Wilmington Grammar School for Boys (WGSB) is 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, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

with academy status in Wilmington, Kent. From 1954 to 1982, the school was called Dartford Technical High School. Today it is a specialist

engineering school Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

with a strong emphasis on design technology, mathematics and physics. The uniform consists of navy blue blazers, white shirts, grey or black trousers and different ties for each house within the school.. Suits are worn in the sixth form. The school is situated directly alongside

Wilmington Academy Wilmington Academy is a mixed secondary school located in Wilmington, Kent in the United Kingdom. It stands next to the site of Wilmington Hall. Wilmington Academy, as of 1 November 2018, had 1225 students including 121 in Sixth Form, with 365 ...

and has multiple bus services that also serve Dartford Grammar School for Girls, Dartford Grammar School, Wilmington Grammar School for Girls and

Departments

The school has the following departments: Science, Mathematics, Design & Technology, Business and Economics, Geography, History/Government and Politics, English, Art, Modern Languages (including German, French and Spanish), Media, Information Communication Technology, Religious Education, PE and Music. The school no longer teaches Drama.

Houses

There are 6 different houses in WGSB: * Brunel, (Dark Blue, Yellow, Light Blue and a Purple Stripe) * Darwin, (Dark Blue, Yellow, Light Blue and a White Stripe) * Newton, (Dark Blue, Yellow, Light Blue and a Black Stripe) * Stevenson, (Dark blue, Yellow, Light Blue and a Green Stripe) * Telford, (Dark Blue, Yellow, Light Blue and a Red Stripe) * Hawking (from 2020), (Dark Blue, Yellow, Light Blue and a Yellow Stripe)

Notable pupils

* Paul Carr, writer, journalist and commentator * Ben Thompson, footballer who plays as a midfielder for Millwall F.C * Ben Sheaf, footballer who plays as a midfielder for Arsenal *

Mackenzie Crook Paul James "Mackenzie" Crook (born 29 September 1971) is an English actor, comedian, director and writer. He played Gareth Keenan in ''The Office'', Ragetti in the ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' films, Orell in the HBO series ''Game of Thrones ...

, actor (''

The Office ''The Office'' is a mockumentary sitcom created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, first made in the United Kingdom, then Germany, and subsequently the United States. It has since been remade in ten other countries. The original series o ...

'', '' Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl'') * Neal Hazel, criminologist and former Her Majesty's Deputy Chief Inspector of Probation for England and Wales *

Keith Richards Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943), often referred to during the 1960s and 1970s as "Keith Richard", is an English musician and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the co-founder, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-princi ...

, musician,

The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

Michael Swanton Michael James Swanton (born 1939) is a British historian, linguist, archaeologist and literary critic, specialising in the Anglo-Saxon period and its Old English literature. Early life Born in Bermondsey, in the East End of London, in child ...

, an authority on Old English literature and the Anglo-Saxon period * Nick Lee, cricketer * Yusuf Mersin footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for

Dover Athletic Dover Athletic Football Club is a semi-professional association football club based in the town of Dover, Kent, England. The club currently competes in the National League South, the sixth tier of English football. The club was formed in 198 ...

F1 in Schools

The technology department at WGSB competes in an international competition called

F1 in Schools ''F1 in Schools'' is an international STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) competition for school children (aged 11–19), in which groups of 3–6 students have to design and manufacture a miniature car out of the official F ...

which is where students form a team of 3–6 students and then design and build a car made from a block of balsa wood (More details on

page). The school has taken part in this competition since the 2007–2008 season, with numerous successes. The team Redshift succeeded the 2014 London & South-East England Regional Final and then came 3rd in the 2013 National Final at the

ExCel Arena ExCeL London (an abbreviation for Exhibition Centre London) is an exhibition centre, international convention centre and former hospital in the Custom House area of Newham, East London. It is situated on a site on the northern quay of the Roy ...

, London. This earned them the opportunity to become a collaboration team, meaning that they joined another team from around the globe – which was a team from Singapore. The team renamed from Redshift to X-Shift, a merging of both teams' names, since the Singapore team were called Team X-Treme. This meant that they took part in the 2013 World Finals held in Austin, Texas. Another team called Turbocharged had taken part in the

Bloodhound SSC ''Bloodhound LSR'', formerly ''Bloodhound SSC'', is a British land vehicle designed to travel at supersonic speeds with the intention of setting a new world land speed record. The arrow-shaped car, under development since 2008, is powered by a je ...

class, which is the same as the F1 class but it is designing a car based around the

Bloodhound The bloodhound is a large scent hound, originally bred for hunting deer, wild boar and, since the Middle Ages, for tracking people. Believed to be descended from hounds once kept at the Abbey of Saint-Hubert, Belgium, in French it is called, ...

SSC. The team succeeded the regional final in the 2012–13 season, and then won the national final, meaning that they were national champions and gained a new world-record time for their car racing down the track (this record was 0.587 seconds). In the 2013–14 season, the team entered again into the competition and were unsuccessful, but after lodging a complaint about other teams being illegal, meant they were able to move to the national finals as a wildcard. The team then proudly attended the national final and won it again, meaning that they are the only team that has ever become national champions twice. For the 2015 Bloodhound SSC Class, a new team was formed called Vortex. The team consisted of three old members of Turbocharged, and a new member. Vortex did not succeed in the regionals, but were selected as a wildcard to progress to the nationals. They had the fastest time, but this was considerably slower than previous years, as the rules had changed, forcing the 8-gram car up to 30 grams. The team used the same principle of golf balls to create a turbulent boundary layer, to increase the speed of the car. The team won the national finals.

Notes and references

External links