Ilkeston Grammar School
Encyclopedia
Ilkeston Grammar School was a selective co-educational secondary school, admission being dependent on passing the eleven-plus examination. It stood on King George Avenue, Ilkeston
, in the south east of Derbyshire
in the East Midlands
of England
.
The photograph in the infobox shows the original school, now known as the 'King George Building', seen from the junction of King George Avenue and Scarborough Avenue, c.2002.
studied there. This centre became inadequate for Ilkeston
's needs, and eventually a site for its replacement was purchased from the Duke of Rutland
in December 1913.
The new Ilkeston County Secondary School (capacity - 250 pupils) was opened on 25 June 1914 by King George V
when he visited the town accompanied by Queen Mary. The King pressed a button whilst standing in the market place which opened the school gates (a good half mile away and well out of sight), an explosive charge relaying the success of the operation back to the assembled crowds in the town centre. The King did, though, pass by in his car on his way out of the town and had a few words with the headmaster.
with vigour. He is remembered as 'a stern headmaster of little humour' but the school's record of academic achievement greatly improved.
In 1955 the school bought 'West Knoll', a builder's house adjoining the school at the end of Scarborough Avenue, which provided office and teaching space along with some useful grounds.
and the Sudan
, and his gentlemanly but authoritative air and good manners earned him much respect. Very much in the 'old school' mould, he once said
In the early 1970s talk of the school turning comprehensive
grew stronger, against the wishes of some of the teaching establishment. Headmaster Mr Cox's last famous speech was headlined "comprehensive
is the con-trick of the century".
, the last intake from the 11 plus examination being admitted in September 1976.
Ilkeston's other secondary schools, Hallcroft Girls' School and Hallcroft Boys' School, had already merged in 1960 to form Hallcroft School. Hallcroft, Gladstone and Cavendish
merged in 1976 to form the comprehensive Cantelupe School. Cantelupe closed in 1997, its pupils moving to the newly re-organised Ilkeston School.
The school is now known as "Ilkeston School Specialist Arts College".
The original, core buildings have an unusual layout comprising
. This oldest part of the school was designed by County Architect Mr Widdows, who saw it as resembling 'an eastern fortress'. This design was echoed by the tops of the main entrance gateposts.
The original design is also reminiscent of Moorish architecture in that it is based around a quadrangle with a central domed hall. The buildings are decorated with simple geometric patterns on the external walls, also in the Moorish style. Exciting much comment at the time, the design was only a qualified success. There was no gymnasium or canteen, the cloakroom facilities were poor, and there were no showers.
This design also closely resembles that of the "Main Block" at New Mills School Business & Enterprise College
in New Mills
, High Peak
, The two are rumoured to be by the same architect and are the only examples in the county. Arial views (see Google Earth) show a virtually identical ground plan, though New Mills has pitched roofs with dormer windows.
Mr Ripley, a former deputy headmaster commented
Although many temporary classrooms (some of which lasted for over fifty years) were erected, the first new permanent classrooms were added in 1956 for geography and history, extended in 1959 with an impressive new two-storey 'science block' with a full length glazed staircase. More 'temporary' terrapin prefabricated classrooms were added in the late 1960s and 1970s.
The steel-framed 'pyramids' building (erected in two stages between 1977 and 1979). with its unplastered internal block walls and outside plastic cladding, though controversial, at least provided the school with its first purpose-built gymnasium and changing rooms. The second stage had much improved facilities for art, metalwork and woodwork. The art rooms occasionally flooded as some windows had been installed the wrong way up. A later county architect, put to work on attempting an extension, said it was
(near Paris).
There is currently an exchange programme with schools in Toyota, Japan.
Labor Omnia Vincit
Labor Omnia Vincit - Work conquers all.
Here we toil from 9 till 4,
Fields of science we explore,
Languages we learn to speak,
Learning slowly week by week,
Labor Omnia Vincit - Work conquers all.
How are battles won and lost,
What is retail, what is cost,
How are entire nations fed,
How is Shakespere's blank verse read?
