| 1915 | Miss Margery Bray and Miss Elsie Bourne were approached by Mr William Webb to open a school |
| 1916 | The school began in the “Woodcote” Smithy |
| Battle of the Somme | |
| 1917 | Building of the school on its 4 acre site, designed by Sidney Tachell, |
| Commonweal held its first Sports Day | |
| Commonweal held its first Alfred’s Day celebration | |
| Founding of the Guide Company at the school (2nd Purley) | |
| The Battle of Paschendaele | |
| 1918 | The new Recreation room was built (affectionately know as the Rec). It was a War Work Depot from Bond Street that had been dismantled |
| The Armistice – World War I ends | |
| 1919 | The first ever play to be performed was called “Visions of Alfred” and was written by Miss Bourne. The drama teacher at that time was Margaret Rutherford who went on to become a famous actress |
| 1920 | Field sports were started |
| Dedication of the War Memorial on Woodcote Green | |
| 1921 | The Ministry of Education made a preliminary inspection of the school |
| 1922 | The first candidates were entered for Junior and Senior Oxford exams |
| 1923 | Music Hall Built |
| 1925 | Seven new classrooms, a library, extended cloakrooms, kitchens and a new staffroom |
| Miss Bray received the Silver Coss for Gallantry for saving the life of a young child in London | |
| John Logie Baird gave the first public demonstration of televised silhouette images in motion, at Selfridge’s Department Store in London | |
| 1926 | The start of inter school sports. The forst contest was Commonweal, the Manor House and St Michaels’s Limpsfield |
| The General Strike | |
| 1927 | First full inspection of the school by the Ministery of Education – receiving recognition as an efficient grammar school |
| The First Talking Film | |
| Amy Johnson flew solo from Croydon Airport to Australia | |
| 1929 | Form outings began twice a year to a place of interest |
| The first British television broadcast was made by Baird Television’s electromechanical system over the BBC radio transmitter | |
| 1931 | The swimming pool opened |
| The four Houses were formed; Kent, Wessex, Sussex and Mercia | |
| 1935 | Crystal Palace catches fire |
| 1936 | Miss McHardy left to become Headmistress of Micklefield School |
| The Abdication of Edward VIII | |
| 1937 | Elsie Bourne died after a short illness on 1st April |
| 1938 | The new art room was opened by Viscountess Buckmaster in the memory of Miss Bourne |
| Chamberlain meets Hitler and resolves the Munich Crises. He arrives back at Croydon Airport and famously declares that “We have peace in our time”. | |
| 1939 | War is declared against Germany |
| 1940 | Commonweal Lodge School evacuated to Ardock, Lewdown, Devon |
| Dunkirk | |
| 1941 | Army requisition of the school buildings |
| 1943 | Commonweal returns from Devon |
| 1945 | The end of World War II |
| 1948 | The first candidates were entered for Advanced Level exams (Higer Certificate) |
| 1949 | The first Festival of Music was held by the school |
| 1951 | The first Festival of Speech and Drama |
| 1952 | The new house Northumbria was started (closed again later, not sure when) |
| 1954 | A school inspection found them to be excellent and they were recognised by the Ministry of Education on the list of Secondary (non grant aided) schools |
| For the first time a party 26 girls went to Abelboden in Switzerland to enjoy winter sports | |
| Miss Doran (Maths) died and The Doran Picture was presented in her memory each term, to the form that had been most helpful to the school | |
| 1960 | Miss Bray retires as Headmistress after 44 years and Miss Molly Lockwood takes over |
| The Bray library is opened | |
| 1961 | Parents’ meetings were introduced |
| The first man in space | |
| 1962 | Margery Bray died in Purley hospital |
| 1963 | Two new hard tennis courts were built on the “orchard” |
| Kennedy is assassinated | |
| 1966 | The gym and changing rooms were completed |
| Miss Lockwood retires as Headmistress and Miss Blunden takes over | |
| The death of Sir Herbert Butcher, the first Chairman of the Governors and great friend to the school | |
| England win the World Cup!! | |
| 1968 | Douglas Englebart gave a preview of what would become the staples of daily working life in the 21st century – e-mail, hypertext, word processing, video conferencing and the mouse |
| 1969 | First Moon Landings |
| 1971 | Britain is decimalised (making arithmetic so much easier) |
| 1973 | Classroom block between assembly hall and gym extended to two storeys creating six more classrooms |
| 1977 | The Queen’s Silver Jubilee |
| First successfully mass marketed personal computer was the Commodore PET introduced in this year | |
| 1979 | Margaret Thatcher became the first woman Prime Minister |
| 1980 | John Lennon shot and killed outside his New York apartment |
| 1982 | Miss Blunden retires as Headmistress and Miss Brown takes over |
| 1985 | The old cloakrooms were converted into the new economics room |
| 1987 | The great Hurricane |
| 1986 | The new music room was built |
| 1988 | A new Physics lab and prep room was fitted out |
| 1989 | The Web was invented by British scientist Tim Berners-Lee. An early popular web browser was ViolaWWW |
| 1990 | The junior block was opened by the Mayor of Croydon |
| 1995 | Miss Brown retires as headmistress as Mrs Law takes over |
| 1996 | The new science labs were completed |
| 1998 | Mrs Law retires as headmistress and Miss Maynard takes over |
| 2008 | A new, open-neck blouse available in two different styles for use throughout the school year. The blouse is designed to be worn outside the skirt and without a tie |
| 2010 | The school closes for the last time |
In bold are events happening in the country and the world …
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