Kesteven and Sleaford High School

History

Sleaford and Kesteven High School Ltd. was founded by a group of local businessmen and housed in 62 Southgate, a town-house constructed by local architect and builder Charles Kirk for himself in 1850. When teaching commenced, on 5 May 1902, the headmistress, Margaret Kate Lewer, presided over 23 pupils, including 8 boarders; by 1909, 62 girls were on roll and over the next quarter of a century, the numbers at the school increased to 350. Run by a board of nine directors with W. V. R. Fane of Fulbeck Hall as chair, the school operated independently until it was taken over by the local education authority in 1919.

As the school increased in size, buildings were added to its grounds. The first were wooden huts, installed shortly after the end of the First World War, which provided the school with an assembly hall, office space and classrooms. A brick block was completed in 1924, followed by an extension to the original house three years later. Kesteven County Council planned to rebuild the school in 1930, but this never came to fruition; instead, the school had to wait for prefabricated classrooms to be added in 1946–7. The former urban district council offices at Jermyn Street were also purchased by the Council and converted into classrooms for the school.

The Education Act 1944 abolished fees for state schools and standardised entrance examinations. As a result, KSHS wound down its preparatory school during the mid-1940s and the County Selection Examination was used for all admissions. By the early 1950s, there were 330 pupils by 20 staff at the school. In 1952, as part of the school's golden jubilee celebrations, staff and pupils at the school proposed purchasing land behind the school house. Owned by British Railways, the firm eventually agreed a price of £750; over a three-year period, the school raised the funds through donations from parents, staff and local people. The playing fields were eventually purchased, but delays meant that they were not opened until 1962.

In 1957, the Council proposed erecting new classrooms and laboratories on the site of some disused air-raid shelters located within the grounds. Over the next decade, a series of new buildings were completed around the site, creating a hall, dining room, music, art and staff rooms, and a classroom block, which were completed in 1968.

In 2014, the governors of Carre's Grammar School announced their intention to bid for conversion to a multi-Academy trust and became a coeducational, selective school on a new site; in February 2015, Kesteven and Sleaford High School announced its intention to join the proposed trust, a move welcomed by Carre's. On 1 September 2015, the school officially became part of the Robert Carre Multi-Academy Trust, which would see the schools operate on their sites sharing staff and facilities. KSHSSA's chair of Governors, Robin Baker, became a trustee prompting his replacement as chair by Deborah Hopkins. The headteacher, Craig Booker, resigned.

School structure

Kesteven and Sleaford High School opened as an Academy on 1 November 2011 without sponsorship and run by the Kesteven and Sleaford Academy Trust. As of 2015, the student body is made up of 769 pupils aged between 11 and 18. The school admits girls on a selective basis for Years 7-11 and has a co-educational Sixth Form; there are 10 boys on roll as of 2015. The majority of pupils are White British and, as of 2015, 1.3% of the pupils are allocated free school meals; when assessed by Ofsted in 2013, the inspectors reported that the proportion of students receiving FSM, disabled students and pupils with special educational needs are all "much lower than the national average".

The annual intake to Year 7 for Key Stage 3 is around 120, although in 2006 the number rose to 150. School pupils are drawn from a 200 square mile area of South Lincolnshire, and as far as Newark-on-Trent in Nottinghamshire.

The sixth form takes both boys and girls and in 2013 was ranked at 117th in the country for its A levels results due to around 70% of Grades at A Level being A*-B. In 2014 the school was ranked 170th, with 62.45% of A levels being A*-B. In 2015 the school was ranked 200th, with 59.5% of A levels being A*-B.

Examinations

Of KSHS pupils, 100% gain five or more GCSEs at A*-C, and over 80% achieve A*-B. More than 90% of the AS/A2 level students go on to higher education.

