Queen Elizabeth's School (also known as QE) is a

co-educational 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 A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

Wimborne Minster Wimborne Minster (often referred to as Wimborne, ) is a market town in Dorset in South West England, and the name of the Church of England church in that town. It lies at the confluence of the River Stour and the River Allen, north of Pool ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

, England.

Introduction

QE is an

upper school Upper schools in the UK are usually schools within secondary education. Outside England, the term normally refers to a section of a larger school. England The three-tier model Upper schools are a type of secondary school found in a minority ...

, taking students between the ages of 13 and 18. In November 2014 there were 1,482 pupils, including 391 in the

sixth form In the education systems of Barbados, England, Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Trinidad and Tobago, Wales, and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepa ...

. It is situated to the west of Wimborne Minster alongside the National Trust's

Kingston Lacy Kingston Lacy is a country house and estate near Wimborne Minster, Dorset, England. It was for many years the family seat of the Bankes family who lived nearby at Corfe Castle until its destruction in the English Civil War after its incumbent ...

estate and serves a wide area. Students travel from as far afield as

Sixpenny Handley Sixpenny Handley or Handley is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Sixpenny Handley and Pentridge, in north east Dorset, England, situated on Cranborne Chase north east of Blandford Forum. In the 2011 census the parish ...

near

Salisbury Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...

to the north, Alderholt on the

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

border to the east and

Blandford Forum Blandford Forum ( ) is a market town in Dorset, England, on the River Stour, Dorset, River Stour, north-west of Poole. It had a population of 10,355 at the United Kingdom 2021 census, 2021 census. The town is notable for its Georgian archit ...

to the west. However, most students live in or around Wimborne, the main feeder schools being Allenbourn Middle School, Cranborne Middle School, Emmanuel CofE Middle School and St Michael's Church of England Middle School. QE is a Church of England school, with close links to the Minster in Wimborne. QE has a house system of students Lancaster (red) Stuart (purple) Tudor (green) Wessex (blue) and York (yellow)

History

Queen Elizabeth's was founded by

Lady Margaret Beaufort Lady Margaret Beaufort ( ; 31 May 1443 – 29 June 1509) was a major figure in the Wars of the Roses of the late 15th century, and mother of King Henry VII of England, the first House of Tudor, Tudor monarch. She was also a second cousin o ...

(1443–1509), the mother of Henry VII. Her father,

John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, 3rd Earl of Somerset (25 March 1404 – 27 May 1444) was an English nobleman and military commander during the Hundred Years' War. He was a paternal first cousin of King Henry V and the maternal grandfath ...

, occupied the Kingston Lacy estate in the mid-15th century and Lady Margaret was brought up there. When John Beaufort died he was buried at Wimborne Minster and his daughter set up a

chantry A chantry is an ecclesiastical term that may have either of two related meanings: # a chantry service, a set of Christian liturgical celebrations for the dead (made up of the Requiem Mass and the Office of the Dead), or # a chantry chapel, a b ...

to say masses for his soul in perpetuity. Later, in her will, she included a provision that the chantry priest "should teach Grammar freely to all who come thereto". Tithes on properties belonging to her estate were assigned for the payment of the Grammar School's expenses. In 1563 Queen Elizabeth I reconfirmed the provisions of Lady Margaret’s will on condition that from then on the school be known as Queen Elizabeth's Free Grammar School in Wimborne Minster.

Grammar to Comprehensive

Until Victorian times the curriculum continued to centre on Greek and Latin (varied with cockfighting in the 18th century). Student numbers were low until the beginning of the 20th century. At the first inspection by the new Education board in 1905 there were 27 boarders and 37 day boys. By 1929 there were 150 pupils; by 1939, 272; by 1960, 500. In 1945 QE became a

voluntary controlled school A voluntary controlled school (VC school) is a state-funded school in England and Wales in which a foundation or trust (usually a Christian denomination) has some formal influence in the running of the school. Such schools have less autonomy th ...

under the Department of Education. The first 30 girls joined in 1953. Between 1965 and 1975 about 90% of state secondary schools in England abandoned selection and became comprehensives. As part of this sweeping change Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School merged with Wimborne Secondary Modern and moved to the present site.

New buildings

In February 2006 it was announced that QE School would be completely rebuilt under the

Building Schools for the Future Building Schools for the Future (BSF) was the name given to the British government's investment programme in secondary school buildings in England in the 2000s. Around half of the work was procured under the private finance initiative. The deli ...

(BSF) programme. Additional funding was secured by making the new building a demonstration project for sustainable schools - features included a ground-air heat exchanger system and biomass boilers. The school was designed by architects

Feilden Clegg Bradley Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (also known as FCBStudios) is a British architectural design firm, established in 1978, with offices in Bath, London and Manchester. The firm is known for its pioneering work in sustainable design and social design ...

in partnership with

Mouchel Mouchel Group, originally known as L. G. Mouchel & Partners Ltd, was an infrastructure and business services company headquartered in Woking, United Kingdom. It provided advisory, design, project delivery and managed services associated with i ...

, and constructed by

Carillion Carillion plc was a British multinational construction and facilities management services company headquartered in Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom, prior to its liquidation in January 2018. Carillion was created in July 1999, following a ...

.''Queen Elizabeth's School Wimborne Redevelopment'' DorsetforYou
Students influenced the design from the start, working alongside the planners. The new buildings went up next to the old ones and were occupied in October 2011.

Academy

On 1 November 2014 QE converted to an

academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

. The managing company, Queen Elizabeth’s School (Wimborne Minster), is registered in England and Wales: Company Number 8696394. When it became an academy, the school'
unique reference number
(URN) changed t
141526
The old UR
113883
should be used to find historical data such as performance tables.

References

External links

Edubase

The Web site devoted to the boys and girls of Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School Wimborne, collectively known as, The Old Winburnians
{{Schools in Dorset Upper schools in Dorset Wimborne Minster Educational institutions established in the 15th century 1497 establishments in England Church of England secondary schools in the Diocese of Salisbury Academies in Dorset People educated at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Wimborne Minster