History
Gainsborough Road School was formally opened on 12th September 1912 and its first pupils were admitted on Monday 16th September 1912. There were three schools: a boy's school, a girl's school and an infant school.
The buildings received much damage during the war and many of the children were evacuated. Nine firemen using the school as a resting station were killed in 1942.
In 2006 building work for a new Foundation Stage was completed comprising a new nursery, two reception classes and a purpose built shared area. A new dining / sports hall was also built at the same time to replace out of date dining facilities. At the same time, to provide facilities for our autistic pupils a soft play room, sensory room, new medical room and a lift were created.
These buildings were officially opened by the new West Ham manager Alan Curbishley, a former student at Gainsborough, on 7th July, 2006.
Since that time we have continued to modernise our school. Unfortunately, whilst some refurbishment was being undertaken in the summer holiday of 2011 a fire broke out in a year 6 classroom. Although the damage meant that we lost the use of a classroom for 6 months, we were extremely lucky that the fire was contained in one room. This was because the construction of the building provided a natural fire break and saved the rest of the building.
In the summer of 2012 we celebrated Gainsborough’s 100 year anniversary. Prior to the big day, each year researched the different decades since 2012 to find out about the jobs that people did, the cost of food, popular toys of the time and the fashion of the era. On the morning of 29th June we held an old fashioned sports event at Memorial Park. The children took part in egg and spoon races and other retro events to experience firsthand sport across the ages. In the afternoon our families came together to provide food from around the world for the children to taste and share with our local community. The children dressed up in costumes to represent the different eras and we enjoyed games. face painting, a magician, stalls and a picnic in the key stage 2 playground. At the end of the day every child took home a commemorative mug as a memento of the day.