Hendon School is a mixed secondary school in Golders Rise, Hendon, with academy status since November 2011 (previously a comprehensive) in the London Borough of Barnet. It specialises in languages, offering lessons amongst others to its students. Overview Hendon School is a mixed comprehensive school with 1,296 pupils on roll, including approximately 240 sixth form students. The school is situated just off the A502 and North Circular Road in London. It serves an area that is generally more affluent than average but has some pockets of deprivation, as interpreted in comparison to national averages according to Ofsted. The student population is culturally diverse, multi-faith and multi-lingual, with more than half of students speaking languages other than English as their first language. The proportion of students eligible for free school meals is well above the national average. The school specialises in languages, and has specialist educational facilities for deaf students and for autistic students. The school has been over-subscribed for the past four years and was designated an Outstanding school by Ofsted in November 2011. The school was previously a "failing school", being placed in Special Measures by Ofsted in 2005, but subsequently deemed Satisfactory. History Foundation Hendon School now occupies the site where the 16th-century mapmaker John Norden lived, and only a pond survives from the park of Greenhill. The County School, Hendon opened as a fee-paying school of 350 pupils in September 1914, just a month after the outbreak of the First World War. By 1927, the field at the back of the school was levelled and trees planted, and in 1929–1930 the building of the gymnasium was started. In 1931, the intake of pupils rose from a two form entry to a three form entry, and by 1932–1933 the extension on the north side of the original school building was finished to enable accommodation of 480 pupils. In 1936 former pupil Harold Whitlock planted an oak tree sapling in front of the entrance to the gymnasium which he had received, along with his gold medal for the walk, from Adolf Hitler at the Berlin Olympic Games. Hendon County Grammar School By 1955 the school had 620 pupils and 32 staff, resulting in a necessary extension on the east side of the main building, which included a new Hall, Dining Hall and Kitchens. This was officially opened in 1961. In the late 1960s, when plans for the reorganisation of