St. Olave's and St. Saviour's Grammar School (also known as St. Olave's, St. Olave's Grammar School, and informally as STOGS) is a selective boy's secondary school in Orpington, Kent, England. It results from the amalgamation in 1896 of two schools, St. Olave's (founded 1571) and St. Saviour's (founded 1562). Originally situated on the south bank of the Thames in Southwark, the school moved to greener grounds in suburban Orpington in 1962. With a long tradition of academic success, the school is one of the top achieving schools in the state sector. Since 1998, the school has admitted girls to its sixth form. It is currently designated as a maths and computing specialist school.

The school, which is named after the Viking marauder Saint Olaf, has an Anglican foundation, and is also affiliated to the Woodard Foundation. Entry is entirely by selection so the school is heavily oversubscribed (7 applicants per place in 2002). It is notable for being one of only a few state schools to play the game of Eton Fives. Members of the school are known as Olavians, and alumni as Old Olavians. The school's Headmaster is currently Anthony Jarvis, a member of the HMC.

The school was at the centre of controversy in 1996 when Labour Party Cabinet minister Harriet Harman sent her son to the school, despite it being some considerable distance from where she lived. Many considered her sending her son to a selective school to be contrary to Labour's supposedly egalitarian principles.

St. Olave's has a strong relationship with Newstead Wood School for Girls, a selective all girls school situated a couple of miles away. The St. Olave's Foundation also supports the all girls St Saviour's and St Olave's School in Old Kent Road. Established in 1903, this is a non-selective school in an economically deprived area that is very different in nature to its brother school.

Alumni

• Samuel Laman Blanchard (1804-1845) author and journalist
• Paul Dimond (born 1944) HM Ambassador to the Philippines
• Lawrence Durrell (1912-1990) novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer
• Abba Eban (1915-2002) Israeli statesman
• Henry Hartley Fowler, 1st Viscount Wolverhampton (1830-1911) politician
• Andy Green (1962- ) current holder of the world land speed record
• John Harvard (1607-1638) founder of Harvard University
• William Heberden (1710-1801) physician, coined the term 'angina'
• Charles Hill, Baron Hill of Luton (1904-?) Chairman of the BBC
• Sir Michael Scholar (born 1942) President, St John's College, Oxford
• William Sherlock (1641-1707) English church leader
• William Van Mildert (1765-1836) founder of the University of Durham

External link

• School website (http://www.saintolaves.net)