 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" in "Special Measures" by Ofsted in 2005 and subsequently deemed "Satisfactory".Hendon School now occupies the site where the 16th-century mapmaker John Norden lived, and only a pond survives from the park of Greenhill.