| Motto | "To God Only Be All Glory" and "In Christo Fratres" |
|---|---|
| Established | 1887 |
| Type | Voluntary aided grammar school |
| Headteacher | Mr Simon Everson |
| Chair | Major-General J Moore-Bick CBE DL |
| Founder | Worshipful Company of Skinners |
| Specialism | Science & mathematics |
| Location | St John's Road Royal Tunbridge Wells Kent TN4 9PG England |
| Local authority | Kent |
| DfE URN | 118890 |
| Ofsted | Reports |
| Students | 824 |
| Gender | Boys |
| Ages | 11–18 |
| Houses | Sebastian, Atwell, Hunt, Knott |
| Colours | Red and black |
| Publication | The Leopard |
The Skinners' School (formally The Skinners' Company's School for Boys and commonly known as Skinners'), is a British grammar school for boys located in the town of Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Established in 1887, the school was founded by the Worshipful Company of Skinners (one of the 108 livery companies of the City of London) in response to a demand for education in the region. Today Skinners' remains an all boys grammar school, recently awarded specialist status in science and mathematics in recognition of these disciplines' excellent teaching. The current enrolment is 824 pupils, of whom around 230 are in the sixth form.
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The Skinners' School in Tunbridge Wells was the second school to be founded by The Worshipful Company of Skinners. The first Skinners' Company school, founded in Tonbridge, was called Sir Andrew Judd's Free School (an independent institution), now called Tonbridge School, which only accepted fee paying borders, leaving the locals of Tonbridge without an education. As a result The Skinners' Company decided to found another school - The Skinners' Company's School for Boys - and after a prolonged row between towns Royal Tunbridge Wells picked as the location. The school opened to 53 boys, many of whom had to walk in excess of six miles to reach class each day. The citizens of Tonbridge, again angry at the neglect of their sons, encouraged The Company to found a third school in 1888 - Sir Andrew Judd's Commercial School - which is now The Judd School. Finally, in the 1890s, The Company opened a girls school in Hackney, London, called The Skinners' Company's School for Girls.
The school has expanded and evolved over the years. On 1 April 1992, The school (formerly a voluntary aided grammar school) became a grant maintained school, reverting to voluntary aided status again in 1998, following the Education Reform Act of that year. Recently, additional accommodation has been provided for purpose-designed design and technology facilities and classrooms; a modern languages centre was completed in 2002 and a new music and performing arts centre opened in 2003. Ongoing development of the latter will provide further valuable provision for both curricular and extracurricular activities. Recent refurbishments have included new facilities for the sixth form. Specialist science status was awarded in 2005, which resulted in refurbishment of the science block. The school has since also gained mathematics and computing specialism status, and also twice achieved the 'green flag' status as an ecoschool. The school won a prestigious teaching award in 2009 in recognition of the work completed concerning environmental sustainability. A full program of team games is maintained throughout the year with notable successes, particularly in rugby, cricket and athletics. The school enjoys a deep rivalry with The Judd School and, to a lesser extent, with Tunbridge Wells Grammar School For Boys.
The school consists of a range of buildings built at various stages of the school's history. While each building services specific departments, these have changed as new building/facilities became available:
In 2003 the school acquired Byng Hall. Originally the St John's Church Institute[1] and later part of St John's Primary School, the governors of Skinners' had been hoping to purchase it for many years. It is stylistically very similar to the Main Building and School House and is viable from the front of the school plot.
Skinners' received grants from central government and ran an appeal in school and through the old boys network to raise the funds for the buildings purchase and renovation. The final building received a conservation award from the Tunbridge Wells Civic Society for the sensitive restoration[2] which now enables Byng Hall to be used by the music and drama department; school drama productions and music recitals in The Thomson Theatre are prominent features in the school calendar.
Skinners' owns a large set of playing fields just along the main road that runs outside the school on the border of Tunbridge Wells and Southborough. Called Southfields, it was originally intended to be the site for the new school when plans were drafted in the 1930s. World War II prevented the move from occurring, but the foundations for the buildings are still present in one corner.
The fields are home to five rugby pitches, a football pitch, cricket nets, three cricket squares and various athletics facilities. The pavilion, featuring three changing rooms, was rebuilt in 2005 following an arson attack.
Each year group at the school is divided into forms. In years 7 and 8 there are four forms, organised by house as assigned to the pupils on entering the school. In years 9-11 the pupils are reorganised into forms represented by colours: blue, green, red and yellow. In years 10 and 11 there are separate teaching groups from the forms. In the sixth form there are five forms in each year.
