Maidstone Grammar School (MGS) 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 Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest Town status in the United Kingdom, town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, l ...

, England. The school was founded in 1549 after Protector Somerset sold Corpus Christi Hall on behalf of

King Edward VI Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. The only surviving son of Henry VIII by his thi ...

to the people of

for £200. The

Royal Charter A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, but ...

for establishment of a

was also granted at this time.

Admissions

Maidstone Grammar School is a

selective school A selective school is a school that admits students on the basis of some sort of selection criteria, usually academic. The term may have different connotations in different systems and is the opposite of a comprehensive school, which accepts all s ...

, taking boys at the age of 11 and over based on their 11+ results, and also admits male and female pupils at 16+ based on their

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 ...

results. The school currently has 1292 pupils and 112 members of staff, with 69 teachers as of the academic year 2018–2019.

Buildings

The main school building surrounds a Tudor-style quadrangle with a cloister on one side. Two new blocks were added in the 1960s and 80s to complete a second quadrangle, nicknamed the 'Court'. In 2005, a new refectory and teaching block (renamed the 'Walker Building') opened, followed by Sixth Form buildings in 2011. Additional funding from

Kent County Council Kent County Council is a county council that governs the non-metropolitan county of Kent in England. The non-metropolitan county is smaller than the ceremonial county, which additionally includes the Unitary authorities of England, unitary auth ...

allowed the school to open a designated Performing Arts building, new sports pavilion, and computing and science block between 2017 and 2019. The pavilion was constructed to replace the traditional pavilion which had fallen into disrepair, with a second floor having recently been added to house the Modern Foreign Languages department. As well as that, the school opened a refurbishment of the War Memorial Library and a new all-weather sports pitch.

Houses

A house system was inaugurated in 1899 with three houses of 'School', 'East Borough' and 'West Borough'; allocation was based on local geography. In September 2007, the school reformed the tradition with the introduction of six new school houses, named after military vehicles: Challenger (purple), Churchill (yellow), Endeavour (red),

Hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure area, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its ...

(green), Invincible (blue), and

Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. It was the only British fighter produced continuously throughout the ...

(white). It was again reformed in September 2017, splitting the school into four houses, named after locations of the school: Barton (blue), College (green), Corpus Christi (red), and Tonbridge (yellow). This was due to the transition into vertical forms, where each form consists of a few members from every year.

Sixth form

Each year the school takes up to 200 students into Year 12, including about thirty external pupils of both genders from any school according to their GCSE results. The sixth form teaches AS and A-Level courses. In order to be accepted one needs an average of 5.7 on GCSE results and at least 5 in both Maths and one of the English subjects.

Sport

The main sports at the school are rugby,

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

and

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 ...

, but participation also includes rowing, cross country,

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 ...

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

, and

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 ...

. The school has won various district and county competitions. In the 1999/2000 season, the 1st XI football team reached the final of the ESFA U18 Cup, narrowly losing to The Kingsway School In the 2004/05 season, the U15 rugby team won the Schools Vase, having won the Kent Schools Cup earlier in the season, beating Oakham School 33-7.

Combined Cadet Force (CCF)

The school has a

Combined Cadet Force The Combined Cadet Force (CCF) is a youth organisation in the United Kingdom, sponsored by the Ministry of Defence (MOD), which operates in schools, sub divided into Royal Navy, Royal Marines, Army and Royal Air Force sections. Its aim is to ...

, with Navy, Army and RAF sections accepting students on a voluntary basis when they reach year nine. The

, in particular the Army section, has roots in the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is the engineering arm of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces ...

. The Navy section is affiliated with HMS Collingwood and, a land establishment in

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

, and also has an affiliated ship ( HMS Kent (F78)). The RAF section regularly enters teams into both regional and national competitions and have won a total of nine Air Squadron Trophies In 2001 two senior students plead guilty to a series of violent and racially aggravated charges relating to abuse of junior CCF cadets. Staff were accused of turning a blind eye or, according to the prosecutor, involved in some of the incidents.

