Hathaway Academy

In 1925 the John Henry Burrows Central Council School opened on what was once the site of the Bridge Road Infants' School. In 1931 it relocated from Bridge Road to Hathaway Road.[15] In 1935 it became a middle school and was renamed to the John Henry Burrows Intermediate School.[23][24] It is possible that the name "John Henry Burrows" originates from Alderman John H. Burrows who was influential throughout Essex, primarily in Southend, Hadleigh, Tilbury and Grays.[25]

Alderman John H. Burrows pictured in 1935

On 30 August 1939 the school was nearly destroyed when one of the school's playing fields was the scene of an aeroplane crash. The pilot of a Spitfire lost control during a training exercise from nearby RAF Hornchurch and during the crash it only missed the roofs of some nearby houses by a few feet before crashing into the playing field. The pilot, Cyril Douglas Gower, had been flying in formation with two other Spitfire fighters when his plane collided with another plane's wingtip and lost control. He did not survive the crash.[24]

After the end of the European theatre of the Second World War the school was granted secondary technical status and became Grays County Technical High School.

The Grays County Technical High School (abbreviated as Grays Tech) existed from 1945 to 1968. There were three known school houses: Harold, Chad and Wallace. There may have also been a fourth house.[26] The school motto was Industry With Integrity and there were three known headmasters, Cyril Baggs, Mr. Dolman and Mr. Barnes who may have replaced Dolman due to an alleged mental problem caused from overwork. Baggs left to become head of Fryerns School in Basildon[27] and Mrs. Walters was his deputy at Grays Tech. In 1968 it merged with Aveley County Technical High School on Nethan Drive, Aveley to become Aveley and Grays Technical High School.[28]

Aveley and Grays Technical High had one headmaster, Frederick F. Harsant. The school motto was Rara Avis in Terra (A Rare Bird Upon the Earth).[29] The schools remained united until 1971 when the Grays Park School relocated from Bridge Road to the Hathaway Road site, replacing the Grays Tech and effectively ending the merger between Aveley and Grays.[30] The Aveley continued operations until 1972 when, as part of the reorganisation of education in Essex, the Palmer's Boys' and Girls' Schools amalgamated together with Aveley Tech to constitute a sixth form college. Harsant became head of the new Palmer's College.[31]

After its relocation to Hathaway Road, the Grays Park School reopened as Grays Comprehensive School. One of the teachers who moved with the relocation was Gordon Eckley. He would teach at the school from 1965 in Grays Park and then Grays School until the 1990s, likely making him the longest serving staff member.[32] The head of Grays Comprehensive was Douglas Gillam, he left in 1979. The Grays Comprehensive School became grant-maintained in 1993 and "Comprehensive" was dropped from the name. By this time the deputy headteacher was Simon Viccars[33] and the headteacher James John Henry Winstone, who was head since Gillam's departure in 1979. After the school was given grant-maintained status its budget grew by 500%.[34]

In 1996 the school was granted Investors In People status[33] and in September 1999 the school gained foundation status.[35] In 2002 James Winstone retired and was succeeded by Mark Griffin in 2003. Griffin decided to apply to the DfE in March 2003 for the school to specialise as a visual arts college. His application was supported by Lord David Puttnam and other supporting comprehensive schools from in and around Essex.[36] In September 2004 the school successfully specialised and became the Grays School Media Arts College.[17] At around the same time Deputy Head Simon Viccars left the school to become headteacher of the Leon Comprehensive in Milton Keynes.[37][38] Both Tim Rider and John Marchant succeeded Viccars and they shared the deputyship.[39]

Text logo of the Grays School Media Arts College

By 2007 the Grays School Media Arts College (often shortened as TGSMAC and still widely referred to as the Grays School) had a controversial reputation in the local community due to a troubled history with students' behaviour and grades. This culminated in 2007 when multiple incidents occurred within and in relation to the school, leading to intervention by Ofsted and Thurrock Council.

