About Us

History

St John’s School has a very long history with it’s origins in the Old Penge Chapel which opened in 1837.

Early in the 1850s following the completion of St John the Evangelist as the Parish Church of Penge, the chapel building became used entirely as a school. In 1977 the school’s site was extended and a new school building was begun which opened in September 1978.

The present school has 10 classrooms, a library and a "Rainbow Room" which our learning mentor uses to take children which are referred by the class teachers to work. The school also has a spacious ICT suite which was built in 2003 which all children have lessons in at least once a week.

The multi-purpose hall is used as an assembly hall, a gymnasium and a dining room which is served by a large kitchen.

In January 2007, funding was awarded to the school to build a new reception classroom building, to accommodate 45 children. This was completed in August 2007, ready to be used for the first time in September 2007. A large climbing frame was then added in December. St John’s is a voluntary aided, Co-educational, Church of England Primary School, maintaining very close links with the Parish Church of Penge, St John’s and administered by the School Governors in liaison with the Diocese of Rochester and the London Borough of Bromley.

Local Area

Penge is described in the Domesday Book as a wood for 50 hogs. It remained a rural area with a population of only 270 in 1841 (of whom a number were alms people) even though it had had a railway since 1839. The population rose to 1169 in 1851 but the biggest impact on Penge was the re-siting of the Crystal Palace. This building housing the Great Exhibition had been a great success during 1851 in Hyde Park and when it closed its designer Joseph Paxton formed a company to purchase it for £70,000 plus land at Penge Place for £50,000 where it was re-erected in 1852-4. The London & Brighton Railway built a line and a station to serve the Palace so that by 1861 the area had developed and the population risen to 5015.

Although Penge has no pre-Victorian buildings it can boast 3 groups of almshouses together with conservation areas and other buildings of interest including canal /railway features.