Motto |
Latin: Da Nobis Recta Sapere (Grant that we may be truly wise) |
---|---|
Established | 1926 |
Type | Voluntary aided school |
Religion | Roman Catholic |
Founder | Rev Monsignor Canon C. H. Parsons |
Location |
Woodside Lane North Finchley, London Greater London N12 8TA England Coordinates: 51°37′19″N 0°10′55″W / 51.622°N 0.182°W |
Local authority | Barnet |
DfE number | 302/5405 |
DfE URN | 101362 Tables |
Ofsted | Reports |
Students | 1124 |
Gender | Boys (mixed-sex 6th form) |
Ages | 11–18 |
Publication | The Albanian |
Former names | Finchley Grammar School Challoner School |
Website | www |
Finchley Catholic High School is a boys' secondary school with a coeducational sixth form in North Finchley, part of the London Borough of Barnet.
Finchley Catholic High School, as its name declares, is a faith school; it is also – up to the end of Year 11 – exclusively for boys.
It is a school for boys aged 11–18, with a coeducational Sixth Form. The sixth form is increasing in size, and 25% of the intake is offered to girls since the 2007–08 academic year.
The school is situated to the west of Finchley's High Road (A1000), and immediately to the east of that stretch of the Northern Line which constitutes the school's western boundary. Lying adjacent to the postcode boundaries of Whetstone (N20) and Woodside Park (N12), it is roughly halfway between Woodside Park tube station and Totteridge and Whetstone tube station.
Finchley Catholic Grammar School was founded in 1926 by the redoubtable Canon (later Monsignor Canon) Clement Henry Parsons (1892–1980), parish priest of St. Alban's Catholic Church, Nether Street, North Finchley. He founded the Challoner School (a fee-paying grammar school for boys who had not passed their 11+); as well as St. Alban's Catholic Preparatory School ("The Prep" – now absorbed into Woodside Park International School) as a feeder primary for the Grammar and Challoner schools. 1971 saw its two institutional forebears, Finchley Catholic Grammar School ("Finchley Grammar") and the Challoner School, merge to become Finchley Catholic High School). It was the sister school of the all-girls St. Michael's Catholic Grammar School during the grammar school era.
The school started as a private initiative and parents were able to consider allowing their children to remain at school for longer. They were even willing and able to pay limited fees to the school. In a short time demand outgrew accommodation, the school had to extend. An appeal from the pulpit by Canon Parsons began the collection that by Christmas 1928 had produced enough money to purchase a building. Woodside Grange seemed an ideal site for the new school but it took the intervention of the Anglican Bishop of London to complete the purchase.