|
Hungerford's council school must have bulged at the seams when it peaked at 626 on its roll in the late 1950s. So it must have been with
great relief that the then headmaster of the council school, Mr. John Davies, transferred 290 senior children to the new secondary school, the John O' Gaunt School in Priory Road when it opened in
January 1963.
The opening days were not without incident! In January 1963 there was deep snow for two weeks, and as a result only 120 of the expected 430 pupils made it into school - none
from Lambourn. On the second day the boiler broke down, and the school had to be closed for two weeks!
Mr Rex Chesney, a Cambridge graduate, was the first headmaster. He remained in post until December 1974. The following term was an inter-regnum with Mr Norman Fox, the current
deputy head being acting head.
Mr David Lee was Headmaster between Easter 1975 and December 1989 (apart from a four term secondment from Easter 1985 to September 1986, when Keith McClellan was acting head). The school became a
Comprehensive School in September 1975 with the first intake of the whole ability range.
Mrs Monica Darroch was acting head for a term from January 1990 to Easter 1990.
After this came Jeff Dawkins, and then Marcia Twelftree (now Dame Marcia for services to education including her Government advisory work whilst Head of Charters School). Another
inter regnum at this time was Tim Royle who is now (2010) head at Highdown School, Reading.
The next head was Mrs Lin Bartlett.
The John o' Gaunt became a Community Technical College in 2003.
Mr Neil Spurdell was appointed Headmaster in April 2009.
The College currently (2009) has 633 pupils on the roll.
|
 "schools-jog 1964(w)")
 "schools-jog c1964w")
 "Schools-027 John O'Gaunt May 1981w")
 "Schools-028 John O'Gaunt May 1981w")