It was later absorbed into the co-educational Woodside Park School foundation which was later renamed The North London International School and is today known as The Dwight School London, notably one of the first schools to offer the International Baccalaureate as an alternative to traditional British A-Level studies.
History
The school was founded in 1884 as St John's High School for Boys by the Reverend Prebendary Frederick Hall MA of Jesus College, Cambridge,[1] rector of the Parish of St James and St John, Friern Barnet, to educate boys from middle-class families capable of meeting fee payments, as distinct from his efforts to provide the free schooling – financially supported by parishioners – of infants.
On the site of the school was the original temporary iron construction known as the school-church of St. John, where both classes and church services were held. This was later replaced by a one-storey building enlarged in the 1950s and the existing building, a two-storeyed block, was built in 1973.
After 1890 the establishment was known as Friern Barnet Grammar School for Boys having its own preparatory school from 1904. However the school was never populated by more than two hundred pupils.
The school's charitable arm was the subsidiary group, Friends of Friern Barnet Grammar School.[3] In 1995, Friern Barnet Grammar became the Senior Department of Woodside Park School, rebranded and began admitting girls. Woodside Park School later became what is now Dwight School London.
Over a number of years an intense rivalry developed between pupils of the Grammar School and those from the government maintained Friern Barnet County School (latterly Friern Barnet Secondary School), which in 1961 opened nearby in Hermington Avenue.
Information
Motto: Vita Lux Hominum
Latin: Life and Light of Mankind (from St John1:4In him was life, and the life was the light of men)
Annual Events: Founder's Day, Speech Day (Prize Giving), Sports' Day
In 1961, prizes were presented by the Member of Parliament for Finchley, Mrs Margaret Thatcher who "in an inspiring address spoke to the boys about their vocation in the life of the community for which school days are a preparation".[5]
His Honour Judge Pullinger – Judge John Elphick Pullinger (1930–2000), scholar of the London School of Economics and also of Lincoln's Inn, Judge Advocate General for the Near and Far East 1972–1975, Circuit Court Judge on SE Circuit 1982–1990, Croydon Law Courts 1982–2000[33]
Mr F J C Gustard (1902/3–1938) who was a master at the school, Frederick Gustard – cricket journalist and statistician, contributor to Wisden, author England v. Australia. A guide to the Tests, 1934 & Somerset County Cricket. Facts and figures from 1891–1924.[39]
The founder, The Rev. Frederick Hall MA of Jesus College, Cambridge.[40] Rector of Friern Barnet, Rural Dean of Hornsey[41] and Prebendary of St Paul's.[42] Died 1902.[43] The author of, A Short Historical Account of the Collegiate Church of St Peter – Wolverhampton, 1865; A Simple Service Book for Children, 1866;[44]Fasting Reception of the Blessed Sacrament: A Custom of the church Catholic, 1881.[45]
Headmaster Charles Deane Punchard (1861–1940), the author of Tales from Shakespeare: With Introduction and Notes by C.D. Punchard (Charles Lamb, Mary Ann Lamb, Charles Punchard, 1899), Pitman's English Grammar Revised (1911), Helps to the Study of Addison's Essays (1898), Helps to the Study of Leigh Hunt's Essays (1899), A Summary of Johnson's Milton.[48]
Mr W G Urry (1913–81) who was a master at the school, later Dr William G Urry, mediaeval historian and Canterbury Cathedral Archivist and Librarian (1948–1969).[49]
National Archives: Saint James the Great, Friern Barnet DRO/012/I/G8
'Friern Barnet: Education', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 6: Friern Barnet, Finchley, Hornsey with Highgate (1980), pp. 29–32, 33–36. Available from www.British-history.ac.uk
