Humphrey Perkins School

The Humphrey Perkins School is a secondary school with academy status which was founded in 1717 in Barrow-on-Soar, Leicestershire in England.

A Free Grammar School founded in 1717 in the will of the Barrow-on-Soar born Revd. Humphrey Perkins, rector of Holme Pierrepont, Nottinghamshire, who left money for a grammar school to be built in Barrow-on-Soar. The Humphrey Perkins Grammar School was built on an orchard near the centre of the village and opened in 1735.

In 1902 the School moved to larger premises on Cotes Road with the school's first non-clergyman Headmaster, Mr Fernsby and 33 pupils. Of these pupils 32 were boys with just one girl, Nora May Wall. In 1927 the then Headmaster Mr Keeble introduced a school uniform of black blazer, badge and ties. Examples of this uniform are still kept by the current Headmaster along with a School rugby shirt. The four houses were named after pre-eminent Leicestershire families as Beaumont, Grey, Hastings and Latimer.

In 1947 a secondary modern school was opened on the same site and in 1956 the school became a single bilateral school with approximately 500 pupils. Mr Dunn became Headmaster in 1960 and discussions began whether Humphreys or Rawlins would be the 'Upper School' in the new two tier Leicestershire education model. In 1966 Humphreys was converted to a High School for 11 to 14 year olds with some 1000 pupils.^[1]

In September 2010 Mr Peter Nutkins joined the school as Headmaster and the school underwent a period of rapid reorganisation and development. On January 1, 2012 Humphrey Perkins became an Academy School and converted to an 11-16 that same year, taking older pupils from September 2013.

The school was inspected in 2011-12 and issued with a notice to improve after being judged inadequate. [2]Only 14 months later the school was judged as 'good' by the return ofsted inspection as the improvements that had taken place brought about change.

Pupils within the School are given iPads to encourage creativity and the School holds training events for other schools on the use of the devices in the classroom. Mr Nutkins has taken a strong stance on including creative subjects in the curriculum and is a member of the Heads for Arts national lobby group.^[2]

References

• The History of Humphrey Perkins School, Bernard Elliott, 1965
• "Humphrey Perkins High School - 100 Years on the Cotes Road Site", John Hindley, 2002

• "Humphrey Perkins School", 2013
• ,

[2]http://www.humphreyperkins.leics.sch.uk/uploads/asset_file/Final%20report%2016-5-13.pdf