| Motto | Arx Celebris Fontibus |
|---|---|
| Established | 1903 |
| Type | Comprehensive |
| Headmaster | Richard Sherrif |
| Specialism | Languages and Technology |
| Location | Arthurs Avenue Harrogate North Yorkshire HG2 0DZ England |
| Local authority | North Yorkshire County Council |
| Staff | 120 |
| Students | 1,740 |
| Ages | 11–18 |
| Sixth form | 460 |
| Website | www.hgs.n-yorks.sch.uk |
Harrogate Grammar School is a specialist Language and Technology College in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. It has about 1700 pupils and there are about 400 pupils in the sixth form. The current headmaster is Richard Sheriff who became the full time headmaster of the school in January 2007.
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Harrogate Grammar School was founded in 1903 as the Municipal Secondary Day School of Harrogate. Its original premises were simply a collection of rented rooms in Haywra Crescent.[1] By the time the school achieved Grammar School status in 1931 the school had long since outgrown its premises as the original roll of 44 pupils had grown to 666. Work began on the 'new' Grammar School in Arthurs Avenue, to which the staff and pupils transferred in 1933.
During World War II evacuees poured in to Harrogate from the cities. This swelled the roll at the school to 900, still a small number compared with the current roll of 1337 (as of 2006).
To keep pace with these numbers there have been various periods of building expansion, notably in the 1970s with the addition of a sports hall, gymnasium, music, technology facilities.
In 1973 the school became a Comprehensive School, but the headmaster at the time,a Mr Ernest G. Hill, was not in favour of the comprehensive school system and began a campaign for the school to retain at least its grammar school name rather than be called Otley Road Comprehensive as an accurate reflection of its new status. After a lengthy battle with the local authority the school won its bid to retain its name and is still known as Harrogate 'Grammar School' today.
Between 1976-77 a new sports hall was built together with a new classroom block.This eventually enabled the removal of the 'temporary' portacabin classrooms situated in the old playground. An 'all weather' shale pitch, primarily for hockey, was created at the Otley Road end of the playing field. Almost contemporaneously, a new Sixth Form block,including a common room,a new library and new science labs was added,these were situated to the rear and eastern aspect of the school. This has recently been further extended. A humanities building was added in the 1990s. A new-build library and IT suite were opened in July 2006. Temporary Classrooms for the Sixth Form were added in October 2006, and these are expected to stay on the School grounds until the new sixth form arrangements have been built.
The sports space has also been slightly improved. The boys changing facilities were improved in 2007 and in 2008, a new fitness suite was built, which sixth formers can access in free period, lunchtimes and after schools. The 'old' gym has also been converted to a dance/yoga studio. In the very near future, HGS also hopes to join many of the other schools in the Harrogate area by having its own Astroturf pitch. The School were extremely close to having one back in 1995 when Harrogate Hockey Club was looking for a suitable base for its teams. However, complaints from the Arthurs Avenue residents meant this plan was relocated (annoyingly for the pupils) to Harrogate High School.
The drama department now has the old Library as the Library Theatre. This state of the art space has lighting but also scaffolding and blocks. Most of the course assessments as well as some of the productions, now take place in there.
In 2010, Harrogate Grammar School opened their new Sixth Form block for its ever expanding higher education 16-19 section. The Sixth Form has a lecture theatre with seating up to 300, as well as a number of classrooms. The new building replaces the old temporary classrooms that adjoined with the Arthur's Avenue nursery which were knocked down.
In 2002 Harrogate Grammar School acquired Specialist Language Status and now enjoys state-of-the-art language-learning facilities as well as the services of six native speaker language assistants each year. In 2006 the school was recognised as an extremely successful specialist school and was invited to take on a second specialism in technology.
The school shares its motto with the town of Harrogate. "Arx Celebris Fontibus" translates from Latin as "A citadel famous for its springs".
Physical Education is compulsory from Year 7-11. There is the option to take the subject for GCSE and A-level. Students have the option to gain a Junior Sports Leader Award or Step into Sport qualification.
Extra-curricular sport available currently includes:
The school has undergone a period of growth in its sixth form and now has a roll of 460 students. The increased provision for sixth form began in the 1980s when a dedicated sixth form block was added. Increasing numbers has meant that the sixth form accommodation has been extended in recent years; with the latest addition being a number of temporary classrooms which were installed in late 2006. In 2008 the school acquired planning permission to remove the temporary classrooms and replace them with a permanent structure.
Qualifications taught in the sixth form include GCE Advanced Subsidiary Level Qualifications, the GCE Advanced Level Qualifications and the increasingly popular International Baccalaureate diploma,[2] although the IB option is unlikely to be offered from September 2009 onwards. There is also the option to retake Maths and English GCSE if students choose to.
The sixth form includes a study centre, 19 classrooms and also a dining facility called "The Gate" which is run and maintained by the canteen staff. It sells various foods such as panini, bagels and pizza. This dining facility is exclusive to the Sixth form.
New plans have been made for extended sixth form accommodation. This will be built within the next two years and will include extra teaching space, seven new classrooms and a 300 seated Lecture Theatre.
The School runs a magazine called 'The LINK'. This was the brainchild of the former headmistress, Mary Dance who along with Miss Cross decided on a publication that would be erstwhile to the school community. The team has changed radically in many years, but has always been committed. There was doubt of the continuation of the magazine, however an outside source is now running the magazine.
The School operates a House system. The School originally introduced the House system in the 1950s but it was then scrapped for a variety of reasons. It was however resurrected in 2001. The Houses consist of: Ignis, Terra, Ventus and Aqua. Pre-2009 the house were simply called Red, Blue, Green, Yellow. Originally the houses were named Tudor, Stuart, Windsor and York.
Students in all year groups from each House system have the chance to represent their House in a large number of Sport, Writing, Art, Music and drama activities that take place across the School Academic year.
The current holders of the House Shield are Aqua House who were captained to victory in the 2008-2009 year, winning by just 1/2 a point.
In 1999, North Yorkshire County Council paid £6000 in an out-of-court settlement to John Carnell, a former pupil who claimed that Harrogate Grammar School persistently failed to protect him from bullying.[3] The school denied these claims and now has an Anti-Bullying Policy in place, which can be inspected on request. In 1999 John Carnell and his mother Liz Carnell founded the charity Bullying Online, now Bullying UK.
On 17 February 1939 No 58 (Harrogate) Squadron of the Air Defence Cadet Corps was established at the school by the Air League of the British Empire.[4] The squadron has since moved to separate premises and no longer has an association with the school. However, there are still several students from the school who are active cadets at the squadron.
The school is involved with fundraising for charitable causes and raises several thousand pounds each year. The annual charity is selected by a charities committee composed of a selection of staff and students. The same committee organises and oversees the school's fundraising activities.
The main fundraising event in the school year is the "charities week", when a variety of fundraising activities take place. Previous activities have included a talent show, teachers' fashion show, a Stars in Their Eyes-style competition, bake sale and sponsored hair shaving. Traditionally a sponsored stay awake where pupils attempt to remain awake over night in the school is the closing event of the charities week.
In the past the school has supported the following charities:
In the most recent Ofsted inspection, the school gained an "outstanding" grade.[5]