Valentines High School

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Valentines High School is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form located in the Ilford area of the London Borough of Redbridge, England. It has approximately 1300 pupils and 93 teachers. Valentines has been a teaching school since 2011, and is a member of the Leading Edge partnership programme. In 2006, it was designated as a specialist school for technology and had technology college status.HistoryThe school was first opened in 1901 as the Park Higher Grade School, a coeducational secondary school, located at the opposite side of Valentines Park from the school's present location. The school had over 600 places and taught Latin and French among other subjects.In 1929, the girls' wing of the school was moved to a new building on Cranbrook Road and was named Ilford County High School for Girls, a selective grammar school for girls, while the original site became known as Ilford County High School for Boys, which in 1935 moved to its present-day location in Barkingside. In 1977, the school was renamed Valentines High School, and became coeducational, admitting boys for the first time the following year.In 2007, a new sixth-form building was opened with state-of-the-art physical education facilities including a new astro-turf pitch, tennis courts, sports hall, and drama studio. The sixth-form building currently houses the modern languages, and humanities departments. Following demographic changes to the local area, the school has become very multicultural, with more than 80% of pupils speaking a first language other than English.