The King's School, Macclesfield, is an
independent school
An independent school is independent in its finances and governance. Also known as private schools, non-governmental, privately funded, or non-state schools, they are not administered by local, state or national governments. In British Eng ...
for day pupils in
Prestbury, Cheshire, England, and a member of the
Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference
The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC) is an association of the head teachers of 361 independent schools (both boarding schools and day schools), some traditionally described as public schools. 298 Members are based in the United ...
. It was founded in 1502 by Sir John Percyvale, a former
Lord Mayor of London
The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional powe ...
, as Macclesfield Grammar School.
History
The King's School was founded in 1502 within the
Church of St Michael and All Angels, Macclesfield. It was re-founded by
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 1552 as the "Free Grammar School of King Edward VI". It moved to Cumberland Street, 300 metres further from the town square, in 1844. In July 2020 the school moved to a new location adjacent to its long-held Derby Playing Fields, on the outskirts of Macclesfield.
In 1844 a Modern School, with a more commercial and technical curriculum, was built by the governors to run in tandem with the Grammar School. It merged with the Grammar School in 1912.
The school operated as a direct-grant school and offered scholarships for boys from state elementary schools from 1926 until 1966, when its application to continue as a
direct grant grammar school
A direct grant grammar school was a type of selective secondary school in the United Kingdom that existed between 1945 and 1976. One quarter of the places in these schools were directly funded by central government, while the remainder attracted ...
was refused and it became fully independent.
The boys' junior school was opened in 1947. In 1993 girls from age 11 to 16 were admitted and housed with co-educational juniors, and later infants, at the old Macclesfield High School site on Fence Avenue. The Sixth Form had been co-educational since 1986.
The King's School's 2020 development plans involved closing the two existing school sites in Macclesfield and opening a new single site school in
Prestbury, near Macclesfield. The development plans involved selling off the two existing school sites for housing development to fund the new school site. The school acquired greenbelt farmland adjacent to its Derby Fields site for which it subsequently sought planning permission in order to develop the existing school site and the farmland for housing. Planning permission was granted to the school to build more than 250 houses on the greenbelt land in Macclesfield in July 2016. The new school was built on green belt land in nearby Prestbury. Planning permission for all sites was confirmed when the Secretary of State declined to call in the plans for further scrutiny in September 2016.
In July 2020 King's School left Macclesfield after more than 500 years of continuous operation in the town and relocated to Prestbury.
Academia
The school follows the
National Curriculum A national curriculum is a common programme of study in schools that is designed to ensure nationwide uniformity of content and standards in education. It is usually legislated by the national government, possibly in consultation with Federated stat ...
for
GCSE
The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a particular subject, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. Private sc ...
in Years 10–11 and
A-Levels
The A-Level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational aut ...
in the sixth form. In 2012, pupils achieved A*/A in 41% of all exams and A* – B in three-quarters of exams. Pupils achieved the best-ever GCSE results in 2012 with 33% of grades at A* grade, more than 63% of grades at A*/A and 86% at A* – B grade.
In 2011, pupils achieved 75% A* to B grade at A-level, with a 99.7% pass rate, and 60% As and A*s at GCSE.
Extra-curricular activities
Music
In 2003 the school's Foundation Choir won BBC ''
Songs of Praise
''Songs of Praise'' is a BBC Television religious programme that presents Christian hymns sung in churches of varying denominations from around the UK.
The series was first broadcast in October 1961. On that occasion, the venue was the Ta ...
'' Choir of the Year. It takes bi-annual trips to perform across Europe, having visited
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
,
Levico Terme
Levico Terme (''Levego'' in local dialect; cim, Leve) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in Trentino in the northern Italian region Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, located about southeast of Trento. As of 30 June 2012, it had a population of 7,668 a ...
,
Strasbourg
Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...
,
Lake Geneva
, image = Lake Geneva by Sentinel-2.jpg
, caption = Satellite image
, image_bathymetry =
, caption_bathymetry =
, location = Switzerland, France
, coords =
, lake_type = Glacial lak ...
and
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
. In 2016 the choir performed in
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
. The choir and numerous bands also perform at nearby St Michael's Church. The school's music department is equipped with a recording studio and practice rooms and offers instrumental lessons to the students.
The department also performs musicals such as ''The Revenge of Sherlock Holmes'', a
West End musical, in 2012.
