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History of OGPS

Who was Oliver Goldsmith?

Oliver Goldsmith was born in 1728 and died in 1774. His famous works include a novel ‘The Vicar of Wakefield’, a poem ‘The Deserted Village’ and a play ‘She Stoops to Conquer’. He spent part of his life living in our school district on a hill just outside the village of Hyde, which is now the Springfield Estate.

What was the school like when it opened?

OGPS was built in 1937 with its official opening on 8th February 1938. The children transferred to this new building from an old school building called ‘The Kingsbury School’. The old school was located on Kingsbury Road close to where the traffic lights are where Kingbsury Road meets Roe Green; there are now flats on the site.

OGPS: A Time Line...

  • 1937 - The OGPS site as we now know it was built at a cost of £25,000 and accommodated 340 infants and 338 junior pupils.
  • 1938 - The school was officially opened by Dr Farran , who was a Rector in Kingsbury for over 20 years. He declared the school open saying "Long may it exist; great work may it do and may the school raise up a body of men and women of whom the country may be proud." A dedication service was conducted by Rev A. Foreman Cox and Rev W Clark and afterwards a concert was given by the children. The hall was crowded with parents! The first Headteacher of the school on this site was Mr C L E Smith.
  • 1939 - At the outbreak of WWII the school was closed and taken over the Ministry of Defence; they wanted the site for its greats views to help with defence. The children returned to the old school site just down the road. Children returned to school but air raids became an every day part of life!
  • 1953 - The school received a painting from pupils at Harrow School of Art to celebrate the Queen's coronation. The painting remains in our entrance area.
  • 1988 - Golden Anniversary Celebrations. Children in the school took part in a number of activities to mark the school's 50th Year! There was a special cake, items in the local press and a time capsule created for children in open in 2038 when the school would celebrate its centenary!
  • 2009 - Our new OGPS Nursery was built and opened to serve the local community; It was named the Susan Knowler Nursery after the Headteacher at that time.
  • 2013 - A school refurbishment project began which remodelled the reception entrance area, office area as well as the staff room. The KS2 classrooms were also refurbished at this time as well as the central courtyard area transformed!
  • 2015 - A new tradition began where Y6 leavers were presented with their Graduation Year Book. It contained photos of the entire year group along with comments about their OGPS experiences! It also had photos of staff members. It was a real hit and has been a yearly tradition ever since!
  • 2016 - The school celebrated the Queens 90th Birthday with a very British tea party in the playground - it rained!!!2016 - a new tradition started of a whole school musical with children from Y1 to Y6 involved in the cast and crew! This first production was "Hoodwinked" the story of Robin Hood.
  • 2016 - Both playgrounds were refurbished, a new library was fitted and new "Cooking Zone" was created. The KS1 classrooms were refurbished. We said farewell to the old wooden car in the KS1 playground that was much loved by children for many years, but a brand new blue car was installed with the children deciding on the number plate "OGPS2"
  • 2017 - Our annual musical this year was "The Mystery at Magpie Manor".
  • 2017 - Our EYFS pupils moved to the newly created outdoor learning area in the courtyard!
  • 2017 - over the summer holidays, our year 6 classrooms had a facelift along with our upstairs hall!
  • 2017 - In Sept, we launched our 80th Birthday Celebrations with all children and staff receiving a special edition commemorative badge!
  • 2018 - January - 80th "Design A Mug Competition"
  • 2018 - February The school celebrated 80 years on 8th February 2018 with a special assembly. A photograph of the school community was taken from the school roof at 3.30pm with the crowd singing "happy birthday" streamed on Facebook Live!
  • 2018 - March - the school's annual musical this year is "The Lion King".
  • 2018 - June - 80th Inspired Learning Adventure!
  • 2018 - Saturday 30th June, Open Day to celebrate 80 years of OGPS with current and past members of staff, pupils, governors and our local community!
  • 2018 - In Sept, we officially opened our newly refurbished toilets after an investment of £85,000. We also unveiled two outdoor clocks to as a reminder of our 80th year.

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  • 2019 - Miss White retired at the end of the academic year. Miss White completed 38 years dedicated service to the school.
  • 2020 - On Friday 20th March, the school closed as directed by HM Government due to the Covid 19 corona virus pandemic. The school remained open for the children of key workers only. We set the children a task of thinking about what they might put into a time capsule about this historic time we are living through. When we can, the school will hold a special assembly to add items to the capsule, close and seal it for a 100 years and thus say goodbye to the past and look forward to a new future back at OGPS! We cannot wait to hold that assembly!
  • 2020 - Summer - the old dining hall was demolished to make way for a new dining hall to be built.
  • 2020 - On Monday 7th Sept, the school re-opened to all pupils but school life was very different as we run lots of class bubbles. We still cannot hold school assemblies but meet each week in virtual assemblies.
  • 2021 - January: the school faced a second closure as directed by HM Government due to the Covid 19 corona virus pandemic. The school remained open for the children of key workers. This was a very different lock down as children were still able to engage with learning every day by logging onto Google Classroom for a mixture of live lessons with their teachers as well as accessing other resources.
  • 2021 - March: The school re-opened for all pupils but with lots of mitigations in place to stop the spread of the virus. Still no whole school face to face assemblies, instead we hold virtual assemblies via Google Classroom.
  • 2021 - March: We said farewell to two long standing members of staff as they retired. Mrs. Driscoll, completed 35 years dedicated service to the school and Mrs. O'Connell completed 25 years dedicated service to the school.
  • 2021 - Autumn School Musical - "North Pole Goes Rock n Roll"
  • 2022 - Spring term - work finally started on our new dining hall programme.
  • 2022 - April: The school returned to normal with all Covid measures removed.
  • 2022 - April: Spring School Musical - "Fee Fi Fo Fum!"
  • 2022 - August - Solar Panels installed to the two main roof spaces on the building.
  • 2022 - 8th September, Queen Elizabeth II sadly passed away.
  • 2022 - 9th September, 9.30am, a special assembly was called for the whole school to remember Queen Elizabeth II
  • 2022 - 16th September, 11.30am, a reflective assembly was held on recent events and mark the ascension of Charles III
  • 2022 - Monday 19th September - OGPS was closed for the State Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.
  • 2023 - April: Spring School Musical - "Lion King Kids"
  • 2023 - Friday 5th May - A Special 'Coronation Assembly' was held in advance of the coronation of Charles III on Sat 6th May
  • 2024 - January - our brand new dining hall is scheduled to finally open to serve fresh hot meals to our children.

History of Kingsbury - read more about the local area - Kingsbury History Booklet.pdf