In May 2007 a fight broke out between two 11-13-year-old students in the school playground in which onlookers cheered on and staff were nowhere to be found. The fight was uploaded to YouTube twice but the videos were removed. In response then Headteacher Graham Winter claimed to know "nothing" about the fight and law enforcement urged the school to "look into matters and report any assault to us so that we can put an end to this violence."[40] That same month another incident occurred and a TGSMAC child was threatened at knife-point and law enforcement had to intervene yet again.[41] These incidents brought attention to Ofsted who, in response, partook a surprise inspection of the school in June. The inspection showed that academically the school upheld outdated policies, underachieved in core subjects and had failed to provide adequate religious education.[42]

In September 2007 the school was placed into special measures and faced threats of closure after an Ofsted report of the June Inspection brought to light many problems with the school. Teachers faced the most criticism due to inadequate teaching, having low expectations in lessons and failing to mark books over a span of several months amongst other things. Despite this, it was noted that student behaviour had improved and that their behaviour was "satisfactory". The pupils indeed attained the only "2" or "good" rating for the school within the report.[43]

This improvement in behaviour was only temporary however as in January 2008 the student behaviour in the school was rated as "poor" by Ofsted. Ofsted made an interim inspection earlier that month and criticised the school's lack of progress. The school was also claimed to have been "overgenerous" in self-appraisal.[44] Thurrock Council would announce in March that Headteacher Graham Winter had resigned and been replaced by two trouble-shooting headteachers drafted in from Middlesbrough and Hendon as part of the school's recovery plan on March 10.[45] These two headteachers would be replaced by Deputy Head Tim Rider who then became acting head, with John Marchant becoming sole deputy.

Under Tim Rider the school began a process of reform both behaviourally and structurally. This was praised by Ofsted after their July 2008 Inspection who noted that the school was now considered satisfactory in most areas. Rider attributed the improvements to a new school ethos of togetherness which included the implementation of policies focused on improving student behaviour and happiness. Students were encouraged to "take ownership of their school", student work parties were formed and a new school motto was introduced; Do Your Best Today, For A Better Tomorrow. Other schools in Thurrock supported and helped implement the reforms including Ockendon School, Gable Hall, and William Edwards. The headteachers of these schools provided assistance to Rider and his administration.[46]

Lynn Ibeji took over from Tim Rider as headteacher in a permanent capacity starting September 2008 and continued his policies leading to the school successfully being taken out of special measures on 8 October 2009.[20] 2009 also saw the highest average GCSE results for Year 11 in the school's entire history.[47] Despite this, the school's results still lagged behind other schools' in the area, namely The Gateway and Ormiston Park academies. Ibeji left the school in May 2012.[48] Deputy Head John Marchant became acting headteacher.[49]

In July 2012 acting Headteacher Marchant announced that the Grays School Media Arts College intended to become an academy. Plans to become an academy were in place since at least 2008[50] and the school's governing board made the decision unanimously, with the Academy Transformation Trust sponsoring its conversion in a bid for it to achieve outstanding status,[51] the highest Ofsted rank. It was announced that Kentish PE teacher James Howarth would be principal of the new academy. He was former associate principal at Harris Academy Peckham and Harris City Academy, and was the former deputy head at Eastlea Community School in East London.[52]

In a questionnaire on the school website four names were proposed for the new academy: Goliath Academy (referencing the ship), Gower Academy (referencing Cyril Gower from the 1939 Spitfire incident), Thors Oak Academy (referencing the association to the name Thurrock) and Tamesis Academy (Latin name for the River Thames which flows through the Grays area). The deadline for the vote was April 30, 2013.[53]

The school closed for a final time on June 30, 2013, and the new Hathaway Academy began operations on July 1, 2013, in preparation for the beginning of the 2013-2014 academic year.

In April 2014 celebrity Russell Brand visited the academy whilst filming a documentary. Grays is Brand's hometown and he attended the Grays School as a teenager. During his visit Brand, an actor, dropped into a drama lesson for 20 minutes. He reportedly gave analysis and feedback, then stepped on stage and gave a rendition from when he played Fat Sam in a Grays School production as a teenager.[54] Brand was disappointed upon learning that the school no longer had a library and funded the school to build a new one. At an event at the Institute of Education Brand commented that "It's a disgrace that a state school doesn't have a library funded by the state, what's going on?" during his speech, referring to how Hathaway no longer had one. He called the empty shelves "an arrow to what's not there. They should have just said it was an art installation called 'the abyss'."[55][56]

Russell Brand and Principal James Howarth

In June 2014 Principal Howarth was diagnosed with lymphoma and took an almost year long leave of absence. His duties were taken over by Fatima Rodrigues as acting principal until September 2014, when a new interim principal, Alan Osborne, was appointed. Howarth retook his post as principal in April 2015 after then interim Principal Dave Lee-Allan left for Stowmarket High School. From December 2015 Howarth would serve part-time, taking multiple leaves of absences due to the treatment of his returning lymphoma.[57]

In June 2015 Ofsted categorised Hathaway Academy as good with a short inspection in 2018 reaffirming this status.[19]

