Maidstone Grammar School

Maidstone Grammar School is a selective school, 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 results. The school currently has 1292 pupils and 112 members of staff, with 69 teachers as of the academic year 2018-2019.[2][3] The school holds a Healthy School award . It is situated just off Loose Road (A229), west of Mote Park and the Mote Park Leisure Centre.

The main school building surrounds a Tudor-style quadrangle with a cloister on one side, with a new block added in the 1960s to house the geography, religious studies, classics, business studies and post-16 subject classrooms. A design and technology (DT) block was added in 1981 to complete a second quadrangle nicknamed the 'Court'. In 2005, a new refectory and teaching block (later named the Walker Building after a retired member of staff) with 15 classrooms was built for the maths, history and art departments. An 'Applied Learning Centre' was completed in the 2010–11 academic year and a similarly styled 'Food Technology' and Sixth Form block opened in September 2011.

A new Performing Arts building was built ready for use at the start of the 2017/18 academic year. The building includes a recording studio, music practice rooms and stage in order to accommodate the reformed performing arts department. In the 2018/19 academic year, a new sports pavilion and separate computing and science block was completed. The pavilion was constructed to replace the traditional pavilion which had fallen into disrepair and houses improved changing facilities and PE offices. The computing and science building consists of modern laboratories and three new computer suites.

The school opened a refurbishment of the War Memorial Library at the start of the 2019/20 academic year to accommodate the growing number of students, and planning permission has been approved for a new all-weather sports pitch on the field.

A house system was inaugurated in 1899 with three houses of 'School', 'East Borough' and 'West Borough',[4] with allocation based on local geography (East House for boys living east of the River Medway, West House for boys West of the riverside, and School House for local townspeople).[5] 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 (green), Invincible, (blue), and Spitfire (white).

For the 2017-18 academic year, a new house system was introduced to accommodate the expansion of the school. The four new house names are based on the four sites the school has used since its foundation in 1549, being blue-based Barton (the present school site, used from 1930), green-based College (the site at the College of All Saints), red-based Corpus Christi (the original site in 1549 of Corpus Christi Hall) and yellow-based Tonbridge (the former Tonbridge Road site used from 1871).

The sixth form is one of the largest in the south-east of England. Each year the school takes up to 200 students into Year 12, including about thirty external pupils of mixed gender from any school according to their GCSE results. The sixth form teaches AS and A2 courses.

School sport participation includes rugby, football, field hockey, cricket, rowing, athletics, handball, and basketball.

The school has a Combined Cadet Force, with Navy, Army and RAF sections accepting students on a voluntary basis when they reach year nine. The Combined Cadet Force, in particular the Army section, has roots in the Royal Engineers. The Navy section is affiliated with HMS Collingwood and, a land establishment in Portsmouth, and also has an affiliated ship- HMS Kent (F78).[6] The Navy section is the senior service after the creation of the CCF in 1906.[7] The RAF section regularly enters teams into both regional and national competitions and have won a total of 9 Air Squadron Trophies.[8][9]

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’s Aeneid, are still sung on special occasions such as upper and lower school speech days.[10][11]

The school operates a Development Fund replacing the previous Alumni fund in order to seek funds for future developments. In late 2019, the school received planning permission for an all-weather sports pitch.

In May 2016, former Maidstone Grammar School teacher Steve Restarick was found guilty of fraud charges, involving embezzling £6,258 of the schools resources over several years.[12]

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 on its students and staff being able to access the school.[13]

Former pupils of the school are called "Old Maidstonians" and include:

Art, Music & Literature

• Dan Abnett, comic book writer
• William Alexander (painter)†
• Richard Beeching, Chairman of British Railways
• Edmund Blunden†, writer & poet
• Daniel Blythe, writer
• James Butler (artist) MBE, sculptor
• Philip Langridge† CBE, tenor
• Philip Moore, Organist of York Minster from 1983–2008, Organist of Guildford Cathedral from 1974–83
• Christopher Smart†, poet
• Yeborobo, musical group (members thereof)

Business & Commerce

• Richard (Dick) Beeching, Baron Beeching†, physicist, British Railways Chairman, cause of the Beeching cuts
• Sir Jack Hughes, property mogul & philanthropist[14]
• Elliot Padfield, entrepreneur & public speaker
• Jason Tarry, CEO (UK & ROI), Tesco PLC
• Mark F. Watts, lobbyist & former Labour MEP

Media, television & film

• James Burke, science historian and TV presenter
• David Chater, television foreign correspondent and former Chairman of the Old Maidstonian Society
• Andrew Dilnot CBE (briefly), Principal of St Hugh's College, Oxford since 2002, and former presenter of BBC Radio 4's More or Less
• James Hillier (actor)
• Paul Lewis, financial journalist and presenter of Money Box & Money Box Live on BBC Radio 4[15]
• Kevin Loader, film and television producer
• Shaun McKenna, screenwriter
• Stuart Miles, Blue Peter presenter from 1994-9[16]
• Tom Riley, film and television actor

Military

• Captain Ben Babington-Browne†, of 22 Engineer Regiment of the Royal Engineers, killed on 6 July 2009 after a Canadian Bell CH-146 Griffon crashed in Zabul Province, Afghanistan[17]
• Lt-Gen Sir Frederick Dobson Middleton CB, Commandant from 1874-84 of RMC Sandhurst
• Air Vice-Marshal Philip Hedgeland† CB OBE, expert in airborne radar, Station Commander from 1966-7 of RAF Stanbridge, and helped develop the H2S radar in the war at the Telecommunications Research Establishment in Malvern[18]
• Air Marshal Sir Timothy Jenner CB, Station Commander of RAF Shawbury from 1987–88

Politics & government

• Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges†, MP from 1812-8 for Maidstone
• Nick Gibb (briefly), Conservative Schools Minister 2010-current, and MP for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton since 1997
• Stuart Gilbert† Director of National Saving in the 1980s[19]
• John Pugh, Liberal Democrat MP 2001-2017 for Southport
• Adam Sampson, Legal Services Ombudsman since 2009, and Chief Executive from 2003-89 of Shelter[20]
• Mark F. Watts, Labour MEP from 1994-9 for Kent East, then South East England from 1999–2004

Religion

• Rt Rev David John Atkinson, Bishop of Thetford from 2001-9
• Leo Avery†
• Rt Rev Bob Evens, Bishop of Crediton 2004-2012 [21]
• 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 2012-present

Science & academia

• Peter Day†, Fullerian Professor of Chemistry from 1994–2008, and Director of the Royal Institution from 1991-8
• Frank Finn†, ornithologist
• Peter Heather, historian
• Geoffrey Hosking, Professor of Russian History from 1984-2007 at University College London
• William Morfill†, Professor of Russian from 1900-9 at the University of Oxford
• 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, and President from 1997-8 of the British Endodontic Society[22]

Sport

• David Flatman, Bath Rugby Union player
• Tom Parsons, Kent and Hampshire county cricketer
• Frank Sando, 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

Other

• Julius Brenchley†, explorer
• Francis Fane, 1st Earl of Westmorland†
• Sir Thomas Fane†

• William Golding, author of Lord of the Flies, taught English and Music at the school between 1938 and 1940, when he met his wife Ann Brookfield.[23]
• Steve Restarick, former professional footballer, taught P.E. at the school before his suspension in 2014 amid fraud allegations.[12]

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