Ermysted's Grammar School

Ermysteds Grammar School
Address
Gargrave Road Skipton , North Yorkshire , BD23 1PL England
Information
Type	Voluntary aided grammar
Motto	Suivez La Raison
Established	1492
Founder	Peter Toller, William Ermysted
Local authority	North Yorkshire
Specialist	Science
Ofsted	Reports
Deputy Heads	Mr. D G Clough, Mr. I McMechan
Headmaster	Mr. G Hamilton
Predecessor	Mr. T L Ashworth
Staff	50
Gender	Boys
Age	11 to 18
Enrollment	750
Houses	Ermysted   Hartley   Petyt   Toller
Colour(s)	Black and White
Head Boy	Andrew Cairns
Deputy Head Boys	Toby Coughlin, Joshua Ellis-Jones, Andrew Watson
Website	http://www.ermysteds.n-yorks.sch.uk/

Ermysteds Grammar School is a LEA-funded selective boys' Grammar School in Skipton, North Yorkshire teaching over 700 pupils.

It is the seventh oldest state school in Britain and was founded by Peter Toller in the 15th century. The first official record of the school was seen in Peter Toller's will in 1492. Therefore the school records its establishment as the same year.

The motto of the school is 'Suivez La Raison'. Translation from the French is roughly 'follow the truth'. The school operates a house system with inter-house competition in sports, and an annual house quiz held around Christmas. The four houses, Toller (blue tie), Ermysted (yellow tie), Petyt (green tie) and Hartley (red/burgundy tie), are named after key figures in the school's history. Whilst it operated a boarding house Ermysted's boarders were members of School House (red tie) which was affiliated with Ermysted House for the purposes of inter-house competition.

The current headmaster is Mr. Graham Hamilton, his predecessor, Mr. Thomas Ashworth, retired at the end of the 2007/2008 school year. The departing headboy is Richard Carr, and his successor will be Andrew Cairns.

The A-level results of 2006 officially placed it as the best school in Yorkshire, ranking higher than fee paying schools, and amongst the top 25 nationally. The school repeated this success in the 2007 exams, placing amongst the top schools nationally again.

Brief history

Sylvester Petyt who endowed the school with £30,000. Portrait from the National Portrait Gallery

1492 - Peter Toller's will confirmed that he had already founded a school in his chantry of St Nicholas in the parish church, the school takes this as its founding date.

1548 - Edward VI's government took over all chantry lands. William Ermysted re-founded the school with new lands and moved it to the bottom of Shortbank Road.

1707 & 1719 - Wills of Old Boys William and Sylvester Petyt were responsible for gifts to the school, and foundation of the Petyt Library and Petyt Trust.

1773 - Leeds and Liverpool Canal reached Skipton, partly built on E.G.S. land.

1875 - Gargrave Road building begun for 50 day boys and 50 boarders.

1876-1907 - Mr E. T. Hartley, headmaster at the new school.

1882 - Pool & Old Gym (now I.C.T., music and R.E. rooms) begun.

1895 - Science block built (A.P.L. + quiet room).

1924 - First World War, memorial library set up by old boys' society (now room 1 & library office).

1929 - First award of Cook Cup for champion house (won by Hartley).

1933 - "New buildings" opened (rooms A-H, staff room and science laboratories).

1959 - Memorial Hall (to those lost in the Second World War).

1989 - School House closes its doors to boarders.

1992 - Quincentenary celebrations - visit by H.R.H. The Princess Royal; pageant; new sports hall.

2003 - New English/CDT block. Opened by H.R.H. The Duke of Kent.

2006 - Ermysted's gains specialist status in science and mathematics.

2007 - New refectory replaces the ageing canteen as the communal food hall.

2008 - New gym installed in the sports hall.

2008 - Old gym and sixth form common room converted into two new ICT classrooms and two new religious studies classrooms.

2008- School library merged with IT1 to extend library. Further refurbishments of the library are scheduled for next year, as well as a new pavilion being constructed behind the Sports Hall.

2009 - Old Library refurnished and new Sixth Form Library created, replacing old border's dining room.

