The King's School is a

coeducational 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 ...

secondary school with academy status, located in

Pontefract Pontefract is a historic market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, east of Wakefield and south of Castleford. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is one of the towns in the City of Wak ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, England. It is one of the four oldest schools in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

, dating from 1139 and was refounded by

King Edward VI Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. Edward was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour and the first E ...

in 1548.

History

King's School Pontefract was founded in 1139. Little documentation survives from its early years, and it was refounded in the reign of

. It has been associated with the

Duchy of Lancaster The Duchy of Lancaster is the private estate of the British sovereign as Duke of Lancaster. The principal purpose of the estate is to provide a source of independent income to the sovereign. The estate consists of a portfolio of lands, properti ...

since 1588 when it was given an endowment to allow it to continue functioning. In 1792 it was refounded yet again by

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

who is the eponymous king. Annual payments of £50 were made by the

until 1869. It closed in the 1880s but reopened on 4 May 1890 and has continued to the present day, although it was relocated in 1932.

Grammar school

The present buildings were opened on 14 July 1932 by Sir F. Stanley Jackson. It was a boys' grammar school with around 650 boys, operated by the West Riding County Council. Four houses were formed, each associated with a name and a colour. They were Atkinson (yellow), Lyon (blue), De Lacy (green) and King Edward (red). Classes corresponding to years were numbered from 1 to 5 with three streamed classes in each year from and including Form 2. Upon entry to the school boys were placed in classes 1A, 1B and 1C ordered by surname alphabetically. In the second form streaming started with the top 30 rated pupils being placed in 2R (R for Rapid as year 3 was skipped by these pupils, passing directly to 4R). The other classes in the second form were 2A, 2B, 2C based on academic level. Thereafter the classes were for example in the 5th form: 5R, 5A, 5B. All pupils had a form master and went to classes with specialist Teachers. There were not enough rooms for all classes to have a form room - some of the upper sixth form used to have the corridor outside the dining room as their form room. Only a few pupils stayed on for the sixth form, many pupils left the school at 16. It was expected that the R-class pupils would go on to the sixth form. The Grammar school had a tradition of playing Rugby Union and there were fields outside for this purpose, which were converted for cricket in the summer.

Comprehensive

The school became a comprehensive with a sixth form in 1978. Pontefract Girls' High School, the girls' grammar school became New College, Pontefract, and 11-18 school. In 1987, Pontefract schools lost their sixth form, with a sixth form college being established at NEW College, Pontefract.

Academy

The school converted to academy status on 1 April 2013 and is one of two high schools with Carleton High School in Pontefract Academies Trust.

Headmasters

The following have been headmasters: * 1548 John Stagg *1585 Lyonell Naylor *1593 John Marshe *1593 William Hartley *1622 Arthur Bromeley *1622 Thurston Elliott *1654 Thomas Lake *1662 Thomas Hunt *1672 Joseph Swift *1685 Nathan Drake *1689 Thomas Atkinson *1697 Thomas Horwood *1705 Thomas Horwood *1713 Francis Lassells *1737 Richard Harrison *1742 William Holmes *1778 Miles Steadman *1793 James Bindloss *1806 James Dixon *1807 Archibold C Campbell *1822 Pattison Watman *1851 Samuel W Newbald *1869 Thomas Longley *1874 Henry Caukwell *1889 Thomas H Nichols *1918 Edward B Forrest *1939 John D Lean (Died late 1958) *1959

Alan Aldous Alan may refer to: People *Alan (surname), an English and Turkish surname *Alan (given name), an English given name **List of people with given name Alan ''Following are people commonly referred to solely by "Alan" or by a homonymous name.'' *Al ...

