Our History

Parkside School

1956 to present day

Aycliffe Road Boreham Wood

Parkside opened as a County Primary Junior Mixed school.  It was expected to open in January 1956 but the premises were still under construction.  Sharing the site were two other schools, Greenacres Infants, which was also under construction, and Campions Secondary Modern which was operational.  Parkside juniors and the infants who were due to attend Greenacres upon its opening in spring, were therefore initially, housed in Campions and began their schooling on 9th January.  The log book states that six inches of snow had fallen overnight and that the start time was delayed until 10.30 am because of travel problems.

The roll was composed of 96 infants and 95 juniors who were transferred from other schools : High Canons in Ridge, Cowley Hill, Brookfield, Merydene in Boreham Wood and Foulds in Barnet. 

Mr T H Flannagan was appointed Headmaster and the first teachers were Messrs, J H Perry, R J Webb and R H Whitehead.  Parkside opened in its own building on 6th February 1956 although according to the log book, work was still unfinished and a telephone was not installed until nine months later.  Upon opening 120 additional children were admitted from Merydene and on May 7th twenty-six children ages seven to ten were transferred from High Canons.  At this time there were 358 children on roll with the facilities of eight classrooms, an assembly hall and a dining room.

Building the School - April 1956

Other teachers appointed were Misses J Downing and Cordwell, Messrs Carling and Quirk and Miss Potter and M Linneker who joined in September.  Mr Quirk transferred to St Teresa’s R.C Primary the following February.  Non teaching staff were Mrs Heywood - cook, her two assistants were Mrs Jordan and Mrs Drury.  The caretaker was Mr Staples who was superseded by Mr R Fowler and the two cleaners were Mrs Inskip and Mrs Melvin.

Miss M J Moore was appointed headmistress of Greenacres but served at Parkside until it opened in April as did the dining room helper, Mrs Knight.

The General Allowance for the school from December to March 1956 was £753.

New classroom - June 1956

Playground in 1950s

In November 1956 the school had an official opening ceremony with Mr Roland Richardson JP as dignitary.  Plans were drawn up for a paddling pool to be situated outside the hall area and as there were now forty children to a class, two mobile classrooms were erected in 1957 to accommodate the growing numbers which had reached 546 in September 1958.  The mobile rooms were removed in 1964 reflecting the diminishing roll which had fallen to 291 in January 1967.

School leavers in 1958

Maths lesson

In 1963 a deed of conveyance showed that the whole site on which the three schools stood was sold to Hertfordshire County Council by the London County Council for £38,570. 

In 1969 Greenacres Infants School closed and was converted the following year to an ESN establishment - Great Brookmead - and the infants then went to Parkside which became Parkside Junior Mixed School.  In 1974 Boreham Wood schools converted to three-tier and Parkside became a First School taking children ages four to nine.  Mrs Mary MacKay was the headteacher from about 1967-8, Mr Flannagan having left to take up a teaching post in a college before accepting the headteacher’s post at Lyndhurst School in 1971.

On September 9th 1975 the school opened a nursery taking forty children with Miss Hope as class teacher and Mrs J Tovey as nursery nurse.  The log book stated that children from Brookside were transferred to the nursery.  The roll in the main school was 195.  The school was now Parkside First School and Nursery Class.

In 1977 the 21st anniversary party was attended by headmistress Mrs M Mackay, Chair of Governors Mrs V Maurice, also Ex-Chair of Governors Mrs N Triance and in attendance was former Headmaster Mr T Flanagan.

Mrs MacKay retired in 1989 and Mr John O’Connor was appointed headteacher.

1992 the school changed from county control to Grant Maintained Status but reverted in 1999 when the new Labour Government abolished GMS.  In summer 2000 Herts CC changed the three-tier education system in Boreham Wood back to two-tier.  All schools were affected as children now remained in the first schools until aged eleven.  The school became known as Parkside Community School.

The Headteacher after John O'Connor was Mrs J Muncey from 2007 to 2015, and then Mr C Soyka from 2018 to present.

In 1992 there was new building and the  construction of a support base for pupils and an outreach service support centre to be also used by the local police.built and designed by Davy/smith consultants

In 2003 three members of staff including a teaching assistant Irene Barton, welfare admin Pamela Foreman and catering assistant Patricia Speller have been awarded for their service to Parkside School for twenty years by Hertfordshire County Council

In 2013 there was a major new build and construction for Parkside to become a two form entry school - this was opened by Deputy Mayoress Shirley Keates.  The building is named after the Chair of Governors David Smith

In 2021 Parkside School welcomed the WD6 Foodbank into the school with an area to serve all people in the wider community who need access to a foodbank.

Some new photos we've just received :

Please see our display of these photos in the Cafe at 96 Shenley Road