Buildings

The school is situated between Gargrave Road and Grassington Road. The bulk of the buildings are 19th and early 20th centuries, although many newer buildings now exist, such as the sports hall and Canteen to the north of the site, and the 'English and French Block', housing CDT, English and ICT facilities to the east. Following recent increases in funding and money, resulting from the school's specialist status, most of the classrooms in the older buildings have been refurbished and brought up to modern standards; such as the introduction of electronic whiteboards in many of the science laboratories and languages and Maths classrooms.

OFSTED Inspections

In the 2000 OFSTED inspection, the school's results were 'very high' against the national average, especially upon entry, where year 7s (age 11/12) work to a level 'expected of pupils aged 14.' It has an 'outstanding' 6th form with a wide range of subjects.

The school is 'very successful' at allowing pupils to reach high academic standards, and the quality of teaching is 'good.'

In the past decade the school has ranked among the top state schools in England for 'A'-level results.

In the 2005 OFSTED inspection, the sixth form was described as “outstanding” and achieved Grade 1 Outstanding in every category of assessment.

The 2008 OFSTED inspection was on Wednesday 22 October and the school was delighted to receive an "Outstanding" verdict overall. Seven out of eight areas were given an outstanding verdict. The report is now available to view on the Ofsted website

Events

The school and its PTA run a number of popular events. These include a quiz night, wassail evening (an evening of wine- and carol- based merriment), founders' day (a celebration of the history of the school), speech day (prize-giving and recapitulation of school year), and an annual summer barbecue amongst other events.

Sport

Sport is a major part of Ermysted's life. The school competes in Rugby Union, Cross-Country, Orienteering, Cricket and Football tournaments with teams, and gains considerable success in events entered. The 1st XI Football are currently enjoying a fruitful campaign and won the county shield, and the 1st XV Rugby team won the Daily Mail Vase Final 2007, the national schools competition. Meanwhile the cross country team continues to dominate in the North of England perhaps due to the fact that once every year all students are required to participate in a school cross country race, which takes place in Aireville Park during the Autumn Term. In December Ermysted's "Inter Boys team finished runners-up in the National Final of the English Schools' Cross-Country Cup competition, held at St. Albans. This repeated the performance of 2005 Junior Boys team at Leeds. Occurring annually in the Summer term is Sports Day, during which students compete at athletics in front of a huge crowd.

Rugby Kit

Football Kit

Music

The school's successful Big Band has twice toured Germany, and has another tour planned for 2010, under the tutelage of music teacher Simon Gregory and regularly performs in concerts at school as well as at other prestigious local venues. To date they have produced two CDs. Ermysted's also has a developing string group, providing ensemble experience to young pupils and a chance for the virtuosic older pupils in regular solos. The Junior Big Band is a stepping stone to the Senior Big Band and is primarily for pupils in Years 7-9. A significant proportion of boys receive musical tuition at school and there are now three practise rooms in addition to the main music room and the hall available for pupils and their amateur bands to rehearse. Recently, a highly successful covers band, fronted by head boy '07-'08 Christopher Greenwood, 'Topher G and The Smoochies' has taken both fundraisers and proms by storm.

The school has a notable record in ensembles at all levels. The two most recent leaders of the highly commended Harrogate Youth Jazz Orchestra have come from Ermysted's. It is always well represented in the other senior ensembles of Harrogate Music Centre and has provided the County ensembles with no fewer than a dozen members over the last few years. Two ex-Ermysted's pupils played for the National Youth Orchestra and National Youth Jazz Orchestra during their time at Ermysted's and have both gone to Chetham's to take their music further.

Drama

Although Drama is not taught as a subject in its own right, it forms an integral part of the English curriculum, and a weekly Drama Club meets every Monday lunchtime at 12.00pm.

School plays occur once every two years, in conjunction with Skipton Girls' High School. The latest production was Theatro Diablo based on the 70's musical Disco Inferno and written by a group of enthusiastic Year 11s. The musical was directed by Vahan Salorian, and the show was, overall, extremely well received, with rave reviews in the local newspaper, the Craven Herald & Pioneer.

In addition to various pantomimes and subject-related (namely Latin and Modern Foreign Languages) drama activities, house plays by Years 7-9 occur annually in the Autumn term, with an independent adjudicator voting for the best play.