*1970 J. Gavin Peck *1977 Mrs Joyce Grace (nee Pickersgill) *1985 V.S Kenningham *2000 Julie Craig *2013 Barbara Tibbets *2018 Elaine Briggs *2019 Dominic Pinto

Admissions

The school is currently situated on a raised area near Ackworth Road in Pontefract, along Mill Hill Lane, southwest of the town centre and the A645/A639 crossroads. There are over 1,000 pupils, 60 teaching staff and 53 additional staff. The school's current Headteacher is Mr Dominic Pinto. The King's School, Carleton High School and many of the Primary Schools in the two pyramids are now members of Pontefract Academies Trust (previously, Pontefract Education Trust)

Sport

The school's sporting traditions include

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

(the year 11 team reached the final of the Yorkshire Cup in 2006), and athletics, with some pupils achieving local and national honours.

Notable former pupils

Derek Birdsall Derek Birdsall, (born 1 August 1934) is an internationally renowned British graphic designer. Early life Birdsall was born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, in 1934 and attended The King's School, Pontefract, Wakefield College of Art and Central Schoo ...

, graphic designer, who redesigned the

Book of Common Prayer The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign ...

in 2000 * Ken Booth, E. H. Carr Professor of International Politics from 1999 to 2008 at Aberystwyth University *

Michael Eaton Michael Eaton MBE (born 1954) is an English playwright and scriptwriter. He is best known for his television docudrama scripts, including '' Shipman'', ''Why Lockerbie'', and '' Shoot to Kill'', and for writing the feature film ''Fellow Trave ...

, former chief spokesman of the

National Coal Board The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "ve ...

during the

miners' strike Miners' strikes are when miners conduct strike actions. See also * List of strikes References {{Reflist Miners A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are tw ...

Scott Grant Lieutenant General Sir Scott Carnegie Grant, (born 28 September 1944) is a former British Army officer who served as Quartermaster-General to the Forces from 1998 to 2000. Military career Educated at The King's School, Pontefract, the Royal Mi ...

KCB,

Chief Royal Engineer The Chief Royal Engineer (CRE) is the official head of the Corps of Royal Engineers of the British Army. Origin and development Before the English Restoration a Chief Engineer was a pay grade and not defined. In 1660 King Charles II appointed ...

from 1999 to 2004,

Quartermaster-General to the Forces The Quartermaster-General to the Forces (QMG) is a senior general in the British Army. The post has become symbolic: the Ministry of Defence organisation charts since 2011 have not used the term "Quartermaster-General to the Forces"; they simply ...

from 1998 to 2000, and Colonel Commandant from 1997 to 2004 of the Royal Engineers *

Henry John Poskitt Henry John Poskitt (6 September 1888 – 19 February 1950) was an English prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was the fourth Bishop of Leeds. Life and ministry Poskitt was born in the village of Birkin in the West Riding of Yorkshire ...

Roman Catholic Bishop of Leeds The Bishop of Leeds is the Ordinary of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Leeds in the Province of Liverpool, England. The Vicariate Apostolic of the Yorkshire District was elevated to diocese status as the Diocese of Beverley on 29 September ...

from 1936 to 1950 *

Rich Johnston Richard Johnston is a British comics creator, columnist, and founder of the comics news site ''Bleeding Cool''. ''The Comics Journal'' described Johnston as having claimed to be "the oldest extant comics news reporter on the Internet." His pas ...

, cartoonist, writer and journalist * Simon Thorp, Viz cartoonist * Peter Townend,Peter Townend
Obituary, ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

''. former social editor of ''

Tatler ''Tatler'' is a British magazine published by Condé Nast Publications focusing on fashion and lifestyle, as well as coverage of high society and politics. It is targeted towards the British upper-middle class and upper class, and those interes ...

'' *

Nick Revell Nick Revell is a British comedian and writer for radio and television. Born John Revell, he studied at Lincoln College, Oxford. Revell started performing stand-up in 1980 at Comedy Store, where he later became a regular MC, between 1982 and ...

, stand-up comedian and scriptwriter*

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:The King's School, Pontefract Secondary schools in the City of Wakefield 1139 establishments in England Educational institutions established in the 12th century Defunct grammar schools in England Pontefract Academies in the City of Wakefield