The school celebrated its 90th Anniversary in 2013 and has changed remarkably over the years into the high-achieving, academically successful school with a growing reputation for excellence.
Normanhurst School has been an integral part of the history of North Chingford since its foundation in 1923 in the Ridgeway. The School later moved to its present site in Station Road soon after.
With its convenient location, Normanhurst is on a broad tree-lined suburban street with ample parking. Just opposite the British Rail and bus station, the School is accessible to families coming from areas such as Chingford, Buckhurst Hill, Loughton, Chigwell, Waltham Abbey, and mid-Essex, to Walthamstow, Enfield, and Southgate.
Normanhurst operated as normally as possible during the Blitz (one of our specialist rooms was a bomb shelter and held 100 people in a space 20 feet by 12 feet), but due to particularly heavy bombing there was some damage to school buildings. As a consequence certain classes operated from local parents’ homes for a short while.
After the localised bombing during the 1944 V1 and V2 attacks, around 60 Normanhurst children and most of the staff were evacuated to the Praa Sands Hotel near Marazion in Cornwall. The crater from a V2 bomb can still be seen half a mile from us next to the Royal Forest Hotel! The return took place early in 1945.
In 1996 Normanhurst became part of the Oak-Tree Group of Schools and under the ownership of the Hagger Family looks forward to many more years of service to the community. The Oak-Tree Schools are a powerful group of four local independent schools, comprising Braeside School in Buckhurst Hill, Oaklands School in Loughton, Coopersale Hall School in Epping and Normanhurst School.
Mr Nicholas Hagger is a poet, philosopher and author of many books, Mrs Ann Hagger was Headmistress of Oaklands from 1982 to 1996 and Mr Matthew Hagger is the Managing Principal of the three Schools.