Drama
The school performs two to three plays a year; one by the Boys' Division/Sixth Form, one by the Girls' Division, and one by the Juniors. Recent plays include ''Cinders'', ''Arabian Nights'', and ''The Ramayana''.
School trips
Trips abroad are arranged by individual departments, including those by the History and Classics departments, in addition to annual foreign language exchange visits. Pupils are involved in biennial
World Challenge Expeditions World Challenge is a for-profit UK provider of overseas adventure travel programs targeted at schools. The company was founded when a young army captain took a team of soldiers on a training mission to the snow-capped Hindu Kush mountain range in P ...
and recent expeditions have been to
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...
,
Ecuador
Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...
, India and most recently
Namibia
Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
.
The school's Outdoor Activities Club organises regular trips to Yorkshire or the Peak District, that include walking, climbing and caving.
Sports
School sports include
rugby
Rugby may refer to:
Sport
* Rugby football in many forms:
** Rugby league: 13 players per side
*** Masters Rugby League
*** Mod league
*** Rugby league nines
*** Rugby league sevens
*** Touch (sport)
*** Wheelchair rugby league
** Rugby union: 1 ...
,
hockey
Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...
,
netball
Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...
,
cheerleading
Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to ente ...
, and
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
.
Headmasters
*1502–1533: William Bridges (first)
*1533–1560: John Bold
*1560–1588: John Brownswerde
*1588–1631: William Legh
*1631–1648: Thomas Bolde
*1648–1662: Henry Crosedale
*1662–1666: Edward Powell
*1666–1674: Ralph Gorse
*1674–1676:
Thomas Brancker
*1676–1689: Rev. John Ashworth
*1689–1690: Caleb Pott
*1690–1704: Timothy Dobson
*1704–1717: Edward Denham
*1717–1720: George Hammond
*1720–1745: Rev. Joseph Allen
*1745: Edward Ford
*1745–1749: Christopher Atkinson
*1749–1774: Rowland Atkinson
*1774–1790: Henry Ingles
*1790–1828: David Davies
*1828: Thomas Bourdillon
*1828–1837: Rev. Francis Stonehewer Newbold
*1849–1872: Rev. Thomas Brooking Cornish
*1837–1849: William Alexander Osborn
*1880–1910: Darwin Wilmot
*1910–1933 : Francis Duntz Evans
*1933–1966: Thomas Taylor Shaw
*1966–1987: Alan Cooper
*1987–2001: Adrian Silcock
*2001–2011: Stephen Coyne
*2011–2020: Simon Hyde
*2020–present: Jason Slack
Notable former pupils
*
Thomas Newton
Thomas Newton (1 January 1704 – 14 February 1782) was an English cleric, biblical scholar and author. He served as the Bishop of Bristol from 1761 to 1782.
Biography
Newton was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and was subsequently elect ...
(born 1542; died 1607), English
clergyman
Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...
and poet
*
John Blundell, economist
*
Rev. Thomas Taylor, priest and historian
*
John Bradshaw, chief prosecutor of
Charles I Charles I may refer to:
Kings and emperors
* Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings
* Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily
* Charles I of ...
and the first man to sign his death warrant
*
Charles Gordon Hewitt
Charles Gordon Hewitt (February 23, 1885February 29, 1920) was a Canadian economic entomologist and pioneer of conservation biology. He was appointed dominion entomologist of Canada in 1909. He helped pass the Destructive Insect and Pest Act in 19 ...
(born 1885; died 1920), British-Canadian consulting zoologist
*
James Hope (born 1801; died 1841), cardiologist and physician
*
Hewlett Johnson
Hewlett Johnson (25 January 1874 – 22 October 1966) was an English priest of the Church of England, Marxist Theorist and Stalinist. He was Dean of Manchester and later Dean of Canterbury, where he acquired his nickname "The Red Dean of Can ...
, Dean of Canterbury, known as the Red Dean
*
Sir Eric Jones KCMG, CB, CBE (born 1907; died 1986), former Director of
GCHQ
Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Unit ...
[D. R. Nicoll, ''Jones, Sir Eric Malcolm (1907–1986)'', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004](_blank)
/ref>
* Tom Margerison (born 1923; died 2014), Founder of the New Scientist
''New Scientist'' is a magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Based in London, it publishes weekly English-language editions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. An editorially separate organisation publishe ...
, journalist at the Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...
and BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
(born 1951), Captain of England (28 caps) and the British Lions rugby union teams
*