The Howard Secondary Modern School
1953 to 1987
By Steve Johnson
After the Tripartite System came into effect in 1948, the only secondary school in Welwyn Garden City was Handside School. New estates were being built on the East Side which pushed for a new school, so the Howard Secondary Modern School School was built and opened in 1953 with the new headmaster Clifford Henry George Small, who had moved from Handside School. The school was situated at the end of Oaken Grove in Hatfield Hyde.
The school site became old and wretched, so the idea came to merge the two secondary schools. Heronswood School merged with The Howard School in June 1987, and Heronswood School’s site was facilitated for housing purposes and the Howard School became Sir John Newsom(e) School re-decorating and extending the school massively to house all the pupils. Sir John Newsom School closed on 31 August 1998.
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Oh wow what memories. I was there 1971 to1977. I played the fairy queen in Iolanthe, was in the band and choir. I remember Mrs Bradley, Alan Viner and Rod Tearle in the music dept. My mum was the lab technician in the science labs. So long ago.
Mark Emson! Are you the Mark Emson who was at Howlands Junior School? If so you were in my class and I really loved you!
Elaine Norman.
I was there from 1973 and left in 1979. I remember us staging the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, Iolanthe. Also salad days as well as singing Zadok the Priest in the choir. Mrs Bradley was then in charge of music at that time. I was lucky enough to be in the orchestra, band and choir in my school days. Later on, as a teacher I finally trod the boards to be a policeman in pirates of Penzance, an Earl in Iolanthe and a gentleman of Japan in The Mikado. Happy memories of French lessons with Miss Bergerson and mathematics with Mr Smith and chemistry with Mr Tyler. Happy days!!
Sad that another great school is no longer. Re. John Lee’s comment, above, I think the Headmaster at the time was Mr W G (Bill) Bryant?
He was my Headmaster too at his previous school, King Edward VI Grammer School, Spilsby, Lincolnshire. He achieved a lot in Spilsby, and presumably Howard benefited in a similar way. His wife, Catherine, taught physics; did she continue to teach at Howard?
I was there from 1968 to 1975 when the school boasted a brass band an orchestra and a large choir. Musical instrument tuition was free and there was an annual arts festival and a G & S opera which was a major event! Mereamur urbam nostram….all gone and hardly a picture on the net.