School song

In 1908, Rev C. G. Duffield (the headmaster from 1898 to 1913), wrote Latin lyrics to the music of music-master Dr H. F. Henniker for ''Gaudeamus'', the school song. The words, based on verses in

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...

's ''

Aeneid The ''Aeneid'' ( ; or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan War#Sack of Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Ancient Rome ...

'', are still sung on special occasions such as upper and lower school speech days.

Notable events

In May 2016, former Maidstone Grammar School teacher Steve Restarick was found guilty of fraud charges, involving embezzling £6,258 of the school's resources over several years. In December 2020, Maidstone Grammar School was widely reported in the news for choosing to delay the reopening of the school over concerns of the impact of

Brexit Brexit (, a portmanteau of "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...

on its students and staff being able to access the school. In 2024, the school celebrated its 475th anniversary, celebrating the event by offering new ties and hoodies to students. On the week of the event, multiple Old Maidstonians gave speeches to the current students. A 475 showcase was also held, utilising part of a play written by a former teacher at the school.

Notable alumni

Former pupils of the school are called "Old Maidstonians" and include: ''Art, Music & Literature'' *

Dan Abnett Daniel P. Abnett ( ; born 12 October 1965) is an English comic book writer and novelist. He has been a frequent collaborator with fellow writer Andy Lanning, and has worked on books for both Marvel Comics, and their UK imprint, Marvel UK, since ...

— comic book writer * William Alexander† — painter *

Edmund Blunden Edmund Charles Blunden (1 November 1896 – 20 January 1974) was an English poet, author, and critic. Like his friend Siegfried Sassoon, he wrote of his experiences in World War I in both verse and prose. For most of his career, Blunden was als ...

† — writer & poet *

Daniel Blythe Daniel Blythe (born 1969 in Maidstone) is a British author, who studied Modern Languages at St John's College, Oxford. After several years writing stories for the small press, Blythe began his professional career writing for the Virgin New Adven ...

— writer *

James Butler (artist) James Walter Butler MBE RA (25 July 1931 – 26 March 2022) was a British sculptor most famous for his 1980 statue of Richard III in Leicester. Butler was educated at Maidstone Grammar School and studied art at Saint Martin's School of Art ...

MBE — sculptor *

Philip Langridge Philip Gordon Langridge (16 December 1939 – 5 March 2010)Millington (7 March 2010) was an English tenor, considered to be among the foremost exponents of English opera and oratorio. Early life Langridge was born in Hawkhurst, Kent, educ ...

† CBE — tenor * Philip Moore — organist of

York Minster York Minster, formally the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York, is an Anglicanism, Anglican cathedral in the city of York, North Yorkshire, England. The minster is the seat of the archbishop of York, the second-highest of ...

from 1983 to 2008, organist of

Guildford Cathedral The Cathedral Church of the Holy Spirit, Guildford, commonly known as Guildford Cathedral, is the Anglican cathedral in Guildford, Surrey, England. Richard Onslow, 5th Earl of Onslow, Earl Onslow donated the first of land on which the cathedral ...

from 1974 to 1983 *

Christopher Smart Christopher Smart (11 April 1722 – 20 May 1771) was an English poet. He was a major contributor to two popular magazines, ''The Midwife'' and ''The Student'', and a friend to influential cultural icons like Samuel Johnson and Henry Fiel ...

† — poet ''Business & Commerce'' * Richard (Dick) Beeching, Baron Beeching† — physicist, British Railways chairman, cause of the

Beeching cuts The Beeching cuts, also colloquially referred to as the Beeching Axe, were a major series of route closures and service changes made as part of the restructuring of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain in the 1960s. They are named ...

