Spalding High School, Lincolnshire

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Spalding High School
Address
Spalding High School, Lincolnshire
Stonegate

, ,
PE11 2PJ

England
Coordinates 52°46′59″N0°08′35″W / 52.7831°N 0.1431°W / 52.7831; -0.1431
Information
Type Community grammar school
MottoLampada Vitae Tradimus
Hand on the Lamp of Life
Established1920
Local authority Lincolnshire
Department for Education URN 120642 Tables
Ofsted Reports
ChairP Gorton
Head teacherM K Anderson
GenderGirls
Age11to 18
Enrolment972
Website http://www.spaldinghigh.lincs.sch.uk

Spalding High School (SHS) is a grammar school for girls and a mixed sixth form located in Spalding, Lincolnshire, England.

Contents

Location and admissions

Spalding High School, situated on Stonegate, Spalding, halfway between the Welland (and B1173) and the Coronation Channel to the east. The rear of the school, to the east, backs onto Exeter Drain and the Spalding Academy playing fields. The school also accepts some girls from Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and Norfolk.

SHS admits pupils aged 11–18, all of whom are required to pass an 11+ exam. There are approximately 1,000 staff and students at the school. The headmistress is Michele Anderson.

History

The school opened on 22 January 1920, originally at Ayscoughfee Hall School, then moved to its current site in the late 1950s. There are a number of watercolours of the original site in the school's collection, as well as all full school photos (taken once every five years) dating back to the school's early days. The library keeps an archive of photos, programmes and other memorabilia.

A Guide unit was founded in 1925, the 4th Spalding group. In December 1931 Lady Hoskyns gave out the prizes; she attended the same Cambridge college as the headmistress. [1] The speech day on 15 February 1938 was given by Prof Charles Melville Attlee (1894-1971) of University College Nottingham. [2]

Sir John Gleed was the chairman of the governors until 1943. There were 265 at the school in the 1940s, with only 14 in the sixth form.

Due to lack of room, some girls chose to travel to Wisbech High School in preference. On 27 January 1944, Holland Education Committee purchased 8.5 acres for a new school. Planning permission was given by 1948. In 1948 a Biology laboratory and two classrooms were built on netball courts. In the early 1950s around one in a hundred women went to university. [3]

By 1953, there were 410 at the school, with 56 in the sixth form. The 'Daily Mirror' and 'Daily Herald' visited the school in 1953 to look at the cramped buildings. The Minister of Education announced that four classrooms would be built on the boys grammar school playing fields, for the girls' school. But a new school could not be built until 1958. The new classrooms opened in 1955 as the 'Medway Rooms'.

Dual site

In February 1957 the new school foundations were started. The building was to be completed by September 1958, but it would take until January 1959. The school wanted a separate gym, but Sir Oswald Giles of the county council wanted the school hall to be the gym. The new school opened Thursday 8 January 1959. Biology, Chemistry and Physics were taught in separate laboratories. The new school was officially opened Friday 20 March 1959 by Sir Herbert Butcher, with chairman of Holland Education Committee. But the school was now a two-site school. By 1960 there were 500 at the school, with 80 in the sixth form. The swimming pool was built in 1967.

21 year old trainee classics teacher Miss Jennifer Jane Stearman, of 21 Redfearn Close in Cambridge, who taught with Mr Les Churchill, was killed in a vehicle collision, in a Morris 1000, with a truck on the evening of Sunday 18 February 1973, at the southern end of the A1073 Crowland bypass. She was visiting her grandmother in March, Cambridgeshire, and was taken to Peterborough Hospital. The bypass had opened in 1972, and this was the first death. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

Single site

By 1980 the sixth form was 160. [9] A new £1.3m block would open in 1985, with construction starting in May 1984, [10] which would allow all teaching to take place on one site from January 1986. [11]

It was officially opened in March 1986 by Frances Manners, Duchess of Rutland; her mother featured in the 2021 A Very British Scandal ; the Duchess was pleased that Lincolnshire retained grammar schools, saying 'freedom of choice is the sign of a free society'. [12] By 1989 there were 710 at the school. [13]

The £559,000 technology centre was officially opened on Thursday 14 October 1993 by Prof Richard Kimbell, of Goldsmiths College. Construction had started in April 1992, and it opened in January 1993. [14] A new six-classroom £409,000 Languages block was approved by Lincolnshire County Council in May 1994, to start construction in December 1994. [15] The school now had 900 girls, often travelling from Peterborough. [16]

The new Languages block was opened in February 1996 by the Leader of Lincolnshire County Council, although had been open since September 1995. [17] [18]

Sport

In the 1960s and 1970s, the school's playing field was frequently used for national and regional schools' hockey competitions. It achieved sports college status in 2003. [19]

On 28 April 1983, 13 year old Melanie Hampson had a serious javelin accident, and was taken to the Pilgrim Hospital. [20]

In July 1992, the school gymnastics team represented the UK in the European Schools Games in France. [21] [22]

Houses

In a typical year group at SHS there are five forms of approximately 30 pupils. Each form is a member of a house. There are five houses, each named after famous women of historic importance:

