St Olave's Grammar School

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St Olave's Grammar School

St Olave's Seal

Motto 'Olaf to Right the Wrong'
Established 1571
School type State, grammar school
Headmaster Anthony Jarvis
Location Orpington, Bromley, England
LEA London Borough of Bromley
Pupils c. 1000
Member of Woodard Foundation, HMC
Homepage www.saintolaves.net

St. Olave's and St. Saviour's Grammar School for Boys (also known as St. Olave's, St. Olave's Grammar School, and informally as STOGS) is a selective boys' secondary school in Orpington, England. The school is consistently one of the top achieving state schools in the country.

Contents

[edit] History

The school in its current form was formed from an agreement in 1896 between two schools, St. Olave's Grammar School (founded 1571), and St. Saviour's Grammar School (founded 1562). (Its sister school, St Saviour's and St Olave's School, was founded in 1903). Originally situated on the south bank of the Thames in Southwark in Tooley Street, the school moved to suburban Orpington in 1968.

[edit] General information

The school, which is named after Saint Olaf, has an Anglican foundation, and is also affiliated to the Woodard Foundation. The school is heavily oversubscribed (more than 7 applicants per place in 2004). Entry is determined by competitive tests in English, Mathematics and Reasoning. Since 1998, the school has admitted girls to its sixth form. It is currently designated as a mathematics and computing specialist school. The school is notable for being one of only a few state schools to play the game of Eton Fives. Members of the school are known as Olavians, and alumni as Old Olavians. The school's headmaster is currently Anthony Jarvis, an associate member of the HMC. There are four houses: Bingham, Cure, Harvard and Leeke. These exist for the purposes of the classes and house competitions in the Lower School (Year 7 to 9) and for games competition in Year 10. In Year 11 and onwards, there is no such system.

In sports, the school fields successful Rugby teams from U-12 to the first and second XVs. The second XV have now been unbeaten for 3 years. Former pupil David Akinluyi now plays for Northampton Saints in the Guinness Premiership. Amongst other sports, the school has been successful in basketball, winning the Kent Cup between 2002 and 2005.

The school was at the centre of controversy in 1996 when Labour Party Cabinet minister Harriet Harman sent her son to the school, despite it being some considerable distance from where she lived. Many considered her sending her son to a selective school to be contrary to Labour's supposedly egalitarian principles.

St. Olave's has a strong relationship with Newstead Wood School for Girls, a selective all girls school situated a mile away. The St. Olave's Foundation also supports the all girls St Saviour's and St Olave's School in Old Kent Road. Established in 1903, this is a non-selective school in an economically deprived area that is very different in nature from its brother school.

[edit] Trivia

  • In the seventeenth century St. Olave's Headmaster Robert Browne was imprisoned for his religious non-conformism.
  • According to the Evening News, August 5, 1904: 'In St Olave's Grammar School, Southwark, the headmaster has enforced a rule that no boy shall be given a prize in any subject unless he is ambidextrous and can write with each hand with equal facility and neatness.'
  • St. Olave's exclusively provides Choristers for the Choir of the Queen's Chapel of the Savoy, London, the Chapel of the Royal Victorian Order and the Duchy of Lancaster.

[edit] Previous Headmasters

[edit] Notable alumni

This is a partial list. For a more comprehensive one see: List of notable Old Olavians

† Alumni of St. Saviour's Grammar School prior to the merger

[edit] External links

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