West Hatch High School is a secondary school located in Southern Essex. The area now occupied by West Hatch was previously the western gate (or hatch as it would have been known) into Epping Forest; it is from these routes that the school proudly derives its name. The school currently educates 1300 students from the local catchment area and nearly 200 sixth form pupils from North east London and west Essex. Built in 1957 on Chigwell High Road the grounds have been renovated on numerous occasions developing the many acre site into 7 main teaching buildings.
West Hatch has been under major renovations of late with recent additions including a Music Suite (2002), Maths Dining & Drama Block (1999), Ruby Theatre (2000 built by students attaining Gold The Duke of Edinburgh Award Status), Sixth Form Centre (2000) and Business and Enterprise Block (2003) which enables a range of community courses to be run. A new English block was started in 2007 and finished in 2008. The school currently consists of seven main teaching buildings including science, technology and the 4-storey classroom block.