* Mark F. Watts — lobbyist & former Labour MEP ''Media, television & film'' * Nick Angel — film and television producer * James Burke — science historian and TV presenter * David Chater — television foreign correspondent and former chairman of the ''Old Maidstonian Society'' *

Andrew Dilnot Sir Andrew William Dilnot, (born 19 June 1960) is a British economist and broadcaster. He was director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies from 1991 to 2002, and principal of St Hugh's College, Oxford from 2002 to 2012, and Warden of Nuffield ...

CBE — principal of

St Hugh's College, Oxford St Hugh's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. It is located on a site on St Margaret's Road, to the north of the city centre. It was founded in 1886 by Elizabeth Wordsworth as a ...

since 2002, and former presenter of

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

's '' More or Less'' * James Hillier — actor * Paul Lewis — financial journalist and presenter of '' Money Box'' & ''Money Box Live'' on

* Kevin Loader — film and television producer * Shaun McKenna — screenwriter * Stuart Miles — ''

Blue Peter ''Blue Peter'' is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC ...

'' presenter from 1994 to 1999 * Tom Riley — film and television actor ''Military'' * Ben Babington-Browne† — 22 Engineer Regiment of the

, killed on 6 July 2009 after a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

Bell CH-146 Griffon The Bell CH-146 Griffon is a multi-role utility helicopter designed by Bell Helicopter Textron as a variant of the Bell 412EP for the Canadian Armed Forces. It is used in a wide variety of roles, including aerial firepower, reconnaissance, se ...

crashed in

Zabul Province Zabul (Pashto/Dari: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the south of the country. It has a population of 249,000. Zabul became an independent province from neighbouring Kandahar in 1963. Historically, it was part of the Zab ...

, Afghanistan * Lt-Gen Sir Frederick Dobson Middleton CB — Commandant from 1874 to 1884 of RMC Sandhurst * Sir Timothy Jenner CB — Station Commander of RAF Shawbury from 1987 to 1988 * Giles Legood MBE QHC — Chaplain-in-Chief of the

Royal Air Force Chaplains Branch The Royal Air Force Chaplains Branch provides military chaplains for the Royal Air Force#Branches and trades, Royal Air Force of the United Kingdom. Mission The Mission of the Royal Air Force Chaplains Branch is to serve the RAF Community throug ...

and Archdeacon for the Royal Air Force ''Politics & government'' * Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges† — MP from 1812 to 1818 for

Nick Gibb Sir Nicolas John Gibb (born 3 September 1960) is a British politician who served as Minister of State for Schools from 2010 to 2012; 2014 to 2021 and from 2022 to 2023. He has served at the Department for Education under Conservative Prime Mini ...

— Conservative Minister of State for School Standards from 2010 to 2012 and from 2015 to 2021, and MP for

Bognor Regis and Littlehampton Bognor Regis and Littlehampton () is a Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, constituency in West Sussex represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Pa ...

since 1997 * Stuart Gilbert† — director of National Saving in the 1980s * John Pugh — Liberal Democrat MP 2001-2017 for

Southport Southport is a seaside resort, seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. It lies on the West Lancashire Coastal Plain, West Lancashire coastal plain and the east coast of the Irish Sea, approximately north of ...

* Adam Sampson — Legal Services Ombudsman from 2009 to 2014 and chief executive from 2003 to 2009 of Shelter * Mark F. Watts — Labour MEP from 1994 to 1999 for Kent East, then

South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England, regions of England that are in the ITL 1 statistical regions of England, top level category for Statistics, statistical purposes. It consists of the nine counties of england, ...

from 1999 to 2004 * Phil Wynn Owen — CB, civil servant ''Religion'' * Rt Rev David John Atkinson — bishop of Thetford from 2001 to 2009 * Leo Avery† * Rt Rev Bob Evens — Bishop of Crediton 2004-2012 * Henry Gould† — vicar of St Paul's Cathedral 1908–1913 * George Harris (Unitarian)† * Very Rev Robert William Pope OBE† * Martin Warner (bishop) — SSC, Bishop of Whitby 2010–12,

Bishop of Chichester The Bishop of Chichester is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chichester in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers the counties of East Sussex, East and West Sussex. The Episcopal see, see is based in t ...

