announced. It was to involve the virtual 'instant' transformation of this grammar school into a comprehensive upper school. On the 5th of October the Governors met at the Town Hall to discuss the new plan for Comprehensive Education in Ealing schools and ten days later the School Governors met the Ealing Schools Group of Head Teachers to discuss the difficulties arising from the new Comprehensive plan. During that month, for the Old Scholars, Miss Smith outlined the proposed short and long term schemes for Greenford Grammar if they were accepted, which at the time was thought would result in a Comprehensive School of 1,650-1,700 pupils eventually. By the following Spring (1968) came the news that the plans for the reorganisation of secondary schooling in Ealing had not been approved by the Minister which meant that for the present the school would go on being a grammar school. By November of 1969 the Governors were once again holding a meeting at the Town Hall to discuss yet more proposals for reorganisation. By January (1970) the Old Scholars Association sent detailed comments on Ealing's document Reorganisation of Education into First Schools, Middle Schools and High Schools in which the secretary stressed: 'It is imperative that change be a very slow, evolutionary process to avoid alienating staff and causing massive staff evacuation, adding to an already disruptive upheaval. One needs only to refer to the 1967 public examination results, which were very disappointing due to staff changes and shortages caused by the drastic nature of the previous comprehensive education proposals for Ealing. Such difficulties must be avoided at all costs as the only losers are the pupils themselves. (How different the first years of the comprehensive would have been if this advice had been heeded! and we are still involved in rapid change!) From the summer of 1971 through the spring of 1972 The Borough was moving ahead with its plans, with the Chief Education Officer meeting with the Heads of the Secondary Schools together and individually about the reorganisation. Plan Accepted In August 1972 the School heard that the Minister had passed the plan to make Greenford into an unselective High School of 1,200 pupils. As the school year began, the Ealing Heads were told the reorganisation plans were for September 1974. The announcement caused consternation throughout the Borough with Heads and staff not only concerned about the fate of their own schools and the pupils but also with their own positions in the reorganisation. So many individuals sought interviews with the Chief Education Officer that in December of '72 he sent a letter to all staff in secondary schools asking them to write to him in confidence stating what preferences they had in the changes and assuring them of salary protection. All posts in the reorganised schools were to be advertized internally initialy. The Two-Headed School The Spring of '73 saw more discussions between the Secondary Heads and the Chief Education Officer until in April it was announced that the school was to have another Headmistress, Miss C. J. A. Ilott, at the time Head of Grange Secondary Modern School for Girls. The Deputy Head was to be the school's Head of Geography Mr Brian Fuller. Once the announcement was made Miss Smith invited the Head-Designate to meet the staff at Greenford. Throughout June Miss Ilot was in many meetings about the staffing and building plans including those for a new 'Arts Barn' for the reorganised school. By July Miss Ilott was ready to visit Greenford, Costons, Selborne and Stanhope Schools to give the staff in those schools information about the staffing needs of the comprehensive. 'As from next September,' states the Old Scholars Newsletter in the summer of 1973, 'the School is to have two heads. Miss Smith is to retire in July 1974, and will be assisted from next September by the Head Designate of the New Comprehensive Senior High School. This person will be at the School all next year in a non-administrative capacity formulating plans and policy for the new regime which takes over in September 1974. The School is scheduled to accommodate 1200 pupils, so obviously much building will be needed. The vacant land behind the Hare and Hounds is earmarked for this. It is to be hoped the builders are quicker than the education authorities when Greenford finally goes Comprehensive after approximately 10 years of plan and counter plan . .' They were also worried by the exodus of a large number of staff in the summer of 1973: it is hoped that with the reported teacher shortage in the London area the posts will be filled by experienced staff in order that the education of the present pupils will not suffer more than necessary during the change-over to the Comprehensive system. That summer a two-storey ROSLA unit was being built in part of the girls' playground. It contained two Science labs and an open-plan Home Economics area. Timetabling April, May and June were crammed with interviews and meetings. More appointments were made including Mr D. Morris as Head of Business Studies and Mr Dingle as Head of Music. A meeting was held for the parents of the 3rd years who were to start at Greenford in September. By April plans were drawn up for 95 pupils in three forms in the 2nd year (the last grammar school intake) who would have English for 5 periods, French for 6, History and Geography 3 each, Maths 6, Science 5, Music 2, R.K. 1, Art 1, P.E. 2, and games for 2 periods. To allow one form to do 4 classes of German a period was taken from each of French, History, Geography, and Maths. They were expecting 248 3rd Years who were to be organised in 8 Forms, taught in mixed ability groups for Music I, P.E. 2, Art 2, Craft 4, and R.E. 1 period and banded for the other subjects. In order to give 4 periods for German the three forms in Band I were given 4 periods of English and 4 for French, 5 for Maths, 2 each for History and Geography, 6 for Science; without German the 2nd band gained a period each for English, History, Geography and French. The 3rd band of 2 forms were to have 2 periods of Extra English or Maths taken from their time in French. At this stage options still had to be sorted for the 240+ 4th years, but for the 75 Grammar School pupils in the three forms of the 5th year they were to have 4 periods for each subject except English, Maths, French and German which would have 5 each, RK 1, PE 2 and Games 1; some had 5 periods of Woodwork or 5 of Needlework and some had 4 periods of Latin. Other subjects included Music, Chemistry, Biology (No Physics), Home Economics, Art, History and Geography. page 65