Pudsey Grangefield School
Encyclopedia
Pudsey Grangefield School is a state secondary school in Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

, West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....

, 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...

. It was built in 1911 with construction starting in mid-1909. For around 60 Years it was called Pudsey Grammar School, since then it has been Pudsey Grangefield School. It was later given the status of a specialist college of Maths and Computing.

It serves around 1185 pupils from the surrounding area along with two other Pudsey schools, Crawshaw and Preisthorpe. The school also runs the Pudsey Consortium sixth form with these two schools.

The school has its own TV program, "Friday World", broadcast every Friday breaktime at 10:40 am. It has been shown every Friday since 1987. The school also has its own radio station, which began in 1986 as "Radio Grangefield". Since 1997 it has broadcast for a few weeks each year on FM
FM broadcasting
FM broadcasting is a broadcasting technology pioneered by Edwin Howard Armstrong which uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. The term "FM band" describes the "frequency band in which FM is used for broadcasting"...

 under a Restricted Service Licence
Restricted Service Licence
A UK Restricted Service Licence , is typically granted to radio stations and television stations broadcasting within the UK to serve a local community or a special event...

, issued by Ofcom
Ofcom
Ofcom is the government-approved regulatory authority for the broadcasting and telecommunications industries in the United Kingdom. Ofcom was initially established by the Office of Communications Act 2002. It received its full authority from the Communications Act 2003...

, originally under the name "Pudsey Grangefield FM", later abbreviated to PGFM.

The school's life-long logo is the official coat of arms of Pudsey, bearing the slogan "Be Just and Fear Not". The logo can be seen built into the front of the original Grammar School Building as well as on the school uniform. As of 2010, on the recommendation of Headteacher Ken Cornforth, the school logo is to be replaced with a new one bearing the motto: "Pudsey Grangefield school; we never close."

On 1 September 2008 the headteacher was given the keys to the new building and the teachers were allowed to prepare for the new school year, beginning on 3 September. The original, Grade II Listed Grammar School building at the front of the old site will be sold off as flats, with the rest of the old site being demolished in order to allow construction of a vast open recreational area for the new building.

The longest serving teacher is Les Barnes of the Media department and the original creator of Friday World and PG-FM. He had been with the school for over 30 years when he left at Christmas, 2008.

On 21 September 2009 the school was visited by the Deputy Prime Minister
Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a senior member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. The office of the Deputy Prime Minister is not a permanent position, existing only at the discretion of the Prime Minister, who may appoint to other offices...

, John Prescott
John Prescott
John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott is a British politician who was Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007. Born in Prestatyn, Wales, he represented Hull East as the Labour Member of Parliament from 1970 to 2010...

. The school was also visited in 2010 by Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 leadership candidate and former Foreign Secretary
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, commonly referred to as the Foreign Secretary, is a senior member of Her Majesty's Government heading the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and regarded as one of the Great Offices of State...

 David Miliband
David Miliband
David Wright Miliband is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for South Shields since 2001, and was the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from 2007 to 2010. He is the elder son of the late Marxist theorist Ralph Miliband...

, who described the new building as "a great monument to Labour government"

Headteacher Ken Cornforth was promoted from Deputy Headteacher in 1996/7 on the retirement of long-serving Headteacher Margaret Cooke.

Notable pupils

  • Jerry Brotton, Chair of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary, University of London
    Queen Mary, University of London
    Queen Mary, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London...

     and presenter of the BBC
    BBC
    The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

     series Maps: Power, Plunder and Possession
  • Carolynne Good
    Carolynne Good
    Carolynne Poole is an English singer-songwriter and a founding member of the Carolynne Good Band, based in Leeds and London, and best known for finishing in third place in the second series of Fame Academy...

    , finalist on Fame Academy
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