Hele's School, formerly Plympton Grammar School, is a

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

Academy school An academy school in England is a state-funded school which is directly funded by the Department for Education and independent of local authority control. The terms of the arrangements are set out in individual Academy Funding Agreements. 80% ...

and Sixth Form in the

Plympton Plympton is a suburb of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England. It is in origin an ancient Stannary, stannary town. It was an important trading centre for locally mined tin, and a seaport before the River Plym silted up and trade moved down riv ...

district of

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

, England, east of Plymouth city centre. Until 31 March 2011, Hele’s was a community school funded by the

Local Education Authority Local education authorities (LEAs) were defined in England and Wales as the local councils responsible for education within their jurisdictions. The term was introduced by the Education Act 1902, which transferred education powers from school bo ...

(LEA), which is

Plymouth City Council Plymouth City Council is the local authority for the city of Plymouth, in the ceremonial county of Devon, England. Plymouth has had a council since 1439, which has been reformed on numerous occasions. Since 1998 the council has been a unitary aut ...

. From 1 April 2011, Hele's became an

Academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

, which among other things gives the school financial and educational independence. The school has a voluntary

Combined Cadet Force The Combined Cadet Force (CCF) is a youth organisation in the United Kingdom, sponsored by the Ministry of Defence (MOD), which operates in schools, sub divided into Royal Navy, Royal Marines, Army and Royal Air Force sections. Its aim is to ...

with Navy, Army and RAF sections. Cadets in the CCF are given the option to take part in the annual

Ten Tors Ten Tors is an annual weekend hike in early May, on Dartmoor, southwest England. Organized by the British Army, starting in 1960, it brings together teams of six young people, with the 2,400 young participants hiking to checkpoints on ten spec ...

Challenge on

Dartmoor Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, South West England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers . The granite that forms the uplands dates from the Carb ...

Admissions

In September 2000, the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) designated the school as a

specialist A specialist is someone who is an expert in, or devoted to, some specific branch of study or research. Specialist may also refer to: Occupations * Specialist (rank), military rank ** Specialist (Singapore) * Specialist officer, military rank in ...

Language College Language Colleges were introduced in 1995 as part of the specialist schools programme (SSP) in the United Kingdom. The system enabled secondary schools to specialise in certain fields, in this case, modern foreign languages. Schools that successf ...

. The school has also been designated as a

Mathematics and Computing College Mathematics and Computing Colleges were introduced in England in 2002 and Northern Ireland in 2006 as part of the Government's Specialist Schools programme which was designed to raise standards in secondary education. Specialist schools focus ...

and has also taken on applied learning specialism.

Academy status

In June 2010, the government wrote to all schools that had been judged as 'outstanding' by

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a non-ministerial department of His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament. Ofsted's role is to make sure that organisations providing education, training ...

, inviting their Governing Bodies to consider converting to

status. The Governors of Hele's School consulted with parents and unanimously voted to apply to become an Academy, effective from 1 April 2011. On 1 September 2017, the school joined the Westcountry Schools Trust.

History

OldGrammarSchool Plympton Devon UnderColonnade

Hele's (pronounced "heals") School was founded as "Plympton

Grammar School A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...

" in 1658 under a bequest made in the will of the lawyer Elize Hele (1560–1635) of Fardel in the parish of

Cornwood Cornwood is a village and civil parish in the South Hams in Devon, England. The parish has a population of 988. The village is part of the electoral ward called ''Cornwood'' and Sparkwell. The ward population at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2 ...

, and of Parke in the parish of

Bovey Tracey Bovey Tracey () is a town and civil parish in Devon, England. It is located on the edge of Dartmoor, which gives rise to the slogan used on the town's boundary signs: ''The Gateway to the Moor''. It is often known locally as ''Bovey''. About so ...

, both in Devon. The school was renamed after him as "Hele's School" when it became a state comprehensive in 1983. Hele's bequest was overseen by Sir John Maynard and also led to the founding of

The Maynard School The Maynard School is a private selective day school for girls aged 4–18 in the city of Exeter in Devon. Founded in 1658, the school is the second oldest girls' school in the country, only predated by the Redmaids' High School in Bristol (1 ...

and

Hele's School, Exeter Hele's School was a boys' grammar school, and latterly a comprehensive school, in the city of Exeter, Devon, England. Elize Hele’s bequest Elize Hele was born in 1560 at Winston Manor near Plympton, Devon. He was a lawyer of the Inner Temp ...

