The Old Roan Association

1600 - John Roan born

1643/1644 - Founder John Roan’s will (1643) and his death (1644) establish assets ‘to bring up so many poor town-born children of Greenwich at school, that is to reading, writing, and cyphering, and each of them forty shillings per annum towards their clothing until each of them shall accomplish the age of fifteen years. The said poor children shall wear on their upper garment the cognisance or crest of me’.

1677 - The John Roan School as the Grey Coat School established for c 20 boys in a building in the grounds of the Royal Seaman’s Hospital, between Romney Road and Turnpin Lane.

1753 - The number of boys at school reaches 33.

1809 - A new school established for 120 boys at Roan Street.

1820 - Following national schools reforms, a decision is made to raise the number of boys to 240.

1815 - The Roan School for Girls opens as the National School of Industry and Excellence in a building behind St Alfege Church.

​1851 - Roan boys and girls visit the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, London

1877 - The new Roan School for Boys opens at East Street (renamed Easteny Street) with Headmaster C M Ridger.

1878 - The Roan School for Girls opens at Devonshire Drive with Head Miss M M Blackmore.

1894 - Old Girls Association forms. 

1911 - Old Boys Association forms. 

1912 - Roan Magazine (boys) starts. 

1923 - The Hope Memorial Camp at Braithwaite in the Lake District established by boys' Head A H Hope. 

1927 - The new Pavilion at the Kidbrooke sports ground opens. 

1928 - The new school for boys opens at Maze Hill. 

1939 - In initial phases of WW2, boys evacuated to the South Coast, girls to Sussex villages and then Bexhill.

1939-1940 - The schools evacuated to Ammaford and Llandebie in South Wales.

1945 - The schools return.

1977 - Agreement between the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA), school governors and the Roan School Foundation for the amalgamation of the two schools, together with Charlton Secondary School, to establish a comprehensive.

1980 - The John Roan School (comprehensive) formed.

1981 - New Westcombe Park Road school opens.

2019 - The School becomes an academy as The John Roan School, under United Learning Trust.

2023 - Ofsted rate the John Roan School as ‘Good’ under Principal Cath Smith.

2025 - A new Principal, Jennie Sanderson, starts.​