Hutton Grammar School

Hutton Grammar School is a voluntary aided Church of England day school for boys, with a co-educational Sixth Form. It is located 3 miles (4.8 km) south west of Preston, Lancashire, in Hutton, England. The school no longer offers boarding, and offers education for boys from ages of 11 through to 16, with the Sixth Form containing both boys and girls. The school is ranked 5th in the league tables in the North-West and 2nd place for AS-A2 results. It was also the Lancashire Rugby School of the Year, for two years running, for 2007 and 2008. Hutton has also achieved Specialist Schools Status accreditation in Mathematics and Computing.^[2]

History

The school can trace its antecedents back to 1517, with the school building site being personally approved by Henry VIII in that year. In 1520, the school was granted permission, by William Walton, a former priest of Longton, to all boys in the area. It was William's personal investment, to provide for his family and give the local children a chantry-school to attend.

In 1545, when William Walton, the co-founder of the chantry had died, Henry VIII, near to death, ordered the dissolution of all chantries and the confiscation of their property. The desired building, in Hutton, was, at the time, even though confirmed by Henry VIII, 28 years before, would be demolished if it was reported to be still standing. However, the man appointed to supervise the dissolution of the Lancashire chantries was Sir Henry Farington, a former benefactor of St. Andrews Church in Longton. He falsely reported that he could find no chantries in that part of the county, in order to save the demolition of various buildings in the area.

To avoid suspicion of using a chantry for a school, although the false statement was given, they started to use a small cottage down School Lane, in Longton to educate the local children.

In 1552, William's nephew Christopher Walton of Little Hoole, used a part of the original endowment to found the grammar school, down School Lane in Longton. According to the law at the time, a priest must be in charge of a school, traveling inspectors could have closed it down they saw that a commoner was in charge. Therefore, in 1554, Ralph Garstang, priest of St. Andrews Church, was appointed as the schoolmaster of the school.

For the next few centuries, from 1560 to 1746, it was known as Longton Free School. It wasn't until 1747, that the roles of schoolmaster and priest were finally disconnected. The school was then rebuilt, at Hutton on its present site, built on land that had been a part of William Walton's original grant. Henceforth, it became known as Hutton Grammar School and by 1891, it had become an all-boys school.

The original building, built around 1750, had to be entirely rebuilt in the 1960s. Of the current building, some sections are more than a hundred years old, but most were built during the last century.

Although now a comprehensive, the school to this day still retains its grammar school ethos, enabling it to produce results which are amongst the highest in the area. Sports such as rugby and cross-country running play a serious role at Hutton, with Hutton sometimes defeating local independent schools such as Arnold School, Kirkham Grammar School, Rossall School and Stonyhurst College.

Recent Reports

The main school recently received an Ofsted report and achieved the grade of "outstanding",^[3] with its main campus featuring excellent facilities. It has a history of well above average reports and has been considered one of the top places for local males to attend. Since 1989, it has had a huge increase of students coming from inner-city Preston and travelling from further afield to attend. This is due to its good reputation, compared to that of other local education services.

Curriculum

Main School

The main school features students from Years 7 to 11. It combines GCSEs through the following subjects: English Language, Mathematics, Modern Language, Sciences and Religion, with additional subjects, including History, Geography, Economics, Art, Design, Music and Theatre Arts.

Sixth Form

The school's Sixth form allows students to take a number of the following subjects: English Language & Literature, English Literature, French, German, Spanish, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, History, Geography, Economics, Business Studies, Information Technology, Computing, Religious Studies, Art, Music, Sports, Mathematics, Psychology, Law, General Studies, Drama and Dance.

The Sixth Form is a key part of the school and is a quasi-autonomous body within Hutton Grammar School.

Sports

The school offers over 15 different types of sport to take part in. Over the years, the amount of sports has increased dramatically. The main sports at the school are rugby in the winter term and cricket in the summer term. The following is a list of sports the school offers:

Athletics, Badminton, Basketball, Chess, Cricket, Cross country running, Dance, Football, Gymnastics, Hockey, Rugby Union, Swimming, Table Tennis, Tennis and Volleyball.

