The 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 RFC team, supplying their name.[4]
Halesowen is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the county of West Midlands, England.
The Metropolitan Borough of Dudley is a metropolitan borough of West Midlands, 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.
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 secondary schools in Chippenham, the others being Abbeyfield and Hardenhuish. The school is headed by Peter Lynch, former Headteacher of Bradley Stoke Community School, who was appointed in September 2023.The school is off the Hardenhuish Lane in the southern region of Hardenhuish Park, which is all that separates it from Hardenhuish School to the north.
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.
Ashby School, formerly known as Ashby Grammar School, is a co-educational day secondary school and sixth form in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, England. The school is situated in the centre of Ashby on two sites.
Halesowen College is a further and higher education college in Whittingham Road, Halesowen, West Midlands. It was established in 1982 as a tertiary college. The college also has a Business Centre about a mile away at Coombswood that opened in September 1999.
Cradley is a village in the Black Country and Metropolitan Borough of Dudley near Halesowen and the banks of the River Stour. Colley Gate is the name of the short road in the centre of Cradley. It was part of the ancient parish of Halesowen, but unlike much of the rest of that parish, which was an exclave of Shropshire, Cradley was always in Worcestershire, until the creation of the West Midlands county in 1974. This meant that for civil administrative purposes, Cradley formerly had the officers which a parish would have had. The population of the appropriate Dudley Ward taken at the 2011 census was 13,340.
Q3 Academy Tipton is a coeducational secondary school located in Tipton in the West Midlands of England.
Leasowes High School is a coeducational secondary school located in Halesowen in the West Midlands of England.
Sponne School in Towcester, Northamptonshire, England, is the oldest secondary school in Northamptonshire, and one of the oldest in the country. Part of the school was originally Towcester Grammar School, until Grammar schools were abolished in Northamptonshire. In 1968, the Grammar school was joined with the next-door Secondary Modern school, and the school was renamed Sponne, after Archdeacon William Sponne, who was Rector at the nearby St. Lawrence Church in the 15th century and the original founder of the school.
Formal education in Sheffield, England, takes place at the city's two universities, 141 primary schools and 28 secondary schools.
The Crestwood School is a coeducational secondary school with academy status in Kingswinford, West Midlands, England. It is an 11-18 comprehensive school with over 900 students.
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.
Wombourne High School is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form located in Wombourne, Staffordshire, England. It is situated on Ounsdale Road in the west of the village, and stands on an adjacent site to the local leisure centre. It also has an Invictus sixth form base campus on site for 16- to 19-year-olds, which has a built 6th form centre detachment which was opened by the pop star Beverley Knight. The schools is currently undergoing building, this includes; New window fixtures, A secondary entrance to the reception area with a disabled ramp and stairs.
Wetherby High School is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form located in the Hallfield area of Wetherby, West Yorkshire, England.
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.
Ellesmere Park High School is a coeducational secondary school located in the Ellesmere Park area of Eccles, Greater Manchester, England. The school has gone through several renovations throughout the years.
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.