2012-present ''Science & academia'' * Peter Day† — Fullerian Professor of Chemistry from 1994 to 2008, and Director of the Royal Institution from 1991 to 1998 * Frank Finn† — ornithologist * Peter Heather — academic and historian *

Geoffrey Hosking Geoffrey Alan Hosking (born 28 April 1942) is a British historian of Russia and the Soviet Union and formerly Leverhulme Research Professor of Russian History at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) at University College, Lon ...

— professor of Russian history from 1984 to 2007 at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

* William Morfill† — professor of Russian from 1900 to 1909 at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

* John Orrell† — theatre historian * John Pond† — Astronomer Royal 1811–1835 * Ivan Roots† — historian, biographer of Oliver Cromwell * Bill Saunders — professor of endodontology, and dean of dentistry since 2000 at the

University of Dundee The University of Dundee is a public research university based in Dundee, Scotland. It was founded as a university college in 1881 with a donation from the prominent Baxter family of textile manufacturers. The institution was, for most of its ...

, and president from 1997 to 1998 of the British Endodontic Society ''Sport'' * Bill Leyland —

Hull KR Hull Kingston Rovers (often abbreviated to Hull KR) are a professional rugby league club based in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, England. The club play home games at Craven Park, Hull, Craven Park and compete in Super League, the top tier of B ...

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer * Oliver Leyland —

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footballer * David Flatman —

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Union player * Tom Parsons — Kent and Hampshire county cricketer *

Frank Sando Frank Dennis Sando (14 March 1931 – 13 October 2012) was a British long-distance runner. A two-time winner at the International Cross Country Championships (1955, 1957), Sando represented Great Britain in two consecutive Summer Olympic Games. ...

— Olympic athlete, two-time winner at the International Cross Country Championships (1955, 1957), represented Great Britain in two consecutive Summer Olympic Games * Steven Haworth — wrestler also known as Nigel McGuinness and Desmond Wolfe * Michael Malone — four-in-hand carriage driver, Scots Greys Regiment. ''Other'' * Julius Brenchley† — explorer * Francis Fane, 1st Earl of Westmorland† — English landowner and politician * Sir Thomas Fane† — convicted of treason for his involvement in

Wyatt's rebellion Wyatt's Rebellion was a limited and unsuccessful uprising in England in early 1554 led by four men, one of whom was Sir Thomas Wyatt. It was given its name by the lawyer at Wyatt's arraignment, who stated for the record that "this shall be eve ...

, sentenced to death, pardoned by Queen

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a female given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religion * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also called the Blesse ...

; later became High Sheriff of Kent and was knighted for services to the crown

Notable staff

William Golding Sir William Gerald Golding (19 September 1911 – 19 June 1993) was a British novelist, playwright, and poet. Best known for his debut novel '' Lord of the Flies'' (1954), Golding published another 12 volumes of fiction in his lifetime. In 19 ...

— author of ''

Lord of the Flies ''Lord of the Flies'' is the 1954 debut novel of British author William Golding. The plot concerns a group of prepubescent British boys who are stranded on an uninhabited island and their disastrous attempts to govern themselves that led to ...

'', taught English and Music at the school between 1938 and 1940, when he met his wife Ann Brookfield *

John Nunn John Denis Martin Nunn (born 25 April 1955) is an English chess grandmaster, a three-time world champion in chess problem solving, a chess writer and publisher, and a mathematician. He is one of England's strongest chess players and was form ...

— chess grandmaster * Steve Restarick — former professional footballer, taught P.E. at the school before his suspension in 2014 amid fraud allegations

References

External links

Official website

Ofsted Report

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Schools Financial Benchmarking Service

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{{authority control 1549 establishments in England Educational institutions established in the 1540s Grammar schools in Kent Schools in Maidstone Boys' schools in Kent Foundation schools in Kent