Earls High School is a secondary school with academy status on Furnace Lane near the A458 in Halesowen, West Midlands. Established in 1652 and formerly Halesowen Grammar School, it also incorporates the former Halesowen Technical School.
The school's history dates back to 1652 when a Free Grammar School was founded. There is, however, evidence that a school existed in 1632 as local men are recorded as being benefactors of a Free School in Halesowen. It is unclear whether the Free Grammar School was a new establishment or a new name for an older school.
The original decree stated that these lands and properties should.... hereafter be governed, ordered and employed towards the maintenance and erecting of a Free School within the said town of Hales-Owen and of a Schoolmaster to reach and instruct within the said School the children of the inhabitants of the said town and parish of Hales-Owen to read English Grammar and other Literature.... This is significant as the free school was one of the earliest grammar, as distinct from elementary or petty schools, to have been founded for instruction in English. Most grammar school instruction of the time was in Latin, Greek and Hebrew to facilitate knowledge and learning of Ancient History, Classical Literature and the Scriptures.
Earls High School was created in September 1972 as a result of a re-organisation of education in Halesowen which saw the grammar school merge with the adjacent technical school on Furnace Lane. It was formed at a time when Halesowen was replacing the traditional 5−7 infant, 7−11 junior and 11−16/18 secondary schools with 5−9 first, 9−13 middle and 13−18 secondary schools. Earls High School began life as a 13−18 secondary school with facilities spread between the old grammar and technical school buildings. The technical school being merged with the grammar school in 1966.
The school's facilities have been updated over the years with extensions and new teaching blocks added, along with sports halls and a dance centre, astro turf pitches and a new cricket pavilion.
Earls High School's name is derived from the area of woodland on the steep-sided valley of the River Stour which the school overlooks to the east called 'The Earls'. This land was given to the school in 1926 by Mr. T. F. Grove.
The original building present at the time of the school's foundation in 1652 was demolished in 1864 and replaced by a new building on the same site fronting Grammar School Lane. This building was positioned approximately in the centre of what is now the Earls' traffic roundabout.
A further school building (now the oldest building still in existence) was opened on Friday 1 March 1908. The former school hall within this building (now housing the current library) has fine stained glass windows donated by Sir George Hingley in memory of his uncle Sir Benjamin Hingley who was educated at the school.
The current main school building (known as 'A' Block) was opened in 1931. The architect, Mr A. T. Butler F.R.I.B.A. was educated at the school.
The school has a successful house system believed to have been introduced by Mr. R. Dickinson (Headmaster) in around 1910. The names of the houses (Cobham, Abbey, Shenstone and Hingley) all have connections with Halesowen.
The school motto – Ut Filii Lucis Fiatis ("That We Shall Become Sons of Light") is likely to have been introduced prior to 1905, the date when girls were first admitted to the school.
In September 1982, the Halesowen area (which had become part of the Dudley borough in April 1974) abandoned the three-tier education system and Earls High became an 11-16 school, gaining two younger year groups of 11- and 12-year-olds (first and second years) but its sixth form was closed following the establishment of an expanded tertiary college of further education at nearby Halesowen College. In September 1990, the traditional 1-5 year numbers were replaced with a continuous year numbering system which saw the year groups designated as 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11.
The school is among the highest performing in the whole Dudley borough, with the percentage of pupils gaining 5 or more GCSEs at grade C or above regularly passing the 60% mark.[1]
A sixth form centre was added in September 2009, at the same time as a similar unit was opened at nearby Windsor High School, as sixth form education made a return to Halesowen secondary schools after an absence of almost 30 years.[2]
On Thursday 3 November 2011, the school was forced to temporarily close due to a school building (containing the school's phone lines) being hit by lightning. This resulted in an explosion and reported injuries. The lightning first hit the second oldest existing block 'B' block (the former technical college), in part destroying part of the old bell tower above the main entrance. The direct hit caused timber and roof tiles to fall to the ground, one injuring a year 9 pupil. The lightning also struck the gymnasium to the rear of 'B' block causing activities to halt and/or be postponed. The lightning then struck the 'astroturf' artificial sports pitch to the front of 'A' Block near a group of year 8 pupils. The school emergency response was then implemented and everyone was ushered inside. The lightning then hit 'A' block and its car park, 'L' block (a language block adjacent to 'B' Block) shattering the windows. 'E' block, (the English block) and 'C' block (the art and music block), both adjacent to the tennis courts, were also struck.[3]
Earls High School from the tower of St John the Baptist, Halesowen's 1,000-year-old, Grade 1 Listed ChurchThe 1908 block of Earls High School
Notable alumni
Alumni are known as Old Halesonians. The school has long been seen as a strong academic institution and sportingly good at rugby union - the old boys' team eventually being formed in 1930 and becoming the Halesowen Old Halesonians team, supplying their name.
Gary Titley, teacher at this school, MEP and leader of the EPLP
David Winchurch, chief executive, Walsall MB Council, 1991-2000
Anthony Lamb, guitarist and singer in Leicester punk band Earls
George Prosser, drummer in Leicester punk band Earls
Related Research Articles
Halesowen is a large market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the county of West Midlands, England. It is considered as one of the largest towns in the United Kingdom without a railway station.
