School History

In 1833 the Government first allocated money to schools and it is interesting to note that there were five Day Schools (presumably Dame Schools in cottages) in the area around our current secondary school. By 1835 National Schools (for infants and juniors) were built on an island of land east of The George Inn, the cob-built butchers’ shop and the Parish Poor House of Milton. It remained here until just after the Great War, when it moved to huts off the east end of Gore Road.

The Arnewood School came into being in 1970, as an amalgamation of two previous schools in the area: Ashley Secondary School and Gore Secondary School.  Matters concerning the amalgamation of the schools moved on apace and by November 1968 the Headteacher, Mr Gorvett, attended a meeting at the ‘Castle’ in Winchester in order to be appraised of appointment discussions for New Milton Comprehensive School.

It was in January 1970 that the name ‘Arnewood’ was first mentioned; it was partly the result of a questionnaire to parents in 1969 asking for suggestions for the name of the new school (sadly, the results of this no longer survive…). The questionnaire appeared to be inconclusive and a committee of Year Heads met Mr Gorvett, whereby Mr Bert Stainer, Head of First Year designate at the new school, suggested the local name of ‘Arnewood’ as having a pleasant ring to it. It was almost fifteen years later that the school became The Arnewood School.

During WWII the children attending Ashley School raised money to buy a Spitfire flown by Sgt. C G Todd.