Advantage Schools has announced that following a community engagement event, Houstone School (pronounced “How-stone”) has been chosen as the name for the new secondary school, to open in September 2022 on the Kingsland site in Houghton Regis.

There were 356 responses to a community engagement event, asking for feedback on three potential names, with a wide variety of opinions offered. Houstone School was the most popular name.

Several residents commented that they liked that this name was selected because of the mention in the 935-year-old Domesday Book, so it has historic and local connections. According to the website houghtonregis.org.uk, the name of Houstone was recorded in the Domesday Book, but many different versions of the name were recorded between the years of 1086 and 1353.

Contributions from local residents included:

“Houstone seems appropriate and distinctive as it is the historic name for Houghton Regis.”

“I think this one is so much better than the other two. Unusual, classy and original with a bit of history to it. Great choice.”

“I very much like this name. It has some history behind it which will give the school some unique character. Not to mention the name of the school can help students take pride in their local community”

Chief Executive of Advantage Schools, Stuart Lock, said: “I am grateful to the hundreds of community members who contributed to this community engagement event and thank them for helping us to name the school. There were some excellent points made in favour of all the names put forward, but the overwhelming favourite was Houstone.

“Of course, a name is one thing, but the real test will be founding a brilliant new school, with standards of teaching, curriculum and conduct that the local community deserve. It is that which we aspire to do, and I invite you to find out more, and have your say on future consultation events via our brand-new website, which is under construction, and we will announce on our Twitter account @HoustoneSchool. There we will outline our plans in much more detail. We anticipate that the website will be live in the next 3 weeks.”

Mr Lock is eager to meet with local residents to outline the vision for the school, as well as to answer any questions, on 17th August from 7.30-8.30pm.

Joining Mr Lock will be Mr Campbell, Chief Operating Officer and Mrs Stanton, Director of Education. Families can register for this event here:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/houstone-school-information-event-for-families-tickets-163668331385

You can follow the new school on the following social media accounts:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HoustoneSchool

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HoustoneSchool/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/houstoneschool/