Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Penrith

Queen Elizabeth Grammar School (QEGS) is a coeducational selective grammar school in Penrith, Cumbria, England. The school currently has approximately 830 pupils. The current headteacher is Mr David Marchant, who took over in September 2022. The headteacher from September 2004 to August 2015 was Mr Chris Kirkup.

Each year group is split on to four forms that have usually 32 students each. Each form is identified by the academic year followed by the initials of the form tutor who is usually a teacher at the school (i.e. 7JB). Students are also divided into one of the school's four houses; Blencow, Strickland, Lowther and Tudor, which are mainly used for sport events.

History

The school was established by a royal charter issued at Westminster on 18 July 1564.

The charter was a response to a local appeal to the Crown, with the document saying the school was to be created 'in accordance with the humble petition of the beloved inhabitants of the town and parish of Penrith ... and of very many of our subjects of the whole neighbouring district'. The charter was sealed in the presence of Queen Elizabeth and bore a representation of the monarch on horseback on one side and sitting under a canopy on the other.

The creation of the school was aided by the involvement of Sir Thomas Smith, the dean of Carlisle. A linguist and a diplomat, Smith was admitted to the Privy Council in 1571 and had been educated in classical scholarship at Padua, before lecturing on natural philosophy and Greek at Queen's College, Cambridge. As a renowned educationalist and classicist, Smith was keen to set up a grammar school in Penrith dedicated to Latin and Greek learning.

The grammar school was financed from the income of a former chantry school in Penrith, which was located near St Andrew's Church. This chantry and its associated school were founded by William Strickland, the bishop of Carlisle, in the early 15th Century. The school associated with the chantry was built on land belonging to the Lowther family, a local aristocratic family, who would later become the Earls of Lonsdale. The Lowther family made an annual endowment to the chantry school of around £6. However, both the chantry and its school were dissolved under the Chantries Act of 1545 and the land on which they were built reverted to the Crown.

In 1564, under the charter of the grammar school, the lands of the dissolved chantry and school were restored back to the Lowther family, now headed by Richard Lowther. The new grammar school therefore inherited both the site of the former chantry school in the churchyard of St Andrew's Church and its annual endowment of around £6.

It is possible that some time was needed to secure this funding before teaching could begin, as the first recorded master was elected by the governors in 1569, some five years after the charter's initial issuing.

The school moved from these original premises in St Andrew's churchyard to its present site on ''Ullswater Road'' (A592), close to the railway station, in 1917.

During the 1970's and 80's after the abolition of the eleven-plus the school had its own unique selection process where pupils would attend the first two years of their secondary education at Penrith's Ullswater High School or its predecessor schools then be recommended to move either to QEGS or stay at Ullswater. At one time during the mid 1980s Cumbria County Council considered merging QEGS and Ullswater. In response to this the grammar school became one of the first state schools in Cumbria to become independent of county council control. It is Cumbria's only true grammar school though some other secondary schools in the county use the word Grammar in their name they are actually comprehensive schools.

In more recent times the school has struggled financially and have been issued a notice to improve by the government.

Admissions

The admission process is through an eleven-plus style exam, which tests mathematics, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning or spatial intelligence. The top 160 applicants are offered places at the school. If a student at the school decides to leave their place, it is offered to a child who nearly made it into the top 160 of that year group.

Notable alumni

* Lawson Soulsby, Baron Soulsby of Swaffham Prior, a microbiologist
* Charlie Hunnam, actor, star of ''Queer as Folk'' and '' King Arthur: Legend of the Sword''
* Oliver Turvey, racing driver
* Will Addison, rugby player
* Sarah Hall, novelist

References

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Educational institutions established in the 1560s
Grammar schools in Cumbria
1564 establishments in England
Academies in Cumbria
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Penrith, Cumbria