Calday Grange Grammar School

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Calday Grange Grammar School
Motto: Nisi Dominus Frustra
"Without God, all is in vain"
Established 1636
Type selective all-male secondary and mixed sixth form
Headmaster Andrew Hall
Founder William Glegg
Students 1500
Grades 7–11, and Sixth Form
Location West Kirby, Wirral England
Campus 30 acres
Colours Navy Blue, White, Maroon
Website [1]
A view of the front of Calday Grange Grammar School, prior to extensive refurbishment.
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A view of the front of Calday Grange Grammar School, prior to extensive refurbishment.

Calday Grange Grammar School (abbreviated to CGGS; also known as Calday,Calday Grange) is a grammar school on Caldy Hill above the town of West Kirby on the Wirral. It is the oldest grammar school in the Wirral and takes boys (and girls for the sixth form). It is a Foundation School it is a designated Technology College, and as of 2006 is also a designated Language College. The school was founded in 1636.

Contents

[edit] History

The school was founded in 1636 by William Glegg. Although at first it admitted day and boarding pupils, the boarding house closed in 1934.

Since 1920 much has changed. Rugby was introduced in 1921. Staff and pupils built a swimming pool (still there) in 1922. New buildings have appeared regularly. Following the 1944 Education Act the school became a County Grammar School. In 1946 came a Parents' Association. In 1951 the C.C.F. was founded.

In 1985, a girl who was then studying at West Kirby Grammar School, (the nearby girls' grammar school), wishing to study Law A level, asked the then headmaster Peter Dodd if he would permit her to attend the school's Sixth Form. He agreed and she became the sole girl attending the school in the academic year 1985/1986. The following year the school formally opened the doors of its Sixth Form to female students.

[edit] Geography

The school is situated in a residential area of Wirral close to the Dee Estuary. The pupils largely come from the Deeside areas of Wirral. In recent years, however, an increasing number are opting to join from the rest of Wirral and from Cheshire. The main site at the top of Caldy Hill is occupied by the school buildings. A mile down the hill, towards Chester, Calday has playing fields, with 3 functional rugby pitches, a cricket square, and a artificial hockey field. Altogether the land occupies 30 acres. The school is surrounded by suburban housing development and the forests of Thurstaston and Caldy.

[edit] The present

As of today, the school has around 1500 pupils, roughly 500 of whom are in the Sixth Form. The almost constant construction on the school site has now finished and the completed works include an extension to the dining hall with two teaching rooms below, the creation of two new teaching rooms and a corridor on the chemistry level and most significantly a renovation of the library and the installation of a new technology suite within the library to be used for private study.

[edit] Teachers

The school employs 178 full time staff.

[edit] Achievements

The school has a high achievement in both sport and academic results:

  • For the past few years, under the direction of Daniel Meigh and Randall Lewton, it has produced a number of acclaimed plays and musicals, including "Les Miserables" and "West Side Story". In November 2006, a production of The Who' TOMMY was performed.
  • Calday has won the past 8 of the last 10 regional annual United Nations quizzes. In 2005, the School "A" team defeated local rivals St Anselms, 44-40, taking the title for the third year in a row. The 2006 session begins in early November.
  • Calday also won the Gold in the UK Schools Quiz Championship in 2005, having achieved Silver in 2004. For the past 10 years or so, the team has been trained by teachers Brian Thompson (Technology) and Mike Devitt (English).
  • The school also has strong links with schools in Russia, China, and Germany, and takes part in regular student exchange programs.
  • The Merseyside regional Mock trials, for aspiring young barristers and lawyers, were won by Calday in 2005.
  • School teams excel at table tennis, rugby, and hockey.
  • Students have gone on co-educational trips, to Westminster, CERN, etc.

Most recently, the school has received the best GCSE results yet. 100% of pupils gained at least five A*-C grades. This success was most similar to this year's A-Level results. The school sends a small number of pupils to Oxbridge every year.

[edit] Buildings

The buildings/blocks are named after past headmasters or the subject taught there. The current buildings are:

  • The Art building (A) [Including Michael Cross Drama Studio] - Art and Drama
  • The Business Centre (B) (Hawkin's House) - Business Studies/Economics, Computing/ICT, Law, Philosophy
  • The Canteen Extension - Music
  • The Dodd building (D) - D&T, ICT
  • The E Block (E) - Latin, Careers, Counselling, Psychology
  • The Glasspool building (G) [+ GS Extension] - English, Mathematics, ICT
  • The Hawkins building (H) - Modern Foreign Languages, [+ 1 Geography classroom]
  • The Walker building (W) - Sciences, Geography, History
  • The Nigel Briers Building (W) - English, History, Government and Politics

Each building has a letter code consisting of the first letter of its name, with the exception of the Briers building, which, for this purpose, is considered an extension of the Walker building. These letters are used to designate room names, for example, the second room (2) on the first floor (1) of the Hawkins building (H) is known as H12.

[edit] Houses

The school has three Houses named after past benefactors and headmasters. Members of each house are identified by different coloured stripes on the school tie, or in the case of the 6th form, the colour of their lapel pin or 6th form tie.

  • Bennett - Named after Thomas Bennett, House colour blue
  • Glegg - Named after William Glegg, House colour red
  • Hollowell - Named after Rev. William Hollowell, House colour green

Up until quite recently there was a fourth house, named after Sir Alfred Paton, with gold as its house colour. Although Paton House is no more, Sir Alfred's memory is preserved in the naming of Paton Fields, bequeathed by him to the school in 1928.

[edit] Famous alumni

  • Martin Shea - member of the comedy group Universal Grinding Wheel
  • George Sykes - founder of Sykotic Tendencies and only performer of the band which has had a Top 5 album hit in the German charts.

[edit] Headmasters

Years Calday Grange Grammar School
1886-1891 Charles T. Blanshard
1891-1920 W. Hollowell
1920-1945 Reginald Thomas Booth Glasspool
1945-1953 R. E. Witt
1953-1964 Eric William Hawkins
1965-1978 Kenneth Saxon Watkinson Walker
1978-1986 Peter Dodd
1986-2002 Nigel Briers
2002-present Andrew Hall

[edit] Further reading

  • M. J. Protheroe M.A. (Oxon.) - A History of Calday Grange Grammar School, West Kirby, 1636-1976 (1976)

[edit] External links

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