The Campion School was founded in September 1962 by the Society of Jesus as a grammar school for Roman Catholic boys from the ages of 11 to 18. The first headmaster Fr Michael Fox SJ died that year. In 1965, after two successive headmasters, administration of the school was handed on to the Diocese of Brentwood. On opening, some of the original second and third year intake were transferred from St Ignatius' College, which was then located in Stamford Hill. For the first couple of years, Jesuit teachers were in the majority. The Jesuit community lived on the school site in rooms with full facilities in The Community House, which later became the first of three Sixth Form Blocks. Later, only a single, non-residential, Jesuit chaplain was retained as a link to the order. Pupils who attend the school are mainly Catholic and the school has a Catholic ethos. Around 1970, the first girls to attend Campion came from Ilford Ursuline School for specific sixth form classes such as Russian and Greek at the school, but there were not many. The school has an attached Sixth Form which admits a number of girls. The pupils that attend the Sixth Form do not have to be Catholic but have to respect the Catholic ethos that the school represents. The school received an Ofsted report in May 2012. The inspection judgements were rated as 2 in all five categories. The school was awarded Specialist Science College status before converting to an academy in August 2011. however the school continues to offer science as a specialism.
Forms
Originally, when the school had around 660 all boys, it had three forms named after Fr Michael Fox SJ and Saints John Fisher and Thomas More. However, each boy also belonged to a House named Gerard, Southwell and Garnet, denoted by a green, blue or red ribbon strip sewn the length of the top of the blazer pocket edge. The Houses met regularly, had a House Master and competed in sports. For a year or two school blazers even had a different crests for Fourth, Fifth and Sixth forms too. The school currently has five forms:
Fisher
More
Fox
Garnet
Southwell
Sport
The school has an outstanding sporting reputation both locally in Havering and nationally with a tradition of rugby. In 2001, The 1st XV won the Daily Mail Cup, becoming the first comprehensive school to win the competition.
