I attended the 90 year anniversary of Rosebery School just over a week ago. I had not been back to my secondary school since 1999 and had no intention until a friend of mine heard about the 90th birthday. I saw a few of the teachers who taught when I was there and my favourite Mr Prendergast – the history teacher. I was really glad I went, the school has really transformed since I graduated and it has some fantastic facilities. Rosebery is now in the top 10% of schools in Britain.
History
Rosebery originally opened in 1921, under the name Epsom County Secondary School. In 1927, it was moved to its current location, White Horse Drive. There were only 340 students in 1927 and now they have nearly 1,500. When the school moved to its current location, the name was changed to Rosebery County Grammar School after Lord Rosebery, the 5th Earl of Rosebery who was Primte Minister from 1894 – 1895.
Uniform
The badge of Rosebery School is a primrose to commemorate Lord Rosebery’s family name. The orignial school uniform colours were pink and brown after his racing colours. Fortunately, by the time I arrived at the school, they had changed the uniform to a dark blue jumper and a kilt, it was not much of an improvement though.
Facilities
In the early 1990s a new music and DT building was built along with the OK block, named after one of the teachers, Brenda Okorodu. Then in the late 1990s, the school built a brand new Science and Art block and when I left another Science block was added along with a new gym, new drama building and cover for the swimming pool. Rosebery is now a Maths and Computing School after it gained specialist status in 2005. Then in 2008, it was awarded High Performing Schools Status.
I was very impressed when I went to the school and saw all the new buildings. I was a little sad to see that the languages department were at the far end of the school in old buildings. Maybe their next project is to build a new language school so that everyone can have the opportunity to learn a second language, despite the fact the government has not made this subject compulsory.
