Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School

KGGS was founded in 1910 by Miss H Gladys Williams. . Before its establishment Kesteven Local Education Authority had founded the Grantham Institute, which accepted girls. A decision to found a new county grammar school for girls was made by a joint committee of county, borough and town councils. After the Board of Education recognised Grantham Institute as a secondary grammar school, and the girls' aspect within it, they appointed a principal mistress for the Institute, who would become the headmistress of a 1910 newly built school called Kesteven and Grantham Girls' Grammar School.[1]

The former prime minister Margaret Thatcher had been a pupil at the school between 1936 and 1943, head girl in her final year.[2] Teen author Beverley Naidoo opened the English Department in November 2001. The school was awarded dual specialisms in Language and Science.

The school is located near the boys' grammar school, The King's School, and a small number of KGGS pupils take some lessons there at A Level, in a reciprocal arrangement allowing a few King's pupils to take some lessons at KGGS.

Each form has a form captain and deputy, two school council members and two charity representatives. Form captains deal with problems and represent the form. A school council discusses matters and acts to improve the school and its community. Charity events are organised by forms to raise money for good causes, with a trophy given each year to the form which raises the most.[3][4]

Pupils are allotted to one of six houses within the school, named after famous female writers and poets: Austen, Brontë, Browning, Eliot, Potter, and Rossetti. Each house has its own colour: Austen-Purple, Potter-Green, Rossetti-Red, Bronte-White, Browning-Black and Eliot-Yellow.[4][5] Houses are headed by two Year 13 house captains. The house system is maintained and supervised by three Year 13 house secretaries and one member of staff.

House events include a sports day, a pantomime, choir, netball, badminton, rounders, debating, public speaking, general knowledge and dance. House pantomimes and choirs have an important place in the school's calendar each year.[6] House assemblies are held each term, where house captains inform pupils of news, plans and ideas surrounding house events, and encourage participation in activities.

The school won the U-19 Championships of the English Schools' Table Tennis Association (ESTTA) three times in a row from 2009–11, and had also won it, 1986–88; the representative of the English Table Tennis Association for the East Midlands, Suzanne Airey, went to KGGS.[7]

There are school exchange programmes with Germany, France and Japan;[8] many girls undertake one of these opportunities each year. The school's connection with Minami High School, Fukushima, Japan, involves a group of Japanese students visiting Grantham each year.[9][10][11][12] A group of girls taking Spanish GCSE or A Level were recently invited to take part in a Spanish exchange in conjunction with Carre's Grammar School, Sleaford.

Peripatetic teachers run lessons in various instruments and singing. Music clubs include a school choir, female barber shop quintet, orchestra, wind band, and string group. There is a composing club, and a 'Junk group' in which students make Stomp-style music using items such as brooms, cardboard boxes and phone books. There is also an occasional magazine called News4u.[5][13]

Curriculum support and revision sessions are held, some for GCSE, AS or A-level.

The school runs the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme, and school sports teams and individuals compete at a national level.[5][14]

KGGS holds classes that are open to the public, such as GCSE in Statistics and Digital Imaging, and GCE AS level in Science in Society.

• Georgina Callaghan, singer-songwriter, known for her 2012 album Life in Full Colour
• Vikki Hubbard – high jumper
• Shona McCallin, member of the Great Britain women's national field hockey team[15][16][17][18] (took her A-levels elsewhere)
• Doris Stokes, well-known medium
• Margaret Thatcher – British Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990[19]
• Clare Tomlinson – Sky Sports presenter
• Jane Soons – University of Canterbury’s first female professor
• Holly Humberstone, singer-songwriter, known for headlining Lewis Capaldi European tour and released her first three singles: Deep End, Falling Asleep At The Wheel, and Overkill in January to June 2020
• Amy Hunt the fastest under-18 sprinter in the world[20]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School.

• School website