All students are assigned a house on entering the school. The four houses of Skinners' are named after notable contributors to the school, each designated a colour which determines the colour of the trim on the school blazers, caps and scarves worn by the pupils, as well as athletics kits. While the house only initially determines which form the student is in, it forms the basis of sport teams throughout each pupil's career at the school. As such, friendly rivalries exist between each house especially amongst cricket hockey and rugby teams, with competition peaking at sports day. These houses are:
| Atwell | Green | donated money to help fund the school
|
| Hunt | Yellow | donated money to help fund the school
|
| Knott | Blue | the first Headmaster of the school
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| Sebastian | White | the first Chairman of the school Governors
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Knott house have a notorious reputation within the school for excelling on the sports field.
The Skinners' School has uniform requirements that apply to all boys at the school, including those in the sixth form. These requirements have changed over the decades.
Traditionally
Variations throughout each school year, although some traditions have been repealed:
There was also the honours school tie for pupils who made an achievement for the school name, such as winning a local inter-school race. This tie was red, black, and white, diagonally striped.
Present Day
Years 7-10:
Years 11-13:
Sports Kit
PE/Gym Lessons
Games
Other ties are also available, however. Sporting achievements result in the presentation of school 'colours', a tie unique to the sport the achievement was gained in, which is presented by the headmaster in front of the school. The same goes for outstanding ability within the CCF. Prefect ties can be worn by the head boy, deputy head boys, as well as school and form prefects (These are black with horizontal red stripes).
Many boys have represented sports teams at county, regional and national level. Ties awarded to such boys are also accepted within the uniform policy.
The sixth form are provided with their own common room, featuring a canteen and recreational seating, and an adjacent study centre equipped with computing facilities. There is also a common room for prefects situated under the headmaster's office in School House.
The current head of sixth form is Mr Craig Fleming.
The Skinners' School performs consistently above average and was awarded a "1 or outstanding", from Ofsted inspectors, on 6 June 2007.[3]
The current headmaster is Simon Everson.
Notable past headmasters have included:
In the summer term of Year 12, school prefects are selected. Leadership roles amongst the prefects now include the head boy, two deputy head boys, the chairman of the school council, the parents' association and Old Skinners' Society liaison prefect, two senior prefects and four house captains. Other school prefects are divided between the roles of duty prefect and form prefect.
There are usually approximately sixteen form prefects, who take responsibility for a year eight or year seven form, two to a form.
Boards in School Hall denote previous positions of importance including Head Boys and CCF Commanding Officers. Until recently boys who earnt a place at an Oxford or Cambridge college would have their name added to the University honours board although that practice has now been ceased due to the volume of boys gaining Oxbridge places each year.
Notable former pupils include:
Other Skinners’ boys have achieved many distinctions over the years – in classical music, on the West End stage, even in warship design – the flight decks of modern aircraft carriers follow the plans of Douglas Taylor, MBE, an Old Skinner. Recently there has been a member of the National Youth Ballet, two members of the National Youth Orchestra, a member of the National Youth Theatre, the England Under 18 Rugby Captain, an Oxford Rugby Blue, and a Commonwealth Games athlete.[2]
The Skinners' School, like many schools started by London livery companies, has a school song. The lyrics are by P Shaw-Jeffrey and appeared in the school magazine December 1894, and are as follows:
Original sheet music (8 page scan) of second edition printing. Dated 1927:
The song contains two lines in Latin: Floreat Sodalitas and 'dalitas Pardorum.
Floreat Sodalitas is therefore "Let fellowship flourish" and 'dalitas Pardorum is "the fellowship of the leopards".
" Bab-el-Mandeb's Straits" is the name former students used to call the passageway to the old Headmaster's office (originally in Main Building). The apostrophe and the "s" may be anachronistic (a grocer's apostrophe) or may refer to the nickname of the first headmaster (Mr Knott) being Bab-el-mandeb. The name comes from the Arabic for the "Gates of Grief".[8] The office is now used by the librarian.
The original last line of the third verse was "The Guild may stand forever"
A long standing tradition at the school is to elongate the s sound in the word "whiskered" to create a hissing sound. Over time, enthusiastic boys, partially spurred on by the semi-disapproval of the staff, extended the tradition to all words within the second verse. While the students are never encouraged or told of this tradition, it is passed down through the years by the older boys to those starting at the school, during renditions of the song.
In recent years (starting in the late 1990s) it became customary (at least at Skinners' Day rehearsals) to loudly and deeply shout the word 'breathe' after the first line of each chorus, as a tribute to a much-loved retired music teacher, Mr Tony Starr, who shouted the word during rehearsals to remind the student body to breathe at that point.
The song has another version written by Shaw Jeffrey who adapted its lyrics for his new school when he became headmaster for the Colchester Royal Grammar School.
Founded in 1890 by the Old Boys of the time, the Old Skinners' Society has four main aims:
On leaving the school the majority of leavers sign up to the society for life, making them eligible to attend the many social events the society organizes.
The current president of the society is Peter Braggins, who is a former Headmaster.