Labor Omnia Vincit - Work conquers all.
Here will our purpose at length become plain,
What we should so with our lives for His gain,
How we should learn to face evil and lust,
And that only in God,
Only in God,
Should we put our whole trust.
There was an earlier school song, taught in the 1940s. A partial version goes:
A song, oh a song for the school,
A workaday song with a lilt and a swing.
. . . . . .
When wisdom seemed worth it and honour was real,
This, this is the song of the school.
Ilkeston
Ilkeston is a town within the Borough of Erewash, in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the River Erewash, from which the local borough takes its name. Its population at the 2001 census was 37,550...
, in the south east of Derbyshire
Derbyshire
Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...
in the East Midlands
East Midlands
The East Midlands is one of the regions of England, consisting of most of the eastern half of the traditional region of the Midlands. It encompasses the combined area of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Northamptonshire and most of Lincolnshire...
of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
The photograph in the infobox shows the original school, now known as the 'King George Building', seen from the junction of King George Avenue and Scarborough Avenue, c.2002.
Origins
What became Ilkeston Grammar School was established as a pupil teacher centre whose main claim to fame was that author D. H. LawrenceD. H. Lawrence
David Herbert Richards Lawrence was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter who published as D. H. Lawrence. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation...
studied there. This centre became inadequate for Ilkeston
Ilkeston
Ilkeston is a town within the Borough of Erewash, in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the River Erewash, from which the local borough takes its name. Its population at the 2001 census was 37,550...
's needs, and eventually a site for its replacement was purchased from the Duke of Rutland
John Manners, 7th Duke of Rutland
|-...
in December 1913.
The new Ilkeston County Secondary School (capacity - 250 pupils) was opened on 25 June 1914 by King George V
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
when he visited the town accompanied by Queen Mary. The King pressed a button whilst standing in the market place which opened the school gates (a good half mile away and well out of sight), an explosive charge relaying the success of the operation back to the assembled crowds in the town centre. The King did, though, pass by in his car on his way out of the town and had a few words with the headmaster.
County secondary school
The outbreak of the First World War just two months later meant the loss of several male staff, so that by 1918 there was only one other male teacher apart from the headmaster. A change of head in 1919 brought a change in discipline; before this, corporal punishment had not been used but the new headmaster, Samuel R. Wood, introduced caningCaning
Caning is a form of corporal punishment consisting of a number of hits with a single cane usually made of rattan, generally applied to the offender's bare or clothed buttocks or hand . Application of a cane to the knuckles or the shoulders has been much less common...
with vigour. He is remembered as 'a stern headmaster of little humour' but the school's record of academic achievement greatly improved.
The grammar school years
After the 1944 Education Act the county secondary became Ilkeston Grammar School in that year and Mr Wood retired in 1946. By 1947 there were 422 pupils, still strictly segregated with their separate playgrounds and separate boys' and girls' school entrances on Scarborough Avenue. Trespassing into the 'other' playground was usually punished with a caning.In 1955 the school bought 'West Knoll', a builder's house adjoining the school at the end of Scarborough Avenue, which provided office and teaching space along with some useful grounds.
D. R. J. Cox
In November 1961 Mr David R. J. Cox became headmaster - known to generations of former pupils as 'Doc Cox'. Mr Cox had been involved in education in EgyptEgypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
and the Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
, and his gentlemanly but authoritative air and good manners earned him much respect. Very much in the 'old school' mould, he once said
Mr Cox stayed as headmaster until 1978.
'We hear about sex ad nauseam. Anyone would think it was only discovered last year ... so far as I know, early man evolved without the benefit of constant sex education, films about growing up ... and the dubious luxury of pornography, and what is more, I am sure they were not under the impression that they owed their existence to the services of a kindly stork'
In the early 1970s talk of the school turning comprehensive
Comprehensive school
A comprehensive school is a state school that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude. This is in contrast to the selective school system, where admission is restricted on the basis of a selection criteria. The term is commonly used in relation to the United...
grew stronger, against the wishes of some of the teaching establishment. Headmaster Mr Cox's last famous speech was headlined "comprehensive
Comprehensive school
A comprehensive school is a state school that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude. This is in contrast to the selective school system, where admission is restricted on the basis of a selection criteria. The term is commonly used in relation to the United...
is the con-trick of the century".
