Pupils walked through the doors of Medina High School’s new campus for the first time on 20th September 1976 – 50 years ago today.
For hundreds of Isle of Wight teenagers, it was the start of a new chapter as they left familiar middle schools behind for a brand new high school.
Although the autumn term had already begun, staff and pupils spent the opening weeks elsewhere while work continued on the purpose-built campus at Fairlee. On Monday 20th September, they finally moved into the first completed buildings, marking a major milestone in the Isle of Wight’s new three-tier education system.
Despite months of planning, there were still concerns. Only the first phase of the school was ready. The gymnasium, swimming pool, restaurant, sixth form centre and other facilities were still under construction, with further buildings due to come into use in early October. Despite this, the move was described at the time as having gone “without a hitch”.
Founding headmaster James Archer welcomed pupils into their new surroundings, where lessons quickly settled into a normal routine despite construction work continuing elsewhere on the site.
Medina High became the new high school for pupils from middle schools serving a wide area of the Island, including Osborne Middle School in East Cowes, Downside in Newport and Ventnor Middle School. When fully completed, the campus was expected to accommodate around 1,200 pupils and employ around 80 members of staff.
The school rose on land that had once formed part of the Fairlee House estate overlooking the River Medina. The Georgian mansion, once one of Newport’s finest homes, was demolished in 1963 after falling into disrepair. Little more than a decade later, its former grounds had found a very different purpose as the site of one of the Isle of Wight’s largest school-building projects.
Medina High symbolised a new era in Isle of Wight education, with purpose-built high schools replacing older patterns of secondary schooling.
Over the following 35 years, thousands of Isle of Wight teenagers would pass through Medina High’s doors before the school became Medina College in 2011.
Were you among the first pupils to attend Medina High School? Share your memories and photographs of those early days in the comments below.
