Skegness Grammar School

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Skegness Grammar School (sometimes SGS) is a coeducational grammar school and sixth form with academy status, located in Skegness, Lincolnshire, England.

Selection to the school is by the eleven-plus examination by entry test or personal interview. The school roll consists of 472 pupils including 106 pupils in the sixth form.

Skegness Grammar School was founded over 500 years ago by a Lord High Chancellor of England. It was the first British secondary school to be awarded Grant Maintained status by the government in 1988. The school has been classed as a High Performing Specialist School.

History

Magdalen School

In 1483 William Waynflete, also called William of Wainfleet, later the Bishop of Winchester, Provost of Eton College and Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain founded Magdalen College School in his home town of Wainfleet to act as a satellite feeder school for Magdalen College at Oxford University that he had also founded.<ref name="BBC History">Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1933 Magdalen College School closed and was incorporated into its newer and larger buildings at Skegness where it became Skegness Grammar School.<ref name="BBC History"/> The school opened on Wednesday 20 September 1933, and cost £30,000 for 200 places.<ref>Times Wednesday 20 September 1933</ref> The headteacher was Kenneth George Spendlove.<ref>Times Saturday 26 August 1933, page 11</ref> On Thursday 12 October 1933 it was officially opened by Sir Arthur Wallace Pickard-Cambridge.<ref>Skegness News Wednesday 18 October 1933, page 8</ref> It opened for an entry of 220, being enlarged in the late 1950s to take around 400.<ref>Skegness Standard Wednesday 9 July 1975, page 1</ref>

Around six children were transferred to the grammar school each year from the secondary modern schools in the 1960s.<ref>Skegness Standard Wednesday 28 October 1964, page 6</ref>

By the early 1980s, the 1930s-era buildings were creaking. Sports facilities were sparce, as were adequate science laboratories. The Director of Education, Fred Rickard, said the school was the worst-equipped secondary school in the county.<ref>Skegness Standard Friday 9 April 1982, page 8</ref>

School houses

The school is organised into four houses all named after historically prominent people or famous Lincolnshire men:

Lumley - after Aldred Lumley, 10th Earl of Scarbrough a major local landowner who was responsible for developing Skegness as a major Victorian holiday resort.

Magdalen - after the Magdalen College School in Wainfleet founded by William of Waynflete, one-time Bishop of Winchester and founder of the college by the same name at Oxford University.

Newton - after Lincolnshire's most famous son Sir Isaac Newton, FRS (4 January 1643Template:Spaced ndash31 March 1727) who was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist and theologian.

Tennyson - after locally born Alfred Lord Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) who was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom and one of the most popular classical English poets of all time.

Competitions

The school competed against a team from Boston High School on Wednesday 14 September 1983 on Top of the Form on Radio 4. The team lost 65-58.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Grant maintained

The Education Reform Act of 1988 introduced the concept of Grant-maintained schools which shifted the school funding away from the local education authority to direct grant support by central government. Skegness Grammar was the first school in the UK to both apply for and be awarded grant maintained status.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The BBC Radio 4 Any Questions? was broadcast from the school, on 3 November 1989, with David Willetts, Bea Campbell, Tom Sawyer, Baron Sawyer of NUPE, and John Rae (headmaster) of the Portman Group.<ref>Skegness Standard Friday 10 November 1989, page 7</ref>

The boarding house opened in July 1991, Wainfleet Hall.<ref>Skegness Standard Friday 19 July 1991, page 3</ref>

The grant maintained system was dis-established by the new Labour government in 1998 and schools were offered the choice of returning to local education authority funding or opting for foundation status.

Academy

The school converted to academy status on 1 September 2012, and is now sponsored by the David Ross Education Trust.

Headteachers

  • Ken Spendlove until July 1949,<ref>Lincolnshire Echo Friday 7 January 1949, page 3</ref> he was appointed to the former school in January 1924, and had attended the Duke of York's Royal Military School, and succeeded Rev William Gerrish;<ref>Skegness Standard Wednesday 23 January 1924, page 8</ref> he died aged 85 on Friday 28 April 1978 in Northamptonshire<ref>Skegness Standard Friday 5 May 1978, page 4</ref>
  • September 1949, Cyril George Ferguson, appointed 10 May 1949; he was a wartime naval officer, from Holloway; a physics teacher;<ref>Skegness News Wednesday 11 May 1949, page 5</ref> he was a Lieutenant-Commander, and deep sea diver, in mine disposal in the Mediterranean Sea; he lived at 86 Briar Way; his wife taught at Lumley Secondary Modern School;<ref>Skegness News Wednesday 24 November 1954, page 2</ref> he left in March 1957, and moved to the new Westlain Mixed Grammar School in Sussex from September 1957
  • 1957, Miss Lily Parkes, headmistress for four months, joined in 1942, head of Maths, deputy head from 1951,<ref>Skegness Standard Wednesday 11 May 1960, page 8</ref> she retired as deputy head in December 1975; she started the school annual cruise;<ref>Skegness Standard Wednesday 16 July 1975, page 6</ref><ref>Skegness Standard Friday 22 May 1992, page 4</ref> she became a Conservative councillor on Lincolnshire County Council for Skegness South from July 1978, serving on the education committee;<ref>Skegness Standard Friday 7 July 1978, page 6</ref> she died aged 81 in May 1992 in the Pilgrim Hospital<ref>Skegness Standard Friday 15 May 1992, page 1</ref>
  • September 1957, Joseph Eric Bailey, deputy head of Forest Fields Grammar School in Nottinghamshire; he was appointed in June 1957; he had attended Spalding Grammar School, and had started teaching in 1941; he lived at Skendleby; he was an English teacher, who had attended St John's College, Cambridge;<ref>Grimsby Evening Telegraph Saturday 29 June 1957, page 5</ref><ref>Skegness Standard Wednesday 3 July 1957, page 5</ref><ref>Nottingham Evening Post Friday 5 July 1957, page 9</ref><ref>Skegness Standard Wednesday 18 September 1957, page 1</ref> his wife Melita died on 26 January 1989, who had attended Spalding High School;<ref>Skegness Standard Friday 10 February 1989, page 19</ref> he died on 6 September 1994, aged 76<ref>Skegness Standard Friday 9 September 1994, page 64</ref><ref>Skegness Standard Friday 16 September 1994, page 27</ref>
  • January 1981, John Webster,<ref>Skegness Standard Friday 27 June 1980, page 1</ref><ref>Skegness Standard Friday 21 November 1980, page 9</ref> from Liverpool, he attended Liverpool Institute High School for Boys, when Paul McCartney was a prefect; a geography teacher<ref>Skegness Standard Friday 18 March 1994, page 6</ref> he left in March 1997<ref>Skegness Standard Friday 28 February 1997, page 3</ref>

Notable alumni

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Former teachers

References

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