Gifford Primary School

[EduCativ]

We are very proud of the work we do at Gifford. We are rated as Outstanding and we have been in the national top 100 primary schools for pupil progress for the last 2 years, with major achievements in sports, music and many other areas. We are a National Support School, which is accredited in supporting other schools locally and nationally. Gifford Primary School is a Community school for 3-11 year old's providing a caring, secure, and intellectually challenging environment in which our pupils feel valued and can learn successfully. We also have a specialist provision in our school for Deaf children.
The school is named after Sir John Gifford who was a local landowner and owned the land on which the school is built, a copy of his last will and testimony is kept at Northolt Village church. The first school building was built in the late 1940s, to be used as a hospital during the war as we are close to the Northolt RAF base. It was never used as a hospital but established as a school in the early 1950s. If the old school had been used as a hospital, the classrooms would have been the wards, and the offices, staff room, and kitchen areas would have been the operating theatres.
There were two separate schools – Gifford Infant School and Gifford Junior School, but you could walk through from one to the other without going outside. The first Head Teachers at the school were Mrs. Mansfield for the Infants and Mr. Maguire for the Juniors. Miss Williams and Mr. Robinson were subsequent Head Teachers for the Juniors. Mr. Maguire has since passed away, however, the school planted a tree in memory of him on the school grounds which can still be seen on the pathway at the rear of the school field that lead to Northala Park. Ms. Crookes was the Headteacher for 18 years before she left in December 2008.
The Gifford Mission Statement is: Working in partnership to provide excellent and enjoyable education which enables all children to achieve their highest standards.

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