Rosa Bassett School
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|
| Motto |
Honesta Obtinete ("Hold Fast To That Which Is Good" cf. 1 Thess. 5:21) |
|---|---|
| Established | 1906 |
| Closed | 1977 |
| Type | Grammar |
| Headmistress | Kathleen Shores Dougill |
| Location |
Welham Road Tooting London SW17 9BU England, UK 51°25′23″N 0°09′07″W / 51.423°N 0.152°WCoordinates: 51°25′23″N 0°09′07″W / 51.423°N 0.152°W |
| Local authority | ILEA |
| Staff | c. 40 |
| Students | c. 700 |
| Gender | Girls |
| Ages | 11–18 |
| Houses | Buff, Dark Blue, Light Blue, Green, Grey, Orange |
| Publication | The Pimpernel |
| Badge | Scarlet pimpernel |
Rosa Bassett School was a grammar school for girls in South London. Established in 1906 in as the Stockwell County Secondary School, in 1913 the school moved to Welham Road on the boundary between Streatham and Tooting. The school was renamed the County Secondary School, Streatham, and was often referred to as Streatham County Secondary School, or, simply, as Streatham Secondary School. It was again renamed in 1951 in memory of the first headmistress, Rosa Bassett.
The school closed when in 1977 it was amalgamated with Battersea Grammar School, a school for boys, creating the new Furzedown Secondary School, a mixed comprehensive school, incorporating the Rosa Bassett buildings into a larger site.
The school was originally located in Durand Gardens, SW9, Stockwell, where it was known as Stockwell County Secondary School. It transferred to a new building on Welham Road, SW17, in 1913, changing its name to the County Secondary School, Streatham.
The school's first headmistress, Rosa Bassett, encouraged self-reliance and personal responsibility in the school's pupils. This pattern was deepened when, in 1920, Bassett introduced the use of the Dalton Plan to the school. The Dalton Plan was a system of education developed in Massachusetts by Helen Parkhurst which moved away from traditional, rigid, class-based teaching, allowing for teaching to be adjusted to the pace of each individual child.
The introduction of the Dalton Plan to an English school resulted in considerable interest, and when, following Parkhurst's visit to England in 1921, the school opened its doors to visitors, over a thousand people attended over three days. The experiences of the staff and pupils during this period were recorded by Rosa Bassett in a chapter in Parkhurst's book and were also described by Evelyn Dewey in her book on the Dalton Plan.
Following Rosa Bassett's early death in 1925 the school's new headmistress, Muriel Davies, continued the principles of the Dalton Plan, although in somewhat modified form. Miss Davies continued at the school until 1947, seeing it though World War II. During the war the school was evacuated to Chichester, sharing accommodation with the High School for Boys (now Chichester High School for Boys), between 1939 and 1943.
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