Derby Grammar School is a selective

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

day school A day school — as opposed to a boarding school — is an educational institution where children are given instruction during the day, after which the students return to their homes. A day school has full-day programs when compared to a regular s ...

Littleover Littleover is a village and suburb in the city of Derby, in Derbyshire, England, between Rose Hill, Derbyshire, Rose Hill, Normanton, Derbyshire, Normanton, Sunny Hill, Derbyshire, Sunny Hill and Mickleover, about southwest of Derby city centre ...

near the city of

Derby Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...

, England. Founded in 1995 as a continuation of

Derby School Derby School was a school in Derby in the English Midlands from 1160 to 1989. It had an almost continuous history of education of over eight centuries. For most of that time it was a grammar school for boys. The school became co-educational a ...

, founded in 1160, it educates girls and boys between the ages of 4 and 18. The school currently has about two hundred and forty pupils. The Sixth form has been

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 ...

since September 2007, and an Infant school was opened in September 2019.

Admissions

The school is academically selective; scholarships and bursaries offering a discount on the school's fees are available.

Premises

The school occupies Rykneld Hall, a

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

18th-century

country house image:Blenheim - Blenheim Palace - 20210417125239.jpg, 300px, Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a Townhou ...

, built in 1780 as a private residence and used as a hospital in the second half of the 20th century. After conversion, the school was opened in 1995. Teaching buildings for Humanities, Sciences, Design and Technology, and Arts have been added to the campus, along with the main school hall, which is linked with the old quadrangle and contains a stage and an organ, with an attached kitchen. The new block, called the Bagshaw Building, was opened in 2000. There is also a cricket pavilion. The woodland, mature trees, grassland, and water areas in the school's grounds are designated as Wildlife Site 38 and safeguarded in the City of Derby's

Local Plan A development plan sets out a local authority's policies and proposals for land use in their area. The term is usually used Town and country planning in the United Kingdom, in the United Kingdom. A local plan is one type of development plan. The d ...

, Policy E4 (Nature Conservation). Such sites are "considered irreplaceable". New school sports facility, Rykneld Sports Centre, located a short distance away from the main site, was opened in September 2017.

Curriculum

The curriculum is built around teaching for

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a range of subjects taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, having been introduced in September 1986 and its first exams taken in 1988. State schools ...

and

A-level 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 ...

. Subjects taught include English, Latin, French, German, Spanish, Classics, Maths, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, History, Ancient History, English Literature, Geography, Religious Studies, Art, Music, Design Technology and Economics.

Sport

The main sports offered at the school are

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

hockey ''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...

, and

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

, plus

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

, cross country,

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

, squash,

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

and

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...

Extra-curricular

Activities include school dramatic productions, the

Duke of Edinburgh Award The Duke of Edinburgh's Award (commonly abbreviated DofE) is a youth awards programme founded in the United Kingdom in 1956 by the Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, which has since expanded to 144 nations. The awards recognise adolescents and ...

, public speaking, World Challenge, debating, a School choir and orchestra, adventure training and the Arts Award examined by

LAMDA The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) is a drama school located in Hammersmith, London. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest specialist drama school in the British Isles and a founding member of the Federation of Drama Schools. In ...

. There are music and drama workshops with the Hot House Music Schools youth music group. The school supports various charities, including YMCA Derbyshire and the Gedeli B School in the

Mwanza Region Mwanza Region (''Mkoa wa Mwanza'' in Swahili language, Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative Regions of Tanzania, regions, covering a total land area of . The region is comparable in size to the combined land area of the nation state ...

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

. It raises money annually for both projects and sends Sixth Form students out every year to Gedeli B School to assist with teaching, maintenance of classrooms and other tasks.

School motto, arms and badge

The school's coat of arms, badge, and motto, are all based on those of the former Derby School. With the exception of the motto they were designed by Henry Paston-Bedingfeld, York Herald, and granted by the

College of Arms The College of Arms, or Heralds' College, is a royal corporation consisting of professional Officer of Arms, officers of arms, with jurisdiction over England, Wales, Northern Ireland and some Commonwealth realms. The heralds are appointed by the ...

in March 1998. The motto, ''Vita Sine Litteris Mors'' (Life without learning is death), is that of the former school and is a quotation from Seneca's

Epistulae morales ad Lucilium ' (Latin for "Moral Letters to Lucilius"), also known as the ''Moral Epistles'' and ''Letters from a Stoic'', is a letter collection of 124 letters that Seneca the Younger wrote at the end of his life, during his retirement, after he had worked ...

Old Derbeians

The term "Old Derbeians" originally meant only former pupils of

, but the Old Derbeians Society is now open also to ex-pupils of the new school, who are called both New and Old Derbeians. Those educated at the new school include: * Ben Bradley (born 1989), Former Conservative member of parliament Katy Balls
Coffee House Interview: New Tory vice-chair – Toff can help solve the Conservative youth problem
''The Spectator'', 11 January 2018
archived
accessed 11 July 2022

References

Derby Grammar School at BBC Education League TablesDerby Grammar School at dfes.gov.ukIndependent Schools Inspectorate report of Derby Grammar School 2005 inspectionDerby Grammar School buildings by Rothera Goodwin, website no longer active

External links

Derby Grammar School – official siteWeb site of the Old Derbeians Society
{{authority control Boys' schools in Derbyshire Private schools in Derby Member schools of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference Member schools of the Independent Schools Association (UK) Educational institutions established in 1995 1995 establishments in England