Lymm High School
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Lymm High (in full, Lymm High School (Voluntary Controlled), but almost always referred to as Lymm High, or even just Lymm, for short) is an English State School, located in Lymm North Cheshire, and with a history stretching back to the late 16th century. The current Head Master is Roger Lounds.
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[edit] History
There is no clear date for the foundation of the school, but the earliest known reference to its existence dates from a Church Document in 1514, mentioning the 'Master of Lymm School'. What is clear, is that it was a well established single sex school in its Damside site when it was reconstituted as 'Lymm Grammar School' and granted a royal charter in 1601. It remained in this location for several hundred years, occupying some of the buildings which now make up St Mary's Church, until it was forced to sell its land in 1881 after a series of financial difficulties. The land was split into 11 lots, with 5 of them being purchased by G C Dewhurst, who was a member of the schools board of governors. In February 1882 he informed the board that he would give a different site near Higher Lane for a school and school house and would also pay for a road to be made to the site - Grammar School Road. An appeal was launched to raise the necessary funds for the construction of the buildings and a committee formed to co-ordinate the collection. Despite problems with the construction firm, the new buildings opened on the 12th July 1885.
In 1900, a motion was made before the governors council to enable co-education. This was introduced in June 1902, with the first students starting in the September.
The School remained unchanged on its Grammar School Lane site until, in 1945, Headteacher J. R. Canney, advised Cheshire County Council to purchase Oughtrington Hall to be used as an annexe. Thus, from 1945 the hall was used by junior forms until 1957, when the whole school was transferred to the site, with the buildings in Grammar School Road becoming the site of the newly formed Lymm Secondary Modern School. The two institutions remained separate until their amalgamation under the Comprehensive system in the early 1980's. In 1994 the Grammar School Road buildings were sold and sadly, demolished to make way for housing.
The 1990's were characterised by a rapid development programme, with much of the surrounding farmland being bought for playingfields, and many of the existing playing fields being built on. This programme reached its zenith in 2002, with the opening of the new Sixth Form Building.
[edit] Location
The School is located on Oughtrington Lane, in Lymm, adjacent to the village Cricket Club in the grounds of Oughtrington Hall, which houses the School Library. In addition to the old hall and stables, there are 5 newer buildings (Blocks A, E, D, L, and S) which House the majority of the classrooms and specialist facilities. The Sixth Form Block(S) contains a large central room known as the hexagon, where the sixth form students gather in their study periods, break and lunch, but can double up as a formal gathering area when required, for both school and non-school purposes.
[edit] Customs
The most notable and unique customs in the Lymm year are Founder's Day, and the Sixth Form send-off.
Founder's day occurs once every year, and consists of a day off-timetable for a morning church service at the School Church, St Mary's, and an afternoon of inter-hall sports competitions, including rounders and hockey, with the hall cup presented after lunch. Founder's day usually occurs in late April, on the Wednesday of the week preceding the easter holidays.
The Sixth form send-off occurs from period 3 onwards on their last day of school, which is inevitably a Friday in early May. It only includes students from the upper 6th, and consists of them, plus their teachers, spending the final three periods of the day gathering in a local pub close to the original site of the school to celebrate their achievements at Lymm.
[edit] Entry
Entry is non-selective, and available to all those residing in the catchment area. This currently covers all of Lymm, Thelwall, High Legh and Statham, as well as parts of Grappenhall, Dunham Town, and areas of Stockton Heath. In recent years, this area has been dramatically reduced in size in response to the growing number of pupils, leading to an increase in the Catchment area for the fairly nearby Bridgewater High School.
[edit] Houses
All students are members of a Hall as well as of the School, 2-3 forms per yeargroup from year 7-13 go into each hall. The halls system went into place in September 2002, with the original four houses (named after key local families) being supplemented by a further five new ones named after local stately homes. The original houses are:
The new halls are:
- Arley Red Tie
- Dunham Electric Blue Tie
- Moreton Bottle Green Tie
- Tatton Maroon Tie
- Walton Royal Blue Tie
[edit] Sport
Lymm has a proud sporting history, primarily in rowing and rugby, but with marked success in football, tennis, and hockey; In rugby the school has won the Daily Mail Vase a number of times, most recently in [2006], while in Rowing, the school regulaly wins head of the river at a number of different regattas.
In addition, the school is a local 'sports hub' with the on-site leisure facilities available for use by the general public. It is always expanding the number of sports it offers - the last notable addition was Sabre fencing in 2003.
[edit] Famous Old Lymmians
Notable Alumni of the School Include:
- Phillip Snow - Artist
- Sir John Littler - General in the Indian Army During the Sikh Wars
- Tim Curry - Singer and Actor
- Neil Fairbrother - Cricketer
- Steven Hough - Concert Pianist
- Terry Waite - Author
- Peter Postlethwaite - Actor
