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Leicester Grammar School (often abbreviated to LGS), is an independent secondary school situated in the centre of Leicester, United Kingdom, close to Leicester Cathedral, with which it has close links. It was founded in 1981, after the loss of the city's state-funded Grammar Schools. The school's location is unusual for a secondary school in the United Kingdom for its proximity to the city centre, as well as being included in the Guildhall Conservation Area, one of three designated conservation areas within Leicester.

Leicester Grammar School is closely affiliated with Leicester Grammar Junior School, and in general over 95% of Junior School leavers are accepted by the senior school.

The school has just over 70 teaching staff and 700 pupils, all of whom are day-students. It has its own preparatory form for children in Year 6, and its own sixth form for Years 12 and 13. Each student at the school is a member of a house, allowing a system of inter-school competition in sports and other pastimes such as chess, general knowledge and karaoke.

History

Founding

The school was founded in 1981 as an independent, selective, co-educational day school in an attempt to recapture the standards and traditions of the city’s former Grammar Schools. Located in four late-Victorian buildings in Leicester City Centre, the school was established within close proximity to Leicester Cathedral and was founded with an Anglican Christian ethos. The first headmaster was John Higginbotham and under his stewardship the school grew from just 96 to 560 pupils within 10 years.

Development

Over its short history, the school began to achieve a national reputation as one of the country’s leading academic institutions. In 1993, its headmaster was elected to the Headmaster’s Conference and the school has remained in its first division since then. In the same year, the School was ranked 15th nationally on A-Level results and acknowledged as the country’s top co-educational school.

Relocation

In February 2007 construction began on a new school campus, located on a green field site near Great Glen. The new development is to allow for school growth, restricted by its current location within the city centre. Leicester Grammar Senior School will share the new site with its sister school Leicester Grammar Junior School, but each will have its own facilities. Previously, the school had no playing fields of its own and had transport pupils to various sporting facilities by bus; the new school will have 75 acres of playing fields, hard tennis and netball courts with a pavilion, and a sports hall with 6 badminton courts, a gym and a fitness suite, and a 6-lane 25m indoor pool. However, by moving the school will loose its ties with the Cathedral, as well as its distinctive city-centre atmosphere.

Entrance assessment

In common with many other independent schools, it requires prospective pupils to undertake a series of entrance examinations before they are accepted into the school. The majority of these pupils take the entrance examination when 10 or 11 years old, and these pupils present a large proportion of new students. An entrance examination for pupils wishing to join the school after studying for GCSEs is also required before entry into the school's sixth form.

Buildings

The St Nicholas Building, referred to as St Nicholas', was the original building the founders of Leicester Grammar School acquired . It houses classrooms used for sciences, including biology and chemistry, form rooms for pupils in junior years, modern foreign language, geography, latin, ICT, mathematics classrooms and The Great Hall, a space used for house meetings and band practice.

The St Martin Building (St Martin's), on Peacock Lane, provides form rooms for the preparatory year as well as art rooms and a design and technology department.

The St Katharine Building (St Katharine's), on Guildhall Lane, is dedicated to the English, history, politics and economics departments, in addition to a drama studio for pupils studying drama and theatre studies. The St Katharine Building also contains form rooms for more senior pupils, a sixth form common room and a canteen, which replaced the previous school kitchens near the Great Hall in the St Nicholas building. It also contains the maths office and senior and junior library

The school also has access to other buildings in the city centre, some of which are used by sixth formers for private study, notably a small building situated on Friar Lane.

Education

Leicester Grammar provides education for approximately 700 (2005/6) pupils aged between 10 and 18, including GCSEs and A-Levels. Some of the rarer subjects offered by the school include Ancient Greek and Latin (which is compulsory for years 7 and 8).

Houses

On entrance into the school, pupils and teachers alike are designated a house, to which they belong for the entirety of their stay at the school. New entrants to the school are always allocated to the same house as their older siblings. The four houses are named after the four original patrons of the school. Each house has a colour, which is incorporated into both the house jumpers and t-shirts used during sports.

See also: Leicester Grammar School uniform

Masters

Masters House is named after the Master of Christ's College, Cambridge. Its house colours are navy blue and gold.

Dukes

Dukes House is named after the Duke of Rutland. Its house colour is maroon.

Judges

Judges House is named after Mr Justice Skinner (now deceased). Its house colour is light blue. Until the 2005/6 school term, Judges remained the only house never to have won the Midland Bank Cup. This earned them the nickname "The House of Sorrow". However, in that term the house underwent a significant re-branding and changed their nickname to "The House of Tomorrow". That year (in which there was no sports day, traditionally the house's weakness), they won the Midland Bank Cup for the first and only time.