Houses

Hutton consists of four houses, paying respect through names, to the history in the area and to ancient noble families. They include:

• Fleetwood – In 1535, the Dissolution of the Monasteries saw Penwortham Priory dissolve. Sir Henry Fleetwood was one of Henry VIII's commissioners, foresees the Protestant reformation. Fleetwood made sure Hutton Grammar was a fully instated Church of England school and had a house named after him.
• Hines – Named in honour of Lieutenant colonel Reverend C.P. Hines. He was a headmaster at Hutton from 1920 to 1938, local Church of England promoter and a nobleman with strong relations to the early builders of the school.
• Rawsthorne – Named in honour of the Rawsthorne Family, who once occupied Penwortham Priory before it was demolished to make way for new housing in the 1920s. They contributed the money they made from sales of land and their house prior to destruction, to the school and grounds. They rebuilt their house to the road behind where the grammar school stands today.
• Walton – Named in honour of William Walton, the co-founder of the school. The coat of arms were adopted by the school in 1905, originally devised by a member of the Walton family from Preston, who believed that he was a descendant of the founding family of the school, the three swans were derived from an early medieval coat of arms for the same

surname.

Facilities

Under headmaster David Pearson the school had been redeveloped, with facilities such as a new gymnasium and I.T and Mathematics suites installed in 2004. The Music Department now has recording studios and technology suites.

In September 2005, new maths facilities were opened. Following the opening of the new maths suites in the Autumn of 2005, the buildings were used for housing of the resistant materials and art until the end of the academic year of 2006, while the departments were being refurbished.

The old buildings were demolished in the months of July and August 2006 and then in July 2006, the new music and drama suites were opened. Following a large interest in the Sixth Form, due to outstanding results, the Sixth Form was relocated to a new building in September 2010.

Extra Curricular Activities

Hutton has many internal and external organisations, one of these being the Old Huttonians Association which is open to all previous attendees of the school. The association organises dinners and reunions on a semi regular basis.

There is also a well established Masonic Lodge which meets at the school. Old Huttonian Lodge no. 7614 is part of the Leyland Group of Lodges and Chapters and meets 5 times a year. A member of the Federation of School Lodges, it draws membership from current and past teachers, past pupils and their close relatives.^[4]

The recently founded debating society is another merit of the school, recently winning the national 'Debating Matters' competition at the Royal Society of Medicine, having never previously entered. Nearly 200 schools entered and the Hutton team won all 8 of their debates.^[5] The current Hutton debating team won the Lancashire regional heat, which sent them through to the North West & North Wales regional final, which they went on to win. They will now compete against 11 other schools from across the UK in the national final in June.

Another organization, the Hutton Grammar Economics Society, is open to all present students of the school and welcomes ex-students too. The school also had its own radio station, Hutt On Air which first broadcast on 9 July 2010 and was broadcast to the students (and sixth form) via the school computers and internal AVOID systems.

Notable former pupils

• Steve Borthwick, England Rugby Captain
• Tony Swift, Former England Rugby international^[6]
• Nigel Jemson, former Premier League footballer
• Peter Elleray, Formula One and 24 Hours of Le Mans Racing car designer.
• Jonathan Myles-Lea, painter
• David Williams, Chief Executive of the United Kingdom Space Agency since 2010 (formerly the British Nationals Space Centre)
• Edward Gardner, former Royal Navy Commander, survivor of two ship sinkings, barrister and later, a politician
• Richard G. Mitchell Composer known for writing and producing movie and tv scores.
• Howard Stableford, former presenter of the BBC's Tomorrow's World and Newsround
• Graham Mather represented Hampshire North and Oxford in the European Parliament from 1994 to 1999

References

External links

• Hutton Grammar School website
• EduBase
• HGS Economics