St Clement Danes is a partially selective school, providing education to students aged 11 through to 18. Most students are admitted based on proximity to the school, with priority given to students with siblings already at the school, or whose parents are staff at the school, but up to 10% of the Year 7 cohort are admitted based on performance in the eleven-plus exam, and a further 10% may be admitted based on performance in a musical aptitude test. Entry to the sixth form in Year 12 is dependent on GCSE exam grades, and admissions are mainly from students already at the school, but there is also an additional intake of external students.
Location
The school occupies a large site to the northwest of Rickmansworth in Chorleywood. It is about a mile from Chorleywood station, and is served by buses from the station and Watford. It is situated on Chenies Road, which at that point occupies the boundary of Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire for a half-mile, adjacent to the north side of the school. The school is less than a mile west of junction 18 of the M25.
History
The school was founded in 1862 by the church wardens of St Clement Danes Parish in Aldwych, London and opened in Houghton Street. It was funded from income from the St Clement Danes Holborn Estate, a charity founded in 1551 which owned a piece of land on the north side of Holborn.
Grammar school
The St Clement Danes Holborn Estate Grammar School for Boys remained in Houghton Street until 1928, when it transferred to a new site on Du Cane Road in Hammersmith, where it flourished as a grammar school until 1975. The school had a well-known choir which featured in a 1975 EMI recording of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, conducted by André Previn with the LSO. The site was next to Hammersmith Hospital, and is now occupied by St Clement's House, a block of flats and Wood Lane High School. On 29 June 1973, 13-year-old Nicholas St Clair from Fulham was killed on the school playing fields when he was struck in the chest by a javelin thrown by a fellow student. A verdict of accidental death was recorded by the coroner following an inquest into the incident.
Comprehensive
In 1975, under an agreement between the Governing Board of the School and Hertfordshire County Council, it was re-established in its new premises in Chorleywood, as a Voluntary-Aided Mixed Comprehensive School. In April 1994 the school was incorporated as a grant-maintained school. The Du Cane Road buildings were taken over by Burlington Danes Church of England School, sold to Hammersmith Hospital in 2002 and demolished in 2004. The school receives additional financial support from the St Clement Danes School Charitable Foundation, one of the beneficiaries of the historic St Clement Danes Holborn Estate.
The house system was introduced in 1907 with four houses: Clare, Temple, Clement and Dane. By 1938 the school had grown and two new houses were added: Burleigh and Lincoln. Essex and Exeter were subsequently introduced in 1952. On the move to Hertfordshire, the school reverted to six houses, with Clare and Essex not being reintroduced until 2005.
Current Houses and Colours
Commemoration
Every year a commemoration service is held in St Clement Danes Church in London to commemorate the beginning of the school. It is a large celebration, in which the orchestra and choir play a big part. Half of the school visit the church in London, whilst the other half attend a service held at the school in Chorleywood. The school's song 'The Anchor Is Our Emblem' is sung at the church.