Vice-Chancellors

Vice Chancellors House (very commonly abbreviated to VCs) is named after the former Vice-Chancellor of Leicester University. Its house colour is green. VCs is the most successful house in the school's short history, having won the Midland Bank Cup the most times.

Sports

As Leicester Grammar School is situated in the centre of Leicester, pupils are transported by bus to various sporting activities in and around Leicester.

Uniform

Leicester Grammar School pupils are obliged to wear a basic school uniform. Leicester Grammar School also issues an obligatory uniform for sports and physical education lessons, with PE shirt collars being the colour of the pupil's respective house.

Boys

• Male sixth form pupils are able to wear suits and ties as long as they are deemed presentable to the public,
• Pupils in lower years must wear navy blue blazers, white shirts and charcoal trousers, with a tie embossed with the school emblem.

Girls

• Female pupils in the sixth form are able to wear smart clothes, including suits, as long as they are deemed presentable to the public,
• Pupils in lower years must wear a skirt in the school tartan, a white blouse and a navy blue blazer similar to those worn by the boys.

House jumpers

Pupils in years below the sixth form also have the option of wearing a house jumper- a V-necked jumper with a line of colour (of their respective house) running around the neckline, apart from Masters which has yellow instead of dark blue on the jumper (because dark blue wouldn't show up).

Performance

Leicester Grammar School has come within the top 200 schools in Great Britain several times in the past few years. The school out-performs local state schools in both results and attendance.

Local ties

The school is closely linked with Leicester Grammar Junior School, which the Leicester Grammar School Trust was given responsibility to in 1992 by the Sisters of Charity of St.Paul, based in Selly Park, Birmingham .

Leicester Grammar School remains close with Leicester Cathedral despite a significant presence of pupils from other faiths in the school. Choir rehearsals, School Foundation Day and Christmas services are held in the cathedral, as well as most daily school assemblies.

Notable alumni

Alumni of Leicester Grammar School are known as Old Leicestrians.

• Harry Ellis, a rugby player for the Leicester Tigers and England.
• Luke Abraham, a rugby player for the Leicester Tigers and has represented England U18 and England U21.
• Sarah Teather, a British politician who is the Member of Parliament for Brent East.

Trivia

Common punishments issued to students include the use of 'blue slips' in which a student's name and form group is written down on a pre-printed blue slip with reasons for issuing. These include rudeness, lack of equipment, lateness etc. An after-school detention ranging from 30 minutes to 1 hour is given to the student if he/she receives 3 or more blue slips.

A school rule which dictates that a student must wear 'predominantly white trainers' in sports activities such as running and softball is considered unnecessary by many students as it restricts the choice of footwear allowed to be used. Football or rugby boots used at school must also be 'predominantly black'.

The white house shirts with a unique colour allocated to each house can only be brought from a supplier certified by the school. The polo shirts are generally of low quality characterized by their light and thin material, prone to tearing and formation of holes as seen on many worn shirts.

Due to the schools close proximity to the city centre, no open fields are readily available for sports use. This results in long journey times to and back from specially chosen public or hired sites, which in some cases can take up large amounts of valuable teaching time.

See also

• Leicester
• Leicester Cathedral
• Loughborough Endowed Schools
• Leicester Guildhall

References

1. "School Profile". Leicester Grammar Junior School website. Retrieved 2007-05-27.
2. "Academic Staff". Leicester Grammar School website. Retrieved 2007-05-25.
3. "Leicester Grammar School". The Guide to Independent Schools. 2006-12-14. Retrieved 2007-05-25.
4. "Obituary of John Higginbotham". Times Online. 2007-04-21. Retrieved 2007-05-25.
5. "HMC Schools H-L". The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference website. Retrieved 2007-05-27.
6. "Leicester Grammar School". Eteach: Education jobs online. Retrieved 2007-05-27.
7. "Relocation Latest". Leicester Grammar School website. Retrieved 2007-05-25.
8. "League Tables: Leicester Grammar School". BBC News. 2006-01-19. Retrieved 2007-05-25.

External links

• Leicester Grammar School homepage,
• A map of the Guildhall Conservation area, including Leicester Grammar School,
• BBC News page, with data on performance and attendance,
• Leicester Grammar School's entry in the Schools Guidebook

52°38′04″N 1°08′17″W / 52.6344°N 1.1380°W / 52.6344; -1.1380

• Schools in Leicestershire
• Members of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference
• Educational institutions established in 1981