Wildern Secondary School
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Wildern School is an 11 - 16 co-educational comprehensive school serving the Hedge End, West End and Eastleigh areas of Southampton, Hampshire. It currently has in excess of 1800 students on roll.
[edit] Academic Performance
As part of a Department for Education and Skills initiative the majority of pupils at the school complete the Key Stage 3 curriculum in two years rather than three, with a large number going on to complete a similar ‘accelerated’ course at GCSE level.
In 2005, the school received a 100% pass rate at GCSE level, with 86% of students gaining 5 or more A* - C grades and 65.6% gaining 10 or more A* - C grades, putting it as one of the top 50 performing schools in the country.
[edit] History
The school was originally built in 1933, opened by its first Headmaster Mr H. S. Shelley who upheld his role until retirement after the Second World War. He was succeeded by a Mr. Simmons and his assistant Mr J. Shirley, (who eventually left his post to become a teacher himself). It was in Mr Simmons' time as Headmaster that plans were drawn for the construction of new larger school, on which building work began in May 1960 and finished in 1963 before the finished building was opening by Lord Ashburton on 19th September.
It was at this time, that the school was first divided into its four houses – Duke, Bedford, Paxton and Sovereign. Contrary to popular belief, the names of these houses were not derived from different types of strawberry, but rather arose from the time at which the Duke of Bedford owned land nearby to the school and lent this land to Joseph Paxton, the man who developed the Royal Sovereign strawberry.
In 1971, the school officially became Wildern Comprehensive School and saw significant development in the form of the purchase of a second minibus and construction of a new art block which was completed in 1974. Notable development of the site however continued through the 1970’s.
In 1976, Head of the Lower School – Mr Owen – retired and, as a final gesture, raised a large sum of money for the school which he donated to it in aid of construction of an on-site swimming pool; this pool was built in the subsequent years and opened 1979.
Mr, Owen was then replaced by a Mr Durnell, who was at the school in 1977 when it saw increasing vandalism around the site cumulate in an explosion in one of the biology laboratories.
From 1997 to 2007, Headteacher of the school was Jeffery Threlfall, who remained at the helm of Wildern (his first headship position) for 11 years before his death on 11th October 2007 due to Leukemia.
