Skegness Grammar School

Skegness Grammar School
Motto Murus Aeneus Conscientia Sana
(A sound conscience is a wall of brass)
Established 1483; 1933 at current site
Type Grammar school
Academy
Day and boarding school
Headteacher Mr Spraque
Founder William de Waynflete
Location Vernon Road
Skegness
Lincolnshire
PE25 2QS
England
Coordinates: 53°08′56″N 0°20′02″E / 53.1490°N 0.3340°E / 53.1490; 0.3340
DfE number 925/5400
DfE URN 138757 Tables
Ofsted Reports Pre-academy reports
Students 760 pupils (366 boys, 394 girls)
Gender Coeducational
Ages 11–19 (in certain cases)
Houses Lumley
Magdalen
Newton
Tennyson
Colours Bottle Green and Gold
Website www.sgs.lincs.sch.uk

Skegness Grammar School (sometimes SGS) is a coeducational grammar school and sixth form with academy status, located in Skegness, Lincolnshire, England.

Selection to the school is by the 11+ examination or, in the case of boarders, by entry test or personal interview. The current school roll consists of 760 pupils including 204 pupils in the sixth form. It provides boarding facilities for about 70 pupils who do not live locally, or whose parents are required to work away from Lincolnshire or abroad.

Originally founded over 500 years ago by a Lord High Chancellor of England, Skegness Grammar School was the first British secondary school to be awarded Grant Maintained status by the government in 1988. The school has been classed as a High Performing Specialist School, due to the progress the pupils have made over the five years of compulsory education in years 7 to 11. Formal evaluation of recent Sixth Form results shows that the school has established and maintained excellent teaching standards that have led to high levels of progress.

History

Magdalen School

In 1483 William Waynflete, also called William of Wainfleet, later the Bishop of Winchester, Provost of Eton College and Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain founded Magdalen College School in his home town of Wainfleet to act as a satellite feeder school for Magdalen College at Oxford University that he had also founded.[1]

In 1933 Magdalen College School closed and was incorporated into its newer and larger buildings at Skegness where it became Skegness Grammar School.[1]

There is also a school named after Waynflete (Waynflete School) at Portland, Maine, USA.

Boarding at the school

Since 1991 the school has provided for state boarders accommodation in the school's Wainfleet Hall boarding facility on Low Road, Wainfleet. A 'buddy' system is used at Wainfleet Hall to make new boarders feel at home and pre-school open days are arranged.

School houses

The school is organised into four houses all named after historically prominent people or famous Lincolnshire men:

Lumley - after Lord Lumley, the ninth Earl of Scarbrough a major local landowner who was responsible for developing Skegness as a major Victorian holiday resort.

Magdalen - after the Magdalen College School in Wainfleet founded by William of Waynflete, one time Bishop of Winchester and founder of the college by the same name at Oxford University.

Newton - after Lincolnshire's most famous son Sir Isaac Newton, FRS (4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727) who was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist and theologian.

Tennyson - after locally born Alfred Lord Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) who was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom and one of the most popular classical English poets of all time.

Grant maintained

The Education Reform Act of 1988 introduced the concept of Grant-maintained schools which shifted the school funding away from the local education authority to direct grant support by central government. Skegness Grammar was the first school in the UK to both apply for and be awarded grant maintained status.[2]

The grant maintained system was dis-established by the new Labour government in 1998 and schools were offered the choice of returning to local education authority funding or opting for foundation status.

Specialist college status

In 2004 Skegness Grammar was awarded specialist school status as a Sports College. New sports facilities provided include a multi-use astroturf all weather pitch, sports hall, four tennis courts and eight mini-courts, cricket nets, sports pavilion and climbing wall, but the climbing wall is not accessible to the school's pupils. The college was awarded the Sportsmark in 2006 and 2007 and became a Coach Centre of Excellence. Skegness is now the hub school for the Lincolnshire Coastal Sports Partnership which has a membership of 8 secondary and 32 primary and special schools.

In 2006 a second speciality was added to the school when it was granted specialist status as a Mathematics and Computing College. Technology, with three modernised and refurbished ICT suites, supports curriculum teaching and learning. Recently a new Conference Centre with video conferencing facilities for pupils was also added.

Academy

The school converted to academy status on 1 September 2012, and is now sponsored by the David Ross Education Trust.

The school today

Sixth form centre

In 2005 an addition to the school is a sixth form centre, to house pupils in years 12 and 13, with separate study and common room facilities.

Two anniversaries

In 2008 Skegness Grammar School celebrated the school's 75th anniversary of the move from Wainfleet to Skegness and the 525th anniversary of its original founding.

Results

In the 2006 school league table results for secondary schools in the county of Lincolnshire, the school came 5th out of 35 for attainment at A level/AS level. The school also ranked 7th in the East Midlands region.

Ofsted

Following the Ofsted inspection in 2000 the school was awarded the Ofsted gold standard. Following the inspection in 2004, the school received a first class award.

Ofsted specifically commented:

"TSGS is renowned across the county and beyond for its academic success and for the development of well rounded, inspired and motivated individuals. This was widely commented on in our last Ofsted report. An emphasis on high academic standards and strong discipline but with a wide range of sporting and other activities. It receives able pupils who are keen to do well and the school is particularly successful in creating an orderly and productive environment where standards of behaviour are excellent and relationships very good." (Ofsted 2004)

In the most recent 2008 Ofsted report Skegness Grammar received a Grade 1 assessment for the school's performance and Grade 2 for both the boarding facility and the sixth form.

School badge

The school badge is the coat of arms of the Earldom of Scarbrough. It depicts an Escutcheon Argent bearing Fess Gules with three Hunting Hawks, the crest depicts a cormorant astride a crown. Its meaning is:

Notable former pupils

References

  1. 1 2 "The Magdalen College School, Wainfleet, Lincolnshire, UK". BBC. Retrieved 1 October 2010.
  2. ↑ "First grant maintained school". Retrieved 23 May 2013.
  3. ↑ "Noël Greig obituary", The Guardian, 23 September 2009. Retrieved 28 July 2011

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, February 03, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.