The end for the grammar school
Ilkeston Grammar School was renamed Ilkeston School in 1977 when it became a comprehensiveComprehensive school
A comprehensive school is a state school that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude. This is in contrast to the selective school system, where admission is restricted on the basis of a selection criteria. The term is commonly used in relation to the United...
, the last intake from the 11 plus examination being admitted in September 1976.
Ilkeston's other secondary schools, Hallcroft Girls' School and Hallcroft Boys' School, had already merged in 1960 to form Hallcroft School. Hallcroft, Gladstone and Cavendish
Cavendish School
Cavendish School may refer to:*Cavendish School *Cavendish School *Cavendish School *Cavendish School *Cavendish School *Cavendish School *Cavendish School...
merged in 1976 to form the comprehensive Cantelupe School. Cantelupe closed in 1997, its pupils moving to the newly re-organised Ilkeston School.
The school is now known as "Ilkeston School Specialist Arts College".
Architecture
according to Pevsner
"classrooms round an open quadrangle with a central domed hall"
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, FBA was a German-born British scholar of history of art and, especially, of history of architecture...
. This oldest part of the school was designed by County Architect Mr Widdows, who saw it as resembling 'an eastern fortress'. This design was echoed by the tops of the main entrance gateposts.
The original design is also reminiscent of Moorish architecture in that it is based around a quadrangle with a central domed hall. The buildings are decorated with simple geometric patterns on the external walls, also in the Moorish style. Exciting much comment at the time, the design was only a qualified success. There was no gymnasium or canteen, the cloakroom facilities were poor, and there were no showers.
This design also closely resembles that of the "Main Block" at New Mills School Business & Enterprise College
New Mills School Business & Enterprise College
New Mills School Business & Enterprise College is an average sized comprehensive school, situated in the northwest of Derbyshire within in the Peak District.-Admissions:...
in New Mills
New Mills
New Mills is a town in Derbyshire, England approximately south-east of Stockport and from Manchester. It is sited at the confluence of the rivers Goyt and Sett, on the border of Cheshire. The town stands above the Torrs, a deep gorge, cut through Woodhead Hill Sandstone of the Carboniferous period...
, High Peak
High Peak
High Peak is a non-metropolitan district and borough of the non-metropolitan county of Derbyshire, England. Administered from Buxton, it is mostly composed of high moorland plateau in the Dark Peak of the Peak District....
, The two are rumoured to be by the same architect and are the only examples in the county. Arial views (see Google Earth) show a virtually identical ground plan, though New Mills has pitched roofs with dormer windows.
Mr Ripley, a former deputy headmaster commented
"To work in this school, one finds it is sunny, airy and pleasant in summer and fine weather but most uncomfortable in winter when driving rain and sleet can chill everyone who has to change from one room to another throughout the school day".
The steel-framed 'pyramids' building (erected in two stages between 1977 and 1979). with its unplastered internal block walls and outside plastic cladding, though controversial, at least provided the school with its first purpose-built gymnasium and changing rooms. The second stage had much improved facilities for art, metalwork and woodwork. The art rooms occasionally flooded as some windows had been installed the wrong way up. A later county architect, put to work on attempting an extension, said it was
'the wrong shape, the wrong size, built of the wrong materials and placed on the wrong site'
Exchange programmes
In the 1960s and 1970s there was a pupil exchange programme with the Lycée de MontgeronMontgeron
Montgeron is a commune in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.Inhabitants of Montgeron are known as Montgeronnais.-Transport:Montgeron is served by Montgeron – Crosne station on Paris RER line D....
(near Paris).
There is currently an exchange programme with schools in Toyota, Japan.
School song
This is reproduced from memory; you can help by correcting or completing it.Labor Omnia Vincit
Labor Omnia Vincit - Work conquers all.
