South Grove Comprehensive School was a secondary school in

Rotherham Rotherham () is a large minster and market town in South Yorkshire, England. The town takes its name from the River Rother which then merges with the River Don. The River Don then flows through the town centre. It is the main settlement of ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

that existed, in various guises, from 1911 until 1987.

History

The Education Act 1902 transferred responsibility for schools from

school board A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution. The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional are ...

s to councils. At the behest of Spurley Hey, Rotherham's first Director of Education, Rotherham began expanding its senior provision. Therefore, it was decided to open two new single sex schools, serving 11-14 year olds, in a Victorian building on Moorgate Road that was originally a private house, but had been a

teacher training college A normal school or normal college is an institution created to train teachers by educating them in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum. In the 19th century in the United States, instruction in normal schools was at the high school level, turni ...

since 1901. The schools opened in 1911. South Grove Central School for Girls occupied the ground floor, while South Grove Central School for Boys occupied the first floor. After the Education Act 1944, the schools became

secondary modern school A secondary modern school is a type of secondary school that existed throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland from 1944 until the 1970s under the Tripartite System. Schools of this type continue in Northern Ireland, where they are usuall ...

s. Students in the area who passed the

Eleven-Plus exam The eleven-plus (11+) is a standardized examination administered to some students in England and Northern Ireland in their last year of primary education, which governs admission to grammar schools and other secondary schools which use academi ...

went to either

Rotherham Grammar School (Lest We Should Seem Ungrateful) , established = , closed = , type = Grammar school, becoming County school , religious_affiliation = , president = , head_label = Headmaste ...

Rotherham Girls' High School Rotherham Girls' Grammar School was a 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 school teaching Latin, bu ...

, while those showing an aptitude for technology went to Oakwood Technical High School for Boys/Girls. The remaining students attended South Grove Secondary Modern School for Boys/Girls, which now took students up to the age of 16. The two schools merged in 1961. Later, it became the first secondary modern in Rotherham to offer

O Level The O-Level (Ordinary Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education. It was introduced in place of the School Certificate in 1951 as part of an educational reform alongside the more in-depth ...

s its students. In the mid-1960s, Rotherham moved to a fully

comprehensive system A comprehensive school typically describes a secondary school for pupils aged approximately 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is res ...

. The school was renamed South Grove Comprehensive School around 1967 and now took students of all abilities from the local area. The school closed in 1987, with the students and many of the staff transferring to the neighbouring Oakwood Comprehensive School. The buildings remained until 2003, when they demolished and replaced by a modern office building complex, known as Moorgate Crofts.

Notable alumni

Gervase Phinn Gervase Phinn (born 27 December 1946, Rotherham, England) is an English author and educator. After a career as a teacher he became a schools inspector and, latterly, Visiting Professor of Education at the University of Teesside. He graduated fro ...

, author (1959-1964) *

Norman Bettison Sir Norman George Bettison, QPM (born 3 January 1956) is a British former police officer and the former Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police. He resigned in October 2012 amidst controversy about his role in the Hillsborough disaster, in ...

, formerly Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police, and of Merseyside Police, implicated in the Hillsborough Disaster cover-up.

References

{{coord, 53.42672, N, 1.35476, W, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Defunct schools in Rotherham Educational institutions established in 1911 1911 establishments in England Educational institutions disestablished in 1987 1987 disestablishments in England