A group of students also take part in the annual English Schools' Shakespeare Festival. In 2007, an edited version of Julius Caesar was performed at Bradford's Priestley Theatre, and just before the Autumn half-term 2008 an abridged version of Hamlet was performed at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.

One of the first drama productions was "First Years" in 1990, a school-based comedy written and directed by David Gray-Clough, who was then Head of English at the school. Head of Music Simon Gregory was responsible for the music, and jokingly said he regretted working with Clough ever since, claims the latter of the two in the school's official annual publication, the Chronicles of Ermysted's.

Debating

The school has a long history of competitive debating, and after a hiatus of some years, a debating club was set up in late 2006. The school puts forward teams in many events, with some success: in 2007, Ermysted's pupils were placed 3rd out of 24 schools in the 'Great Shakespeare Debate' in Stratford-upon-Avon, and reached the regional final of the ESU Schools Debating Mace. A Sixth Form team will also participate in the European Youth Parliament Debating Forum National Final in September 2009, having won the "Yorkshire and Humberside Regional Final".

School Publications

The Chronicles of Ermysted's is the official annual school publication, containing details of any notable school events, student visits, results, destinations, school activities and, more recently, what the student would like to include. The latest publications of the Chronicles was entirely written, designed and edited by Sixth Formers for the first time as it put on a new, modernised flavour, a relief to the more senior pupils who were getting quite bored of the old chronicles. This was pleasing to the young members of the school but considered "too much like Ted" by some teachers. Ted is an entirely student-run school magazine, started by the notable leavers of 2008, and carried on by the current sixth formers. It is a site of much inside-joking, ranting and fun-making, and, while not received well by everyone due to its controversies and type of humour, it is always highly anticipated by others. Online publications of the magazine can be found at: http://ermysted.freeblogit.com/

School Council

In line with recent trends towards giving pupils a say in their education, the school management has set up a school council. Despite the management's profession to respect the views of pupils through the existence and free voting of the School Council, a decision to implement a cashless, biometric canteen system - despite the unanimous rejection of the proposal by the Council - has been taken, resulting in much furore amongst pupils of the school, as well as Old Boys..

An old boy of the class of 2009, Nicolai Ceaucescu, quoted: "the Latin rooms are dilapidated, wartime prefabs with wobbly walls and a broken boiler, so the entire SMT must be on PCP if they consider that installing this system is a better use of money."

Famous alumni

• Simon Beaufoy, Writer of Oscar-winning film The Full Monty and the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire (for which he received both a BAFTA and an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay)
• Andrew Hodgson, former Bradford Bulls and Salford City Reds rugby league player
• Rick Holden, former Man City player and present Barnsley FC Assistant Manager
• Iain Macleod, Conservative MP for Enfield West from 1950–70 and former Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1970
• Chris Mason, European Correspondent for the BBC
• Blake Morrison, poet and author
• Gil North, (real name Geoffrey Horne author of the Sergeant Cluff series between 1960 and 1978.
• Paul Zenon, comedian and magician

Trivia

• Ermysted's Rugby 1st Team recently played at Twickenham, beating Wilmslow High School 3–0 to claim the Daily Mail Vase.
• A House Quiz takes place annually in school during which sixteen pupils from each year are chosen to represent their houses.
• Mr Howarth, Head of History, published a book, A Grammar School At War in 2007, focusing upon the 54 Old Boys and Masters of the Skipton School who died serving in the armed forces during World War One. Copies are still available at the school and at the "Craven Museum" in the Skipton Town Hall. The profits generated went towards the construction of a commemorative plaque for the fallen Old Boys.
• The father of utilitarian philosopher Henry Sidgwick, Reverend W. Sidgwick, was headmaster at Ermysteds during the 19th century. However, Henry himself was educated at Rugby School.
• A team in Year 10 achieved a place in the national final of the Ifs Student Investor competition in 2009.
• David Ingham, a former pupil of the school, has painted a picture of headmaster Mr Forster, who expelled him from the school. The painting will be hung in the School Library

External links

• Ermysted's Grammar School
• Ermysted's Grammar School Old Boys Society
• Ermysted's Old Boys Facebook Group
• Ermysted's Grammar School Physics Department Site: Physics@egs
• Ermysted's Grammar School Maths Department Site
• An unofficial virtual tour of the School
• Ted Online - The Official Blog of The Magazine