Here we toil from 9 till 4,
Fields of science we explore,
Languages we learn to speak,
Learning slowly week by week,
Labor Omnia Vincit - Work conquers all.
How are battles won and lost,
What is retail, what is cost,
How are entire nations fed,
How is Shakespere's blank verse read?
Labor Omnia Vincit - Work conquers all.
Here will our purpose at length become plain,
What we should so with our lives for His gain,
How we should learn to face evil and lust,
And that only in God,
Only in God,
Should we put our whole trust.
There was an earlier school song, taught in the 1940s. A partial version goes:
A song, oh a song for the school,
A workaday song with a lilt and a swing.
. . . . . .
When wisdom seemed worth it and honour was real,
This, this is the song of the school.
Headmasters
Headmasters and headmistresses of Ilkeston County Secondary School and Ilkeston Grammar School| 1913–1919 | Mr F. P. C. Walker, MA |
| 1919–1946 | Mr S. R. Wood |
| 1946–1949 | Mr P. M. Jackson |
| 1949–1951 | Mr J. W. Walker |
| 1951–1954 | Mr S. F. Marshall |
| 1954–1961 | Mr J. N. Hewitson |
| 1961–1978 | Mr D. R. J. Cox, MA |
| 1978–2003 | Mr M. Burdon |
| 2003-2011 | Mr S. Daniels |
| 2011-Date | Mrs T. Dundas |
Alumni
- James Abbott (1928–2008), Director of Research from 1981-88 at the Shell Research and Technology Centre, Amsterdam (part of Shell Research BV)
- Prof Raymond Baker CBE (born 1936), Chief Executive of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research CouncilBiotechnology and Biological Sciences Research CouncilBiotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council is a UK Research Council and NDPB and is the largest UK public funder of non-medical bioscience...
from 1996–2001, and Director of the Wolfson Unit of Chemical Entomology at the University of SouthamptonUniversity of SouthamptonThe University of Southampton is a British public university located in the city of Southampton, England, a member of the Russell Group. The origins of the university can be dated back to the founding of the Hartley Institution in 1862 by Henry Robertson Hartley. In 1902, the Institution developed...
from 1976–84 - James Garner (journalist) (born 1930), Associate Editor, Canadian Medical Association Journal, 1973–1980)
- Sir Robertson King CBE (1895–1976), Chairman of the East Midlands Electricity BoardEast Midlands ElectricityThe East Midlands Electricity Board was formed in 1947, one of the 12 area electricity boards specified under the Electricity Act 1947.-Supply area:...
from 1948–57, of the Electricity CouncilElectricity CouncilThe Electricity Council was a governmental body set up in 1957 to oversee the electricity supply industry in England and Wales. The Council's responsibilities included:...
from 1959–61, and of the National Inspection Council for Electrical Installation ContractingNational Inspection Council for Electrical Installation ContractingThe National Inspection Council for Electrical Installation Contracting or NICEIC is one which regulates the training and work of electrical enterprises in the UK...
from 1956-58 - Prof Stuart PalmerStuart Palmer (physicist)Professor Stuart Palmer FREng is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Interim Chair of the School of Life Sciences of the University of Warwick where he has been since 1987. He is a physicist who has worked in Condensed Matter Physics and Engineering Physics and has extensively exploited the technique...
(born 1943), Professor of Experimental Physics since 1987 at the University of WarwickUniversity of WarwickThe University of Warwick is a public research university located in Coventry, United Kingdom... - Prof George SaylesG.O. SaylesGeorge Osborne Sayles , better known as G.O. Sayles, was an English historian best known for his work concerning medieval English law courts and the early English Parliaments.-Early life:...
(1901–94), Professor of History at the University of AberdeenUniversity of AberdeenThe University of Aberdeen, an ancient university founded in 1495, in Aberdeen, Scotland, is a British university. It is the third oldest university in Scotland, and the fifth oldest in the United Kingdom and wider English-speaking world...
from 1953–62