Coal Hill School

Coal Hill School
Also called:	Coal Hill Secondary School
Type:	Comprehensive school
Location:	Shoreditch
First appearance:	An Unearthly Child
Appearances:	See list

Coal Hill Secondary School was an English comprehensive school located in Shoreditch in East London. The Doctor was involved with Coal Hill in several of his incarnations. A number of his companions worked there and his granddaughter, Susan, was enrolled as a pupil.

History

20th century

1963

On 1 April 1963, Mr Okehurst and several students were killed by the Cold. (PROSE: Time and Relative)

In 1963, history teacher Barbara Wright became intrigued by an unusual pupil in the school, Susan Foreman. She and science teacher Ian Chesterton followed Susan home from Coal Hill after Susan gave the address for herself and her grandfather as 76 Totter's Lane, a junkyard. They discovered that their student and her grandfather, in reality the first incarnation of the Doctor, were time travellers from another world. Barbara, Ian, and Susan subsequently left Coal Hill when the Doctor kidnapped the teachers in his TARDIS, which was in the junkyard, to ensure that they couldn't tell anyone about the ship. The Doctor also took his granddaughter away from 20th century Earth against her wishes. This started off Ian and Barbara's travels in time and space. (TV: "An Unearthly Child")

In November 1963, Coal Hill's headmaster was H. Parson, who at some point came under the mental control of the Imperial Dalek faction attempting to locate the Hand of Omega. (TV: Rememberance of the Daleks)

The deputy headmaster was Roger Kint, "a thin but robust Irishman." Ian and Barbara's classrooms were Class C3 and C4 respectively. (PROSE: Nothing at the End of the Lane)

A bulletin board at the school. (TV: "An Unearthly Child")

Later that year, a janitor of the school went missing. When headmaster Parson met the Seventh Doctor, Parson assumed that the Doctor came to apply for the job of school caretaker. Ultimately, the school became the site of what was later dubbed the Shoreditch Incident (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy), a battle between British military forces, scientists and the Seventh Doctor, and Imperial and Renegade Dalek forces that appropriated the school for their base of operations, installing a transmat in the basement. Most of the fighting occurred outside the school and at nearby 76 Totter's Lane, although the Doctor's companion, Ace, found herself in pitched battle with several Daleks inside the school. The Imperial Dalek shuttle eventually landed in the schoolyard, shattering glass. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)

By this time, Rosa's, a café owned by a German Jewish woman named Rosa, was a popular hangout for Coal Hill students. (AUDIO: Hunters of Earth)

1990s

The Eighth Doctor's companion, Samantha Jones, attended Coal Hill School in 1997 before leaving in the TARDIS with him. (PROSE: The Eight Doctors)

21st century

2010s

The Eleventh Doctor's companion Clara Oswald, began teaching at Coal Hill Secondary School circa the 2010s. (TV: The Day of the Doctor) On her first day working there, one of her classes got out of hand and she threatened to kick each of the pupils out of the school but one girl saw it as nothing more than an empty threat. This taught Clara that threats were useless unless they could be backed up, which helped her when she was captured by the Clockwork Droids of the SS Marie Antoinette. (TV: Deep Breath)

Ex-soldier Danny Pink became a maths teacher at Coal Hill. He also led training sessions with the Coal Hill Cadet Squad which he said was "just a bit of fun". Around the same time, Kathy retired from working at Coal Hill. (TV: Into the Dalek)

The Twelfth Doctor chose Coal Hill as the location to which he would lure a Skovox Blitzer that had come to Earth. He selected it because it was relatively deserted at night. For this purpose, he took the job of school caretaker. (TV: The Caretaker)

A replica of Coal Hill was created on another planet by creatures who hoped to educate themselves prior to an invasion of Earth. The Twelfth Doctor scared them into abandoning the scheme. (COMIC: The Monsters of Coal Hill School)

Clara got Class 2B to create a placard for her that read "FREE THE DOCTOR" on one side, and on the other Class 2A wrote "SAVE DOT COT" as she stated that they "got a leetle bit confused. Dot Cotton. Famous cockney chimney. Doesn't matter." when speaking to the Governor. (PROSE: The Blood Cell)

After Danny Pink was hit and killed by a car, Mr Armitage informed the staff and students of his passing. (TV: Dark Water)

While teaching a class on Jane Austen, Clara noticed a plane frozen in time outside the window. Urging her students to use their mobile phones to spread the word of it on Twitter and news websites, Clara was later called by UNIT to join them investigating what turned out to be a worldwide phenomenon. (TV: The Magician's Apprentice)

School colours

At least two of its school colours were black and emerald green, since these were the colours of Ian Chesterton's official school tie. (TV: "The Centre")

Part of Susan Foreman's official school uniform was "a rather drab grey tunic. There was a little badge embroidered on the apron... The embroidered badge stood out in red and gold: COAL HILL SCHOOL." (PROSE: Nightshade)

Staff and students

Staff

20th century

In 1963, Ian Chesterton taught science, Barbara Wright taught history, (TV: "An Unearthly Child") Joseph Liebermann taught RE, (PROSE: Matrix) Mr Grange taught geography, Mrs Bellweather taught music, Mlle Quelou taught French, and Mr Okehurst taught PE. (PROSE: Time and Relative) Colonel Rook also taught there. (AUDIO: Hunters of Earth) In March and April of that year, Basil James Carker was headmaster. (PROSE: Time and Relative) By November, H. Parson was headmaster (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks) and Roger Kint was deputy headmaster. (PROSE: Nothing at the End of the Lane)

21st century

Circa the 2010s, Clara Oswald taught English. Tom was one of her coworkers. W. Coburn was headmaster. (TV: The Day of the Doctor) Some time afterward, Danny Pink began working as a maths teacher there and Kathy was retiring. Also on the staff were Mr Armitage and a secretary. (TV: Into the Dalek) Later in the 2010s, the staff included Adrian Davies, Jo, and James H. Atif was working as a caretaker, and John Smith temporarily took the job when Atif was hypnotised into believing he had the flu. (TV: The Caretaker) A man named Jeff Delobel worked as a French teacher. (COMIC: The Monsters of Coal Hill School)

Students

20th century

In March of 1963, Sadie Lederer was in Year One, Susan Foreman, John Brent, Gillian Roberts, Francis Minto, and Wendy Coburn were in Year Four, and Leslie Culver and Dudley Hatcher were in Year Five. Joe Gibson and Little Titch Critchley also attended. (PROSE: Time and Relative) In the autumn term of that year, Susan Foreman was still attending (TV: "An Unearthly Child") as well as Cedric Chivers, Mavis, Brian, Richard, (AUDIO: Hunters of Earth) and Debbie. (PROSE: Those Left Behind)

In 1997, Sam Jones, Basil Bailey, Mikey, Pete, and "Monster" attended Coal Hill. (PROSE: The Eight Doctors)

21st century

In the 2010s, Courtney Woods, (TV: Deep Breath et al.) Gareth Wilkins, and Fleming attended the school. (TV: Into the Dalek) Some time later, Courtney was still attending as well as Noah, Yashe, Kelvin, Tobias, Katie Sharps, Mohammed, Jack, Morgan, and Angelina Christopholou.(TV: The Caretaker) The Coal Hill Year 8 Gifted and Talented Group included Maebh Arden, Samson, Bradley and Ruby. (TV: In the Forest of the Night) Later still, Evie Hubbard was in Year 7. (TV: The Woman Who Lived)