The Metropolitan Borough of Dudley is a metropolitan borough of West Midlands in England. It was created in 1974 following the Local Government Act 1972, through a merger of the existing Dudley County Borough with the municipal boroughs of Stourbridge and Halesowen. The borough borders Sandwell to the east, the city of Birmingham to the south east, Bromsgrove to the south in Worcestershire, South Staffordshire District to the west, and the city of Wolverhampton to the north.
William Shenstone was an English poet and one of the earliest practitioners of landscape gardening through the development of his estate, The Leasowes.
Sheldon School is a large mixed secondary school and sixth form in Chippenham, Wiltshire for students aged 11 to 18 and is the largest school in Wiltshire. Since April 2011, it has been an Academy. It is one of three in Chippenham, the others being Abbeyfield and Hardenhuish. Since 1 September 2012, the school has been headed by Neil Spurdell, who was previously headteacher at John O'Gaunt School in Hungerford, West Berkshire. The school is situated in the southern zone of Hardenhuish Park on the Hardenhuish Lane, with Hardenhuish School nearby to the north.
Rutlish School is a state comprehensive school for boys, formerly a grammar school with the same name originally located on Rutlish Road, Merton Park, and relocated in 1957 on nearby Watery Lane, Merton Park, in southwest London. It is particularly noted for its most famous former pupil, the former Conservative politician and British Prime Minister Sir John Major, in its grammar school period in the 1950s.
Priory School is a British co-educational secondary school for 11- to 16-year-olds located on Mountfield Road in the East Sussex town of Lewes. It received widespread public attention in 2019 over its policy of forcing girls to wear trousers.
Lymm High School is a secondary school and sixth form with academy status, located in Lymm, Warrington, Cheshire.
Derby High School or "The Derby" as it is known locally, is a secondary school, located on Radcliffe Road, Bury, Greater Manchester, England. It opened in September 1959 as the Derby Grammar School, a new school that offered both a grammar and a technical education. Some of the pupils moved from Bury High School, a Grammar School on nearby Parliament Street, which closed when the Derby opened. They had gone there having passed the Eleven Plus examination. Other pupils came from Bury Junior Technical School having attended that school from the age of 13 years. The school was formed by merging those two schools into a grammar-technical school. In September 1979 it became a comprehensive school and its sixth form was closed. There are extensive playing fields to the front of the school and the school is easily recognised with its distinctive tower.
Watford Grammar School for Boys is a partially selective academy for boys in Watford in Hertfordshire, England. The school and its sister school, Watford Grammar School for Girls, descend from a Free School founded as a charity school for boys and girls by Elizabeth Fuller in 1704. Despite its name, the school accepts boys of all abilities, although approximately a third are selected for academic or musical aptitude, and brothers of existing pupils are also guaranteed places. Its results are among the highest achieved by non-grammar state schools in England.
Chesham Grammar School is a co-educational grammar school on White Hill, Chesham, Buckinghamshire. There are about 1,200 male and female pupils aged between eleven and eighteen, including nearly 350 in the sixth form. In 2007 the Department for Education awarded the school specialist school status as a Humanities College. In August 2011 the school became an Academy.
Halesowen College is a further and higher education college in Whittingham Road, Halesowen, West Midlands. The college also has a Business Centre about a mile away at Coombswood that opened in September 1999.
Herschel Grammar School is a co-educational grammar school with academy status, located in Slough, Berkshire, England. The headteacher is Mrs Joanne Rockall. The school has around 900 pupils, 250 of whom are in the sixth form.
Leasowes High School is a secondary school in Halesowen, West Midlands, England. It was opened in 1972 to replace the nearby Hill & Cakemore Secondary School, and during the 1990s awarded Community College status.
Queen Elizabeth's School (QEGS) is an academy school for 11- to 18-year-olds in the town of Ashbourne, Derbyshire, England. In the academic year 2009–10, there were 1,396 pupils on roll.
Formal education in Sheffield, a city in England, takes place at the city's two universities, 141 primary schools and 28 secondary schools.
Cradley High School was a secondary school located in the Cradley area of Halesowen, which is a village in the West Midlands county of England. It is situated in the west end of Halesowen near the borders with Stourbridge and Brierley Hill, namely Homer Hill. As of 2006, the school had 606 pupils on roll.
Stanwell School is a co-educational foundation status comprehensive school and Sixth form college located in Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales for children aged between eleven and eighteen. The school is located in the town of Penarth, 5 miles south west from Cardiff.
King Edward VI Academy, is a coeducational bi-lateral secondary school and sixth form with academy status, located in Spilsby, Lincolnshire, England, for children between the ages of eleven and eighteen.
This article details a number of defunct schools that were once located in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. For details of currently operating schools in the area, please see: List of schools in Dudley.
This article details a number of defunct schools that were once located in Sandwell in the West Midlands of England. For details of currently operating schools in Sandwell, please see: List of schools in Sandwell.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