. In 1715 the Reverend Samuel Reynolds was appointed as head master and his son the

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

Sir

Joshua Reynolds Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter who specialised in portraits. The art critic John Russell (art critic), John Russell called him one of the major European painters of the 18th century, while Lucy P ...

(1723-1792) attended the school. The original building, a

grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

, survives in George Lane, Castle Barbican, in Plympton St. Maurice, but in 1937 the school moved to new premises on Seymour Road, which it still occupies today. The school maintains an association with the

Plympton Grammar School Old Boys Plympton Grammar School Old Boys is an English field hockey team in Plymouth, Devon. PGSOB as they are commonly known are notable for being one of Plymouth's oldest men's hockey clubs, having been formed in 1926. History PGSOB was formed in 19 ...

field hockey club, formed in 1926.

Prime Minister's Global Fellowship

Students have attained places on the

Prime Minister's Global Fellowship A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways ...

programme. The school achieved its first student in the inaugural year of the programme, 2008, and in 2009 had another successful applicant.

Notable former pupils

Plympton Grammar School (1658–1983)

Charles Eastlake Charles Locke Eastlake (11 March 1836 – 20 November 1906) was a British architect and furniture designer. His uncle, Sir Charles Lock Eastlake PRA (born in 1793), was a Keeper of the National Gallery, from 1843 to 1847, and from 1855 its fi ...

, painter * Kevin Foster, Conservative MP *

Benjamin Haydon Benjamin Robert Haydon (; 26 January 178622 June 1846) was a British painter who specialised in grand historical pictures, although he also painted a few contemporary subjects and portraits. His commercial success was damaged by his often tactle ...

, painter and writer * Patricia Hollis, politician *

Anthony Nicholls (physicist) Anthony (Ant) Nicholls is a physicist and entrepreneur from Plympton, Plymouth, England. Education Nicholls was educated at Plympton Grammar School and then from 1979 studied Physics at University of Oxford, Oxford before joining the Institut ...

, entrepreneur, based in USA *

James Northcote James Northcote (22 October 1746 – 13 July 1831) was a British Painting, painter. He became a member of the Royal Academy in 1787, and a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Royal Institute of the Netherlands in 1809 ...

, painter *

John Parker, 1st Earl of Morley John Parker, 1st Earl of Morley Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (3 May 1772 – 14 March 1840), known as 2nd Baron Boringdon from 1788 to 1815, was a British peer and politician. Origins Morley was the only son of John Parker, 1st Baron Bo ...

(1772-1840) of nearby

Saltram House Saltram House is a listed building, grade I listed George II of Great Britain, George II era house in Plympton, Devon, England. It was deemed by the architectural critic Nikolaus Pevsner to be "the most impressive country house in Devon". ...

Charles Morice Pole Admiral of the Fleet (Royal Navy), Admiral of the Fleet Sir Charles Morice Pole, 1st Baronet, Order of the Bath, GCB (18 January 1757 – 6 September 1830) was a Royal Navy officer, colonial administrator and politician. As a junior officer he ...

, naval officer and politician * Sir

, painter * Samuel Rowe, topographer * Parson John "Jack" Russell, clergyman, sportsman and dog breeder * Sir Gordon Shattock, Conservative Party's Western-area Chairman, who survived the 1984

Brighton bombing On 12 October 1984 the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) attempted to assassinate members of the British government, including the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, at the Grand Brighton Hotel, Gr ...

Harry Trelawny Lieutenant-General Harry Trelawny (1726 – 28 January 1800) was a British Army officer who served with the Coldstream Guards during the American Revolutionary War. He was wounded while leading a battalion of the Guards during the war and later ...

, dissenting minister, Church of England clergyman, and Roman Catholic priest

Hele's School (1983–Present)

Lewis Gregory Lewis Gregory (born 24 May 1992) is an English cricketer who plays for Somerset County Cricket Club. A right-handed batsman and right-arm seam bowler, Gregory made his senior cricket debut in 2010, representing Somerset against the touring Pak ...

, cricketer

References

External links

* {{authority control Educational institutions established in the 1650s 1658 establishments in England Secondary schools in Plymouth, Devon Academies in Plymouth, Devon