After his cancer returned yet again, James Howarth announced that he was stepping down from his post as principal in September 2017, appointing acting Principal Fatima Rodrigues as the new principal starting in November. Before leaving, Howarth gave a final speech to the staff and students in which he expressed gratitude and apologised, stating that "I am going to say thank you and farewell", "I made you all a promise of becoming outstanding and I am stepping off the bus before our journey is complete. I am genuinely so so so sorry."[57][58]

In March 2020 the school closed due to the coronavirus pandemic and moved to online learning via Microsoft Teams. The school reopened in September 2020 but closed again soon after due to a rise of cases in the school. The school reopened again on March 8, 2021, in accordance with government guidelines.[59]

The Grays School Media Arts College introduced a house system consisting of four colleges (houses), three junior and one senior. They were Tate, Chaucer, Holmes and Puttnam. Puttnam was named after Lord David Puttnam, the Grays' main sponsor in its bid to become an arts college. The colleges were split between KS3 with Year 10 and the senior Year 11 as at Year 11 students would leave their college and enter Puttnam, the senior college. The colleges aimed to create a family environment and was meant to recognise every student, not deterring them from making mistakes.[63] There also used to be a fifth house named Austen.[64]

In September 2013 the then Principal James Howarth introduced a new house system for the Hathaway Academy.[65] The school is segregated into three faculties (houses) each represented by their own colours: Purpose (Red), Engagement (Yellow) and Self-Worth (Green). Students are currently placed into these faculties based on their academic strengths and each faculty specialises in certain subjects. For example, Engagement specialises in maths and Self-Worth specialises in science.[66][60][21]

In the early 2000s the Grays School offered students multiple out-of-hours extracurricular activities. Surprisingly this included fishing and even Warhammer gaming. The school also offered to hold support classes for parents in which finance management and desktop publishing were taught.[70] There were also clubs for chess, Spanish, MFL, PE, science and drama.[71] The music department provided music lessons for £13.50 a term and there was also instrumental hire for £5. The department also had a jazz band and vocal group who both performed and carolled at local primary schools, school concerts, full school assemblies and also the local Ikea.[72]

From 25 to 27 April 2003 the school held a special "Craft for a Cause" workshop in hopes to support its bid to become a specialist school.[73] Contests were held[74] and students and parents were invited to a silent auction.[75] A raffle was also held and all raffle proceeds were donated to the specialist school initiative.[76]

In 2007 TGSMAC hosted the Grays Youth Theatre which held classes every Wednesday evening. From October 6 the Grays Youth Theatre established two drama groups in preparation for a play that was to be showcased in June 2008 and offered sessions for 6-13-year-olds in one of the school's demountables.[77] In 2011 TGSMAC collaborated with the Royal Opera House to provide a drama workshop over the Easter holidays.[78]

The Hathaway Academy provides out-of-hours clubs and students are also allowed to participate in school productions for music, art, drama and media.[79] The school also provides football sessions after school via their partnership with West Ham United F.C.[80] The school also hosts a church called the Proclaimer's Sanctuary which offers worship every Sunday from 10:30am to 1:00pm.[81]

In 2016, business studies teacher Emma Hughes was awarded at the House of Commons for her "outstanding contribution to the academy". Her reward was presented by Member of Parliament John Spellar, who was accompanied by other MPs and Hathaway parents, pupils and staff.[91]

In 1993 the Grays School began inviting high-profile guests and organisations to visit the school and present awards.[92] This tradition was continued by the Hathaway Academy. Some noteworthy visitors even come on their own volition such as Russell Brand.[54]

• Lord David Puttnam[93]
• Lord John Petre, 18th Baron Petre[92]
• Lord Alfred Dubs[94]
• Baroness Angela Smith of Basildon[92]
• Olympic gold medallist Louis Attrill [92]
• Lloyd Scott[95]
• Hastings College Nebraska[96]
• Jackie Doyle-Price[97]

• Russell Brand[54]
• Channel 5[98]
• Sir Jack Petchey and his Jack Petchey Foundation[99]
• Jermaine Jenas[100]
• Teach First[101]
• Gareth Thomas[102]
• Polly Billington[103]
• Emma Freud[104]
• John Spellar[91]

• Russell Brand (1986–1991), Hollywood actor, comedian and the divorcee of Katy Perry.[105]

Below is a list of the known headteachers and principals of the many iterations of the school. Due to the undocumented nature of much of the school's history it is likely that some heads and principals are missing.

Below is a list of the known deputy Heads and vice principals of the many iterations of the school. Due to the undocumented nature of much of the school's history it is likely that some deputies and vices are missing.