Harrogate Grammar School

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Harrogate Grammar School

School type	Comprehensive
Established	1903
Principal	Mr. Richard Sheriff
Faculty	120
Students	1,740
Sixth form	460
Email	admin@hgs.n-yorks.sch.uk
Fax	01423 521325
Location	Arthurs Avenue, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, HG2 0DZ United Kingdom
Information	01423 531127
Website	http://www.hgs.n-yorks.sch.uk/

Harrogate Grammar School is a specialist Language College in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, UK. It has about 1700 pupils and there are about 400 pupils in the sixth form. The current headmaster is Mr. Richard Sheriff who became the full time headmaster of the school in January 2007. Mr Sheriff was appointed to replace the previous headmaster, Dr. Phillip Limbert , who left the school in July 2006.

1 History
2 Sport
3 Sixth Form
4 Bullying
5 Air Training Corps
6 External links
7 References

[edit] History

[edit] Early History

Harrogate Grammar School was founded in 1903 as the Municipal Secondary Day School of Harrogate. Its original premises were simply a collection of rented rooms in Haywra Cresent.^[1] By the time the school achieved Grammar School status in 1931 the school had long since outgrown its premises as the original roll of 44 pupils had grown to 530. Work began on the 'new' Grammar School in Arthurs Avenue, to which the staff and pupils transferred in 1933.

[edit] Expansion

During World War II evacuees poured in to Harrogate from the cities. This swelled the roll at the school to 900, still a small number compared with the current roll of 1740 (as of 2006).

To keep pace with these numbers there have been various periods of building expansion, notably in the 1970s with the addition of a sports hall, gymnasium, music, technology facilities.

In 1973 the school became a Comprehensive School, but the Headmaster of the time was not in favour of the comprehensive school system and began a campaign for the school to retain at least its grammar school name if not the status. After a lengthy battle with the local authority the school won its bid to retain its name and is still know as Harrogate Grammar School today.

In the 1980s a new sixth form block was added to the school and has recently been further extended. A humanities building was added in the 1990s. A new-build library and IT suite were opened in July of 2006. The most recent addition to the school's facilities is a series of temporary classrooms, added in January 2007.

[edit] Specialist Status

In 2002 Harrogate Grammar School acquired Specialist Language Status and now enjoys state-of-the-art language-learning facilities as well as the services of six native speaker language assistants each year. In 2006 the school was recognised as an extremely successful specialist school and was invited to take on a second specialism in technology.

[edit] Sport

Harrogate Grammar School

The school boasts several sports teams for boys and girls and they have enjoyed many past honours. The School has rugby teams ranging from Year 7 to two Senior teams. The teams usually play matches on a Saturday morning. The school can boast of having England internationals on their books in Edward Pickles who plays at U18 level, as well as Phil Swainston and Dan Metcalfe who played for England U16s. Harry Duthie a former pupil at the school (Year 13 in 2005-2006), and Scotland U18s player, now plays rugby professionaly for Harrogate. In 1994, Martyn Wood also played for England U18's while at the Sixth form.

During 2005/2006 The Under 16 Girls netball team reached the national finals at the Manchester Velodrome having come through the regionals. In the summer of 2006 the Year 7 Cricket team also won the North Yorkshire Cup and when the pupils moved into Year 8 at the start of the new school year, the team beat Leeds Grammar School in the Full Yorkshire Cup (also known as the Jack Bunbury Cup). The team have progressed to the Northern Counties section which will resume just after the start of the summer term in April.

The school can also boast some good footballers who have played for the Area and County in the past. The Year 7 squad has been the most successful this season with a 100% record in their seven games played. The Year 11 team can boast of having one player who played for Barnsley F.C. for a short while but was soon released. There is hope that next year there can also be a football team in the Sixth form.

The Hockey has been good this year with a 1st XV Squad taking part in matches this year mostly in mixed games. In Basketball, Year 11 have so far regularly been playing training together and there is hope that again they could be a sixth form Basketball team.

[edit] Sixth Form

The school has undergone a period of growth in its sixth form and now has a roll of 460 students. The increased provision for sixth form began in the 1980s when a dedicated sixth form block was added. Increasing numbers have meant that the sixth form accommodation has been extended in recent years with the latest addition being a number of temporary classrooms which were installed in early 2007.

Qualifications taught in the sixth form include GCE Advanced Subsidiary Level Qualifications, the GCE Advanced Level Qualifications and the increasingly popular International Baccalaureate diploma^[2].

[edit] Bullying

In 1999, North Yorkshire County Council paid £6000 in an out-of-court settlement to John Carnell, a former pupil who claimed that Harrogate Grammar School persistently failed to protect him from bullying.^[3] The school has always denied these claims and now has an Anti-Bullying Policy in place, which can be inspected on request. In 1999 John Carnell and his mother Liz Carnell founded the charity Bullying Online.

[edit] Air Training Corps

Main article: Air Training Corps

On February 17, 1939 No 58 (Harrogate) Squadron of the Air Defence Cadet Corps was established at the school by the Air League of the British Empire.^[4] The squadron has since moved to separate premises and no longer has an association with the school. However, there are still several students from the school who are active cadets at the squadron.