St James Catholic High School is voluntary aided mixed sex school for students from 11–18 years of age. It was founded by theDominican sisters in 1934. Today it operates from one site inColindale,Barnet inNorth London, England. The current headteacher is Mr Anthony Ellul.
TheDominican Sisters of the Congregation of St Catherine of Siena of Newcastle (Natal) inSouth Africa led the way in setting up St Rose's Convent Orange Hill Road inBurnt Oak (north London) in February 1930. This was an independent school where children stayed on in education until the age of 14.
This led to the foundation of St James' Catholic Central School in 1934, and amalgamated with St Rose's School with Sr Mary Catherine Walsh as the first Headteacher (1934–69). This was in response toCardinal Bourne, Archbishop of Westminster. Bourne had noticed that the new Watling housing estate had been built in north London by theLondon County Council intended to provide better quality housing for people then living in Islington and other parts of inner London - many of which lived in poor and sub-standard accommodation. Thus there was an opportunity to provide Catholic secondary education for the families of the Catholic parishes of north-west London.
When it was set up, St James was the only mixed, although separated by single sex in the classroom setting, non-selective Catholic school in London. The other Catholic Secondary schools were single sex, selective and generally fee paying. In 1949 a further expansion followed when St. Thomas' Independent School in Stanmore was annexed to St. James'. In 1997 the school was reunited on one site inColindale, and in 2004 it became aspecialistScience andSports College.[1]
The former headteacher was Mrs. Niamh Arnull. The previous headteachers have been Sr Mary Catherine Walsh (1934–69), Sr Veronica Desmond O.P (1969 - 1984), Sr Mary Raymunda Jordan O.P (1984 - 1992), Mr. Kevin McSharry (1992 - 2005) and Mrs. Anne O'Shea (2005-2010).
The most (in)famous "Old Boy" was James Francis Hanratty, who was hanged for the A6 murder in 1962. Forensic evidence from the later post-mortum proved that he was guilty.
