readiness for the joining of the Barnfield and Brent schools, new buildings were erected in St David's Place, and the two adjacent sites became one school named St David's after its location. Originally it was to be named The Grahame-White School after Claude Grahame-White, the famous English aviator who had established Hendon Aerodrome, but permission by his family was declined.^[3]

Hendon Senior High School

In 1971, this merger took place. Hendon County Grammar School became Hendon Senior High School, and St David's County Secondary School for Boys was renamed Hendon Junior High School. In 1978, when all the new buildings on the Hendon County site were finished, the whole school became completely integrated on one site and called by its present name Hendon School.

During 1987–88 the school was threatened with closure by the London Borough of Barnet claiming falsely that it was no longer a viable institution, but by 1988–1989 the school had survived the threat and was awarded Grant-maintained status by the Conservative Government. Hendon became a foundation school with the changes to state funding of education which were brought about by the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. Extensions to the new buildings close to the perimeter on the south side of the site took place during the 1990s to provide extra room for the Maths and Music departments.

Hendon County Grammar School

• Dr Dora Black (née Braham), director, Royal Free Hospital child trauma clinic
• Rabbi Lionel Blue
• Bernard Braine, Baron Braine of Wheatley, former Conservative MP
• Ashleigh Brilliant, writer and cartoonist (1947–52)
• Sir Philip Cohen, Royal Society research professor
• Robert Earl, founder of the Planet Hollywood chain
• Prof Mark Freedland, professor of employment law
• Prof Harvey Goldstein, professor of social statistics
• Christopher Gunning, composer
• Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, novelist
• Professor Peter Maitlis FRS, organometallic chemist
• Peter Mandelson, Baron Mandelson, former Labour MP
• Gerald Ratner^[7]
• Michael Sternberg, professor at Imperial College London
• Harold Whitlock, Olympic walker
• Frank Williams, known for playing the Reverend Timothy Farthing in Dad's Army