A hidden gem in the centre of the city, Aboyne Lodge School was completed in 1950 and is a Grade 2 listed building. The school was named after one of the large, elegant properties that lined St Peter's Street near to where the school is today, and was built on the apple orchard which made up part of its extensive grounds. Our spacious site still retains some of the apple trees that were part of that landscape. 

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Our school was one of the first examples of the Hertfordshire System - a substantial post war schools building programme by Hertfordshire County Council that saw fifty schools built within eight years and revolutionised the way that schools were built. It was a challenging project that was put in place to allow the council to deal with the increase in birth rates after the end of the war. What made the programme unique was the innovative pre-cast building system using reinforced concrete, which allowed the schools to be put up quickly and allowed the council to cope with the chronic shortage of bricklayers at the time. The "School in the Orchard" was featured in the Festival of Britain. The school was extended and altered in 1976, with the addition of a nursery and an extra classroom.

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The result is a spacious and bright school with large classrooms, corridors and breakout spaces that support children’s learning.

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“A gentle, unassuming building informally placed in spacious, well planted grounds…this is an excellent place to appreciate the new post-war ideal for school buildings,”(Pevsner: The Buildings of England (Hertfordshire) 1977 revision).

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