page_title: Whitgift School
section_title: Grounds and buildings
hierarchical_section_title: Whitgift School / Grounds and buildings
caption_attribution_description: English: View of the main buildings of Whitgift School, South Croydon, from near the main entrance, April 2020
context_page_description: Whitgift School is an independent day school with limited boarding in South Croydon, London. Along with Trinity School of John Whitgift and Old Palace School it is owned by the Whitgift Foundation, a charitable trust. The school was previously a grammar school and direct grant grammar school, but the school's headmaster is now a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.
context_section_description: Whitgift is located in a 45-acre (18 ha) parkland site. The ship (a model of HMS Ark Royal, the flagship of Lord Howard of Effingham against the Spanish Armada) that features prominently on the top of the school hall is a reminder of the history of the site. Additions since the 400th anniversary of the school have been a maze in the founder's garden, an aviary, an enclosure for Prevost's squirrels, ponds and a sports complex.
  The original buildings have been supplemented by many additions and improvements including a Music School and Concert Hall, an integrated facility for science, technology, art and design together with library and resource centres, a separate Lower School building, and a major new Sports and Conference Centre which was opened in February 2005. A new Art Department, Performing Arts Centre and a new Sixth Form Centre were completed in the middle of 2011.
  Whitgift has a wide variety of animals, including peacocks on the grounds since the 1930s, and flamingos. In 2005 Sir David Attenborough visited the school to open the ponds, the enclosure of which also houses various waterfowl, including Hawaiian geese, which the zoo successfully bred.
caption: Whitgift School; view from main entrance, April 2020
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