King Edward VI Handsworth - History

History

The school was originally three separate schools: Aston (Girls section), Summer Hill, and Bath Row in the King Edward VI Foundation. On the 14 September 1911 the three were merged and the Head Mistress of Aston - Miss Nimmo - became the new Head. When the school first opened, and for many years afterwards, girls were not permitted to eat in the street and had to wear gloves on the journey to and from school. In the beginning, the sixth form was very small with as little as 6 pupils in a year. Many girls transferred to King Edward VI High School for Girls for their sixth form studies.

The new school at Handsworth cost £50,000 to build. The architect, P. B. Chatwin designed a very modern building with a number of specialist areas which included the library and the "playroom" (a whole school common-room). As it was built on a slope, there are two ground floors, and originally the gymnasium was located in the room on the lower ground floor later used as a Music room. Since the renovation of the church (bought by the school) into a music centre, this room is now used as an ICT suite.

To celebrate the centenary of the school in 1983 a new block was built to house a meeting room and the changing rooms for the sports field. In 1997 a new Sixth Form block was built with the help of the King Edward VI Foundation fund. In 2005, the new sports hall was built, using sponsorship money from companies such as O2, and a church organ was bought by the school to be renovated and used for music studies. The school also gained specialist performing arts status.

Latin was also removed from the curriculum in 2004 and replaced with drama, which had previously been on the curriculum in the late 20th century.