Our History

Hertswood School becomes Hertswood Academy

2000 to present day - see Boreham Wood Grammar School and Nicholas Hawksmoor School

Cowley Hill Boreham Wood


Aerial view of Nicholas Hawksmoor before the rebuild in 2017

Hertswood School was formerly Boreham Wood Grammar School which opened in 1956, became a Comprehensive School in 1971 and was re-named Nicholas Hawksmoor School.  Herts Countryside Magazine October 1972 vol. 27 No 162 article :

"In September 1971 Borehamwood Grammar School became comprehensive and adopted the name Nicholas Hawksmoor school after the famous architect who lies buried at Shenley".

In 1974 the school was transferred to the three-tier system taking children thirteen to sixteen and extensions were added - science and teaching blocks.

In 2000 Hertswood School was established to replace Borehamwood's old three-tier system of lower, middle and upper schools with a two-tier system. Hertswood was so named as a combination of Hertfordshire and Borehamwood. It had alterations and extensions added to accommodate up to 2000 children as it was proposed that this was to be the only Upper School in the town.  So Lyndhurst, Furzehill and Holmshill Middle Schools were closed, along with Nicholas Hawksmoor and Hillside Upper Schools. The new, larger school was established on the sites of Nicholas Hawksmoor School and Holmshill Secondary Modern, the two schools having been approximately 400 metres apart. The reorganisation was paid for through the sale of the three other sites for housing development.

Hertswood opened as the new school in September 2000 with plans to share accommodation with the former Holmshill Middle School which would divide the school into two campuses with an upper and lower site.  However, it was still undergoing alterations and so took the local children from the ages eleven to sixteen who were transferred from the Middle Schools together with pupils currently at the school who were taking GCE exams (to save disruption).  It therefore became the Lower School.  Meanwhile, the Upper school was situated at the now defunct Hillside School which took pupils from eleven to eighteen years. They were composed of a mixture from the former Nicholas Hawksmoor and The Hillside Upper Schools, and re-named Hertswood Upper School,

In September 2001 it stayed as the Lower School and shared accommodation with Holmshill School which served as the Upper School.

The school uniform was provided free for all the children who had to replace their former uniform because of their transfer to the new school.  It was burgundy and black, colours chosen by the new Headteacher, Ian Lucas.  The badge was an heraldic shield which held the images of an acorn, 2 crossed keys and an open book as symbols of learning and knowledge.

A purpose built ‘Dome’ contained rooms for expressive art and drama and there were three IT suites.  One of the cleaning staff was Val Thorpe who began working in the building 18 years before.  Christine Wainwright was an SEN assistant who began working at the school in 2000 having transferred from Lyndhurst Middle School.  There was a school bus service run by a private company, which meant the children had to pay fares.

In September 2012, Hertswood became an academy under the Academies Act (2010).  In November 2013, the academy announced plans to move the entire school to new buildings on the Cowley Hill site, funded by the sale of the Thrift Farm Lane site which would be demolished for housing.  In March 2014 plans were pushed back to extend the consultation period.

A planning application was submitted in December 2014 for the new academy, temporary classrooms and the residential development on the Thrift Farm Lane site. This was part of a schedule to move all students to the Cowley Hill site in December 2015 and open the new academy in September 2019.

The academy stated that the new build would include "a first class community theatre and community sports facilities" as well as "cutting-edge ICT in every classroom, expansive open learning spaces and a superb new restaurant."  The new building opened to students as planned in September 2019 for the start of the 2019–20 academic year.

The academy has approximately 1,300 students, including boys and girls from the age of eleven to eighteen. This includes approximately 200 students in the academy's sixth form. There are approximately 100 teaching staff, with approximately forty support staff.

In 2013 the academy introduced a new house system with four houses, each named after a college at Oxford or Cambridge: Cavendish (blue), Darwin (green), Nuffield (yellow) and Somerville (red).  The assigned colour of the house that a student belongs to is displayed on the tv which also has pictures events and how many house points the house have received so far.

Each house has a staff member assigned as its head, a House Captain from the Upper Sixth Form, and a Vice House Captain selected from the Lower Sixth Form. The academy arranges inter-house competitions through the school year and tracks the total House Points each house has earned, towards winning the House Cup at the end of each year.


The new Academy in 2019