History

Normanhurst has been an integral part of the history of North Chingford since its foundation in 1923 in the Ridgeway. The School later moved to its present site in Station Road soon after, and celebrated its 100th Anniversary in 2023. Normanhurst has changed remarkably over the years into a high-achieving, academically successful school with a growing reputation for excellence.

Normanhurst operated as normally as possible during the Blitz (one of our specialist rooms was a bomb shelter and held 100 people in a space 20 feet by 12 feet), but after particularly heavy bombing there was some damage to school buildings. As a consequence, certain classes operated from local parents’ homes for a short while.

After the localised bombing during the 1944 V1 and V2 attacks, around 60 Normanhurst children and most of the staff were evacuated to the Praa Sands Hotel near Marazion in Cornwall.

In 1996 Normanhurst became part of the Oak-Tree Group of Schools and under the ownership of the Hagger family there has been a programme of building that includes a new rear classroom block and subsequent extension and frequent refurbishments of classrooms. In 2017, we installed three larger dormers onto the main building to increase the space in three of our classrooms and in 2018 we created the new Music Studio and ancillary rooms above the rear car park.