Southgate School


Southgate School is a state comprehensive secondary school in the London Borough of Enfield. It has approximately 1574 pupils.
The school is situated just east of the Cat Hill roundabout of the A111 and A110, between Cockfosters and Oakwood tube stations. The Trent Park campus of Middlesex University is nearby to the north, on the northern fringe of Greater London's conurbation. Middlesex University has its Cat Hill campus nearby to the east. Although once historically in Southgate, the school is now in the parish of St Thomas, Oakwood, on the boundary with Cockfosters to the west, and on the western edge of Enfield borough, 500 metres east of the Barnet boundary.

History

Grammar school

Founded in 1907 as Southgate County School, the school was originally housed within Broomfield House, Palmers Green. The school subsequently moved to Fox Lane. In 1960, the Fox Lane site was closed and a new site, in Sussex Way, Cockfosters, was purchased.

Comprehensive

In 1967, the school merged with Oakwood Secondary Modern School which was located in Chase Road, Southgate. The Chase Road site became the lower school, for children in their first three years of secondary education.

The 90s

In 1991, the Lower School also moved to the Sussex Way site, with the Chase Road site being sold partly for housing and partly to a private school.

The 2000s

The school was awarded Specialist Science Status in September 2004, which it gained through raising £50,000 and being provided with the necessary funding for a science specialist school. It used the funding to generally improve science facilities purchasing new equipment and renewing laboratories as well as building a hanging laboratory in the middle of the East Wing building. In the Summer of 2007 Southgate celebrated its centenary.

The 2010s

In 2015, after 15 years as headteacher, Anthony Wilde left Southgate School and was replaced by Martin Lavelle. Lavelle appeared on BBC2 expressing his concern and doubts over the marking of exams.

Sixth form

The head of Southgate sixth form between 1991-2014 was Richard Tunnadine and throughout this era Southgate had a number of successful academic years. 2009 was Southgate's most memorable academic year with students achieving the highest grades in a number of years. There were also remarkable individual successes such as Maria Kiliaris and Adam Ioannou who went on to study medicine at Cambridge and University College London. Since 2013 John Carrigy has been head of sixth form.

Student Leadership Team

In 2014 Southgate sixth form established a student leadership team with Alex Ioannou awarded the position of Chairman and Helena Stylianou awarded the position of Vice-Chair.

Football

Southgate has always been very competitive in football having enjoyed remarkable success under the managerial expertise of Mr Lane, Mr Martin's and most of all Mr Robinson who is in charge of the sixth form team. In 2014 the Southgate sixth form team won the treble, with forward Danilo Orsi-Dadomo becoming Southgate's highest scoring player. The following season under the captaincy of Alex Ioannou, Southgate retained the Enfield Cup in a sensational final winning 4-3. Unfortunately in 2016 following the departure of key players Southgate did not win any honours.

Sixth Form Captains

On 11 February 2009, Southgate was awarded Outstanding Status, one of only two in the London Borough of Enfield.

Notable former pupils