Location | England LB Croydon New Addington (CR0) |
Meridian High School, Fairchildes Avenue | |
Distance (S) from Greenwich | |
OS map details | OS Explorer: 161 |
OS grid ref | TQ 39319.61312 (539319,161312) |
WGS84 lat/long | 51.333840, -0.001511 |
Type | School | School name |
Marking date | April 2015 |
Access | Restricted, but visible from public road |
Known as Meridian High School since 2015, the school on this site has had four different names since it was first opened in the early 1950s. Originally known as Fairchildes Secondary Modern School, its name was changed to Fairchildes High School in around 1971 when Secondary Modern and Grammar Schools were phased out in the borough in favour of Comprehensives. Meanwhile, Overbury School which had opened as an infants and primary school in the 1930s and was around 1.3 km away, had become Overbury Secondary School (in the 1960s?). In 1984, Overbury Secondary School was merged with Fairchides High School on the Fairchildes site and the Overbury site redeveloped for housing (now the site of Cudham Drive). So as not to ruffle sensibilities Fairchildes High School had its name changed. Although the name of Meridian School was considered at that time, it was decided to name the newly merged schools as Addington High School.
In June 2013, Addington High School became a sponsored academy and a member of the Ravens Wood Learning Trust. In September 2014, a new Headteacher Martin Giles took up post. The following March, the school received formal approval of the Secretary of State for Education to change its name to Meridian High School. Although in legal terms, the new name came into existence in April 2015, in practical terms, it was not generally adopted until the start of the new academic year. On 4 September 2015, the Ravens Wood Learning Trust changed its name to Apollo Learning Trust. Its name was changed again on 19 December 2016, this time to Impact Multi Academy Trust. In the mean time, on 1 October 2016, Meridian High School was moved to a different trust – GLF Schools. When visited in May 2017, the school signage still needed to be updated to reflect this change.