Gravesend Grammar School - School

School

Gravesend Grammar School was opened on 19 July 1893 in a lavish ceremony by Princess Beatrice of Battenberg, the youngest daughter of Queen Victoria. The school was originally based in Darnley Road, Gravesend and later moved to the site of Milton Hall, the former home of G. M. Arnold, a former Mayor of Gravesend and one of the founders of the school. The original building is currently used as an adult education centre. The replacement building is still in use although many alterations and additions have been made to it since it was originally constructed, including being partly rebuilt after being bombed during World War II, having been mistaken for Eton College.

A second school building, known as the Centenary Building, was built in 1993 to commemorate the school's 100th year and currently houses facilities including multiple computer facilities and chemistry labs. There are a number of mobile classrooms around the school site, used for various subjects, although these are beginning to be replaced by more permanent buildings.

In July 2009 a new sports centre was opened, adjacent to the sports hall, and named the Sanderson Sports Centre, after the former headmaster.

Overall, there are 57 classrooms, including six computer rooms, all of which contain interactive whiteboards, as well as a library, a sports hall, several small music practice rooms and a canteen available to all staff and pupils


In 2012 a new link building was started. It is expected to be completed by July 2013. It will house a new canteen, art rooms and more class rooms

In 2004 the school gained specialist status as a maths and computing specialist school. This guarantees the school extra government funding in order to continue the running and expansion of its facilities. The school also gained language specialist status, in 2008.

  • Chair of the Governing Body: Mr Graham Ralph BA (Hons)
  • Headteacher: Mr Geoffrey S. Wybar BA (Hons)
  • Deputy Headteacher: Mr Brian Simpson BA (Hons) MA
  • Assistant Headteachers: Mr Matt Allen BSc (Director of Specialist School), Mr Ben Chapelard (Director of Languages), Mr Malcolm Moaby (Head of Lower School), Dr John Gogarty (Head of Middle School) and Mrs Sarah Tremain (Head of Senior School).
  • Director of Support Services: Mr Mike Fall BEng

On 1 August 2011 the school became an academy trust.

Read more about this topic:  Gravesend Grammar School

Famous quotes containing the word school:

    But I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all. I do not belong to the sobbing school of negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal.... No, I do not weep at the world—I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.
    Zora Neale Hurston (1907–1960)

    I am both a public and a private school boy myself, having always changed schools just as the class in English in the new school was taking up Silas Marner, with the result that it was the only book in the English language that I knew until I was eighteen—but, boy, did I know Silas Marner!
    Robert Benchley (1889–1945)

    A man who graduated high in his class at Yale Law School and made partnership in a top law firm would be celebrated. A man who invested wisely would be admired, but a woman who accomplishes this is treated with suspicion.
    Barbra Streisand (b. 1942)