Skegness Grammar School

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Skegness Grammar School
Skegness Grammar School - badge.jpg
Address
Skegness Grammar School
Vernon Road

, ,
PE25 2QS

England
Coordinates 53°08′56″N0°20′02″E / 53.1490°N 0.3340°E / 53.1490; 0.3340
Information
Type Grammar school
Academy
Motto Latin: Murus Aeneus Conscientia Sana
(A sound conscience is a wall of brass)
Established1483;542 years ago (1483)
(1933 at current site)
Founder William de Waynflete
Department for Education URN 138757 Tables
Ofsted Reports
Head teacherJude Hunton
Gender Coeducational
Age11to 19 (in certain cases)
Enrolment670 pupils
HousesLumley
Magdalen
Newton
Tennyson
Colour(s)Bottle Green and Gold
Website http://www.skegnessgrammar.co.uk/

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

Contents

Selection to the school is by the eleven-plus examination by entry test or personal interview. The school roll consists of 472 pupils including 106 pupils in the sixth form.

Skegness Grammar School was founded over 500 years ago by a Lord High Chancellor of England. It 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.

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] The school opened on Wednesday 20 September 1933, and cost £30,000 for 200 places. [2] The headteacher was Kenneth George Spendlove. [3] On Thursday 12 October 1933 it was officially opened by Sir Arthur Wallace Pickard-Cambridge. [4] It opened for an entry of 220, being enlarged in the late 1950s to take around 400. [5]

Around six children were transferred to the grammar school each year from the secondary modern schools in the 1960s. [6]

By the early 1980s, the 1930s-era buildings were creaking. Sports facilities were sparce, as were adequate science laboratories. The Director of Education, Fred Rickard, said the school was the worst-equipped secondary school in the county. [7]

School houses

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

Lumley - after Aldred Lumley, 10th 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.

Competitions

The school competed against a team from Boston High School on Wednesday 14 September 1983 on Top of the Form on Radio 4. The team lost 65-58. [8]

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. [9]

The BBC Radio 4 Any Questions? was broadcast from the school, on 3 November 1989, with David Willetts, Bea Campbell, Tom Sawyer, Baron Sawyer of NUPE, and John Rae (headmaster) of the Portman Group. [10]

The boarding house opened in July 1991, Wainfleet Hall. [11]

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.

Academy

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

Headteachers

Notable alumni

Former teachers

References

  1. 1 2 "The Magdalen College School, Wainfleet, Lincolnshire, UK". BBC. Retrieved 1 October 2010.
  2. Times Wednesday 20 September 1933
  3. Times Saturday 26 August 1933, page 11
  4. Skegness News Wednesday 18 October 1933, page 8
  5. Skegness Standard Wednesday 9 July 1975, page 1
  6. Skegness Standard Wednesday 28 October 1964, page 6
  7. Skegness Standard Friday 9 April 1982, page 8
  8. "Narrow defeat". Skegness Standard. 22 September 1983. p. 22. Retrieved 7 June 2025.
  9. "First grant maintained school" . Retrieved 23 May 2013.
  10. Skegness Standard Friday 10 November 1989, page 7
  11. Skegness Standard Friday 19 July 1991, page 3
  12. Lincolnshire Echo Friday 7 January 1949, page 3
  13. Skegness Standard Wednesday 23 January 1924, page 8
  14. Skegness Standard Friday 5 May 1978, page 4
  15. Skegness News Wednesday 11 May 1949, page 5
  16. Skegness News Wednesday 24 November 1954, page 2
  17. Skegness Standard Wednesday 11 May 1960, page 8
  18. Skegness Standard Wednesday 16 July 1975, page 6
  19. Skegness Standard Friday 22 May 1992, page 4
  20. Skegness Standard Friday 7 July 1978, page 6
  21. Skegness Standard Friday 15 May 1992, page 1
  22. Grimsby Evening Telegraph Saturday 29 June 1957, page 5
  23. Skegness Standard Wednesday 3 July 1957, page 5
  24. Nottingham Evening Post Friday 5 July 1957, page 9
  25. Skegness Standard Wednesday 18 September 1957, page 1
  26. Skegness Standard Friday 10 February 1989, page 19
  27. Skegness Standard Friday 9 September 1994, page 64
  28. Skegness Standard Friday 16 September 1994, page 27
  29. Skegness Standard Friday 27 June 1980, page 1
  30. Skegness Standard Friday 21 November 1980, page 9
  31. Skegness Standard Friday 18 March 1994, page 6
  32. Skegness Standard Friday 28 February 1997, page 3
  33. Skegness Standard Friday 18 March 1977
  34. Skegness Standard Wednesday 8 May 1974, page 3
  35. "Noël Greig obituary", The Guardian, 23 September 2009. Retrieved 28 July 2011
  36. "Former Boston and Skegness UKIP candidate takes up new post". Boston Standard. 23 May 2016.
  37. Times Tuesday 22 September 2009, page 59