Headteachers

Notable former pupils

Notable former teachers

See also

References

  1. Spalding Guardian Saturday 12 December 1931, page 12
  2. Lincolnshire Free Press Monday 2 January 1939, page 5
  3. "Curfews in halls and hardly any women: What Birmingham Uni was like in the 1950s". University of Birmingham. 25 October 2022. Retrieved 5 April 2025.
  4. Cambridge Daily News Tuesday 20 February 1973, page 35
  5. Lincolnshire Free Press Tuesday 20 February 1973, page 1
  6. Spalding Guardian Friday 23 February 1973, page 3
  7. Spalding Guardian Friday 2 March 1973, page 2
  8. Spalding Guardian Friday 11 May 1973, page 3
  9. Spalding Guardian Friday 19 December 1980, page 6
  10. Spalding Guardian Friday 11 May 1984, page 7
  11. Spalding Guardian Friday 21 December 1984, page 19
  12. Lincolnshire Free Press Tuesday 25 March 1986, page 5
  13. Spalding Guardian Friday 26 May 1989, page 28
  14. Lincolnshire Free Press Tuesday 19 October 1993, page 48
  15. Spalding Guardian Friday 20 May 1994, page 19
  16. Lincolnshire Free Press Tuesday 1 November 1994, page 14
  17. Spalding Guardian Friday 26 January 1996, page 44
  18. Spalding Guardian Friday 9 February 1996, page 10
  19. Sports college
  20. Lincolnshire Free Press Tuesday 3 May 1983, page 1
  21. Spalding Guardian Friday 26 June 1992, page 18
  22. Times Saturday July 4 1992, page 35
  23. Lincolnshire Free Press Tuesday 25 August 1959, page 8
  24. Times Tuesday August 18 1959, page 1
  25. Lincolnshire Echo Thursday 26 November 1925, page 3
  26. Liverpool Daily Post Friday 25 September 1931, page 5
  27. Times Monday February 20 1950, page 1
  28. Spalding Guardian Saturday 27 June 1931, page 7
  29. Times Tuesday November 17 1936
  30. Spalding Guardian Friday 20 November 1936, page 11
  31. Lincolnshire Echo Monday 28 December 1936, page 5
  32. Spalding Guardian Friday 1 January 1937, page 6
  33. Spalding Guardian Friday 1 July 1938, page 11
  34. Spalding Guardian Friday 29 June 1945, page 5
  35. Spalding Guardian Friday 30 January 1970, page 24
  36. Lincolnshire Free Press Tuesday 14 March 1995, page 12
  37. Spalding Guardian Friday 19 December 1997, page 3
  38. Spalding Guardian Friday 30 January 1970, page 24
  39. Lincolnshire Free Press Tuesday 3 February 1970, page 2
  40. Spalding Guardian Friday 23 April 1976, page 13
  41. Lincolnshire Free Press Tuesday 21 December 1976, page 1
  42. Times Wednesday September 17 2003, page 31
  43. Lincolnshire Free Press Tuesday 16 November 1976, page 5
  44. Spalding Guardian Friday 3 May 1991, page 2
  45. Spalding Guardian Friday 13 February 1987, page 1
  46. Spalding Guardian Friday 12 June 1987, page 1
  47. Spalding Guardian Friday 17 July 1987, page 1
  48. Spalding Guardian Friday 17 July 1987, page 1
  49. Spalding Guardian Friday 25 December 1987, page 16
  50. Lincolnshire Free Press Tuesday 22 October 1991, page 2
  51. Lincolnshire Free Press Tuesday 7 April 1992, page 11
  52. Lincolnshire Free Press Tuesday 14 January 1986, page 9
  53. Lincolnshire Standard Thursday 16 January 1986, page 9
  54. Sleaford Standard Friday 17 January 1986, page 4
  55. Lincolnshire Free Press Tuesday 9 June 1992, page 22
  56. Spalding Guardian Friday 28 June 1985, page 29
  57. Lincolnshire Free Press Tuesday 28 July 1987, page 16
  58. Lincolnshire Free Press Tuesday 21 September 1982, page 9
  59. Spalding Guardian Friday 8 January 1988, page 8
  60. Spalding Guardian Friday 25 November 1988, page 25
  61. Lincolnshire Free Press Thursday 27 December 1990, page 12
  62. Lincolnshire Free Press Tuesday 24 December 1991, page 24
  63. Lincolnshire Free Press Tuesday 26 August 1980, page 5
  64. Lincolnshire Free Press Tuesday 24 August 1982, page 2
  65. Spalding Guardian Friday 25 September 1992, page 15
  66. "Laela Tabrizi". The British Library. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
  67. Lincolnshire Free Press Tuesday 28 July 1953, page 7
  68. Spalding Guardian Friday 3 August 1962, page 18
  69. Spalding Guardian Friday 23 March 1956, page 11
  70. Spalding Guardian Friday 30 November 1956, page 1
  71. Birmingham Mail Tuesday 16 September 1986, page 9
  72. Lincolnshire Free Press Tuesday 26 January 1960, page 4
  73. Lincolnshire Free Press Tuesday 3 March 1964, page 1