Orleans Park School is a Mixed comprehensive school with academy status, located in the Twickenham area of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England. It is situated 10 miles south-west of central London.
Location and history
In the early 1900s Twickenham had two elementary schools, St Stephen's and St Mary's, that were struggling to accommodate all the children who were eligible to attend. and on 6 December 1909 George Henry Cawte Spencer was appointed the headmaster. On accepting the appointment he said he would "endeavour to make the second Council school second to none in the town".
By 1910, Orleans Council School was opened in temporary accommodation and on 16 September 1911 the school on Hartington Road and Napoleon Road was formally opened. The buildings were designed for use ultimately for the infants department, accommodating 390 children, but at that time would be used for infants, as well as older boys and girls "until such time as it may be found necessary to erect the main boys' and girls' school building".
During the First World War, assistant schoolmaster C.G. Shaw became a Lieutenant attached to the Lincolnshire Regiment with the Expeditionary Force and was the first elementary schoolmaster in the country to gain the distinction of being mentioned in despatches. The school also became the home of a temporary school for Belgian children displaced by the war, under a Belgian headmistress for that department.
Demands for rebuilding the school were first made in 1946 and by 1964 a site had been acquired by Middlesex County Council in Orleans Park, although a new school had not been included in the Education Ministry's building programme up to 1967. In 1961, the school had already expanded by acquiring a sports field on Richmond Road, formerly the Exiles Football Ground, enhancing its facilities and extracurricular opportunities for students. In the mid-1960s, proposals to close or merge Orleans School with Kneller Girls' School as part of borough-wide secondary education reorganization faced significant opposition from parents and staff. A 1966 Middlesex Chronicle article documented a campaign against its closure, with over 3,250 signatures collected in protest.
By 1971, the Richmond Borough Council approved plans to replace Orleans School with a new mixed secondary school at Orleans Park, Twickenham. on four of the sixteen acres of the former Orleans House estate. The new building was designed as a 900-place school with a sixth form entry, aligning with the borough’s shift to a comprehensive system in 1972.
The pupils moved into the newly built and renamed Orleans Park School in September 1973 marking it as Richmond’s first purpose-built comprehensive school. however, these plans were postponed A second phase of building was completed in September 1975 and on Tuesday April 13 1976, Lord Boyle of Handsworth (then the vice-chancellor of Leeds University and a former Education Minister) opened the school officially.
The school continued to expand and in 1993, Lord Richard Attenborough opened a new building at the school, contributing to the school's development. Orleans Park School gained specialist status as a Mathematics and Computing College in September 2003, as a Language College in September 2008 and it became an academy in 2012.
Sir David Attenborough, continued his family's connection with the school by opening the Attenborough Building, a new sixth form centre named in their family's honor, on March 10, 2015. However, a fuller picture and history is only available once the Ofsted inspections became more regular following the Education (Schools) Act 1992. In 1997, there was a hard hitting inspection. The school then went through a difficult period immediately following that inspection after which time Ofsted noted that substantial improvements were made, especially after the appointment of David Talbot in 1999.
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+Summary table of Ofsted inspections
!Year inspected
!Ofsted grade
!Headteacher
!Ref
!Notes
|-
|2023
|Outstanding
|Kathy Pacey
|
|Inspection
|-
|2017
|Outstanding
|Elaine Ball
|
|Full Inspection
|-
|2010
|Outstanding
|Joanna Longhurst
|
|Full Inspection
|-
|2007
|Good
|David Talbot
|
|Full Inspection
|-
|2003
|No overall rating
|David Talbot
|
|Full Inspection<br>No Ofsted single word (pre-2005). <br>Summarised as a good school with many very strong features
|}
Headteachers
Orleans County Secondary School
- George Henry Cawte Spencer - 1909 to pre-1939
- Charles Henry Howick - pre-1939 to 1944
- Norah Marietta Grace D'Etlinger - 1944 to 1945
- William McDermott Regan - 1945 to 1966
- E. L. Evans (Acting Headteacher) - 1966
- Sidney Altman - 1966 to 1973 (then transitioned to Orleans Park School)
Orleans Park School
- Sidney Altman - 1973 to 1977 (served until his death)
- Garth Freeman - 1978 to at least July 1986
- Mrs. E. Clarke - pre-1989 to 1990
- Elizabeth Selman - 1990–1998
- David Talbot - 1999 to at least 2007
- Joanna Longhurst - pre-April 2010 to 2013
- Elaine Ball - 2013 to 2022
- Kathy Pacey - September 2022 to Present
Notable former pupils
- Kizzy Edgell (actor)
- Joe Anderson (actor)
- Heather Cowell, professional international rugby player who plays for both England Sevens and Harlequins. Played 3 times for England Red Roses (15s). A former international gymnast.
- Cameron Cowell, professional rugby player who played 38 times for Englands Sevens team.
- Emma Uren, professional rugby player who plays for Ealing Trailfinders and has played for England and Team GB 7s.
- Claire Allan, Olympic 2016 Rugby Sevens player
- Julian Dunkerton, co-founder of Superdry
- Edd Gould, (1988-2012) creator of the web series Eddsworld
- Josh Herdman, actor best known for playing Gregory Goyle in the Harry Potter films
- Scott Overall, Olympic Marathon runner
- Rufus Sewell, film, theatre and television actor
- Fionn Whitehead, actor best known for his role in Dunkirk and Black Mirror's Bandersnatch.
- John Yorke, TV executive and author
- Caylin Raftopoulos, British professional basketball player.
- Jesse Kewley-Graham, English footballer.
Notable former teachers
- Greg Davies, comedian and actor who taught drama at the school prior to his entertainment career. Best known for his role as the Taskmaster in Taskmaster, and as Mr Gilbert in The Inbetweeners
- Giselle Mather (née Prangnell), English rugby union international and coach, won 34 caps for England, part of the 1994 Women's World Cup winning side, first woman to achieve level 4 coaching status from the RFU, first woman to coach a male rugby union side, first coach of the Women's Barbarians and from 2024 coach of the Great Britain Women's rugby union sevens squad. Taught PE at the school from 1996 to 1999.
- Beth Potter, Paris 2024 Olympics Individual Triathlon bronze medalist. She was a former science teacher at Orleans Park School, teaching physics A-level up until 2016