Extra-curricular activities

School clubs and societies include art club, drama club, the school choir, computing club, history club, technology club, the school orchestra and young enterprise and journalist clubs. The school put on a performance of She Stoops to Conquer in 1924, but drama did not become a regular fixture until 1934, when an inter-form competition was arranged by Miss B. de L. Holmes; it was carried on until at least the late 1970s. Since 1996 the school has put on an annual musical performance or a play. From the very early years, the school also had cricket and tennis teams, who practised first in a field by King Edward Street and later at the town's cricket and tennis club grounds. In the 1920s and 1930s, sports days were conducted on Mr Coney's fields; alongside swimming lessons at Sleaford's baths, the school games were sports hockey, netball, tennis and stoolball (later replaced by rounders). By the 1970s, athletics and gymnastics were also a staple of sports education. As of 2015, Sports clubs include athletics, badminton, basketball, dance, fitness, football, gymnastics, hockey, netball, rounders, tennis and volleyball.

From its inception, the High School ran regular field trips, including excursions to Lord Tennyson's birthplace, the Wolds and the coast. The second headmistress, Miss Kirk, took large numbers of girls on visits to the Lake and Peak Districts; outings to Paris and Stratford were smaller affairs, while a contingent travelled to the Wembley exhibition in 1924. Geography trips to youth hostels around Britain were regularly organised after World War II, but in the 1960s, the school participated in education cruises aboard HMT Dunera and took trips to Russia, France and Holland. As of 2015, the school typically offers groups of pupils the opportunity to take part residential trips to France (in year 9), Holland (art students in year 10), London (drama students in years 10-13) and Germany (year 11 history students), alongside language exchanges. Theatre and field trips are also offered, especially in years 7 and 8, and since 1962 pupils have taken part in Duke of Edinburgh Award expeditions.

Girl guiding has a long history at the school. In the early 1920s, the school had two companies of girl guides, but after their captain, Miss Gittings, left in 1925, the school groups were amalgamated with the town's company. The group was revived in 1955 as the 4th Sleaford Company led by Miss Outram. The company was active throughout the 1960s and 1970s, although Outram became divisional commander in 1969 and Misses Hudson and Broughton took over the school's guides, which were split into four patrols. As of 2015, the 4th Sleaford (High School) Guides schedule weekly meetings on Thursdays at 4:00pm.

A house system has existed since the school's early days, when the first houses were named Green and Yellow, after the school colours. They competed in sports events and later academic house contests for trophy donated by E. Godson. In 1923 the growing school roll led to Red and White houses being instituted. In c. 1948, the system was reorganised by the school council so that six houses, named after prominent Lincolnshire families, were created: Brownlow (yellow), Cracroft (green), Dymoke (purple), Heneage (blue), Thorold (white) and Whichcote (red). These were run by pupil House Captains and their deputies until 1973, when staff took over their organisation. As of 2015, pupils are allocated into one of four houses upon arrival at KSHSSA: Aveland, Flaxwell, Loveden and Winnibrig (named after wapentakes); inter-house competitions are run each year, ranging from academic events to Sports Day.

Awards

The school's Ofsted report for 2013, carried out in May found the school to be of a 'Good' standard. Inspectors praised students at KSHS as having outstanding attitudes to learning. Teaching is described as good with a significant proportion that is outstanding. A key factor they identified in lessons was the excellent relationships between staff and students. The report stated that students feel safe and secure at the school which has a ‘calm and purposeful atmosphere’ complimenting KSHS students as being ‘considerate, courteous and polite at all times’.

Buildings

No. 62 Southgate was built by the local contractor Charles Kirk for himself some time before 1850. Constructed to a Jacobean style, the stone house spans three storeys with three gables, the central one being moulded. Between canted windows on either side, the central section projects forward with quoins and includes an arched doorway with pilasters. Iron rails atop a stone wall separate the house from the street, and steps lead up to the doorway. Two pre-Conquest stone fragments, likely 11th century, are inlaid into a wall.

A new block housing a library, three classrooms, a laboratory and office space was completed in September 2005 and officially opened the following December, when it was named after a former teacher, Jenny Cattermole. The school has its own playing fields on-site.