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The William Parker School, formerly known as Hastings Grammar School, is a Secondary school in Hastings, East Sussex in the United Kingdom. It is now the only boys secondary school in East Sussex, and has achieved specialist Sports College status.
It takes boys from age 11 to age 16, and there is a separate Sixth form which is shared with Helenswood School, a local girls school.
William Parker School
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Image (school seal or photo) |
| Headmaster |
D Greenup |
| School type |
Maintained |
| Religious affiliation |
None |
| Founded |
1619 |
| Location |
Hastings, East Sussex |
| Enrollment |
Years 7 - 11 plus 6th Form |
| Faculty |
- |
| Campus surroundings |
Suburban |
| Sports teams |
First XI in football and cricket |
| School colour(s) |
- |
Campus
There are separate facilities in Parkstone Road (formerly Hastings Grammar School) and Park Avenue (formerly Hastings Secondary School).
Students
There are about 1000 boys aged 11 to 16, plus about 300 of both sexes in the shared sixth form.
Staff
Sports, Clubs, and Traditions
Apart from Football and Cricket, many other sports are played.
The school is divided into eight houses for sporting and pastoral purposes.
History
The Reverend Wiliam Parker, Rector of All Saints Church, Hastings left money in his will for a "religous and godly schoolmaster" to teach the boys of Hastings, and the foundation of the school is taken as 1619 from this event. James Saunders, a landowner in Kent, made various charitable legacies in his will of 1708, one of which was for a schoolmaster to teach poor boys in Hastings. The Parker and Saunders schools were combined until 1816 when they became separate intitutions. In 1878, the Parker and Saunders charities were again combined, with part of another local charity, to form the Hastings Grammar School Foundation. The new school was housed in an imposing Victorian building in a prominent position overlooking Hastings.
Following the Education Act of 1902, the school began to receive a grant from the British Government. Under the Education Act of 1944, secondary schools in England were reorganised in three categories: grammar schools, technical schools, and secondary modern schools. The school was naturally classed as a grammar school under this scheme, and had Voluntary Aided status: in other words the income from the Foundation was supplemented by a grant from the Local Education Authority. From now on, admission to the school was solely via the "Eleven plus" examinations, and education was free (previously there had been fees of five guineas a year). Classes were held six days a week, with no lessons on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons. Saturday morning school was abolished in 1967.
In 1964 the school, having converted from Voluntary Aided to Voluntary Controlled, moved to a new modern building further from the town centre, on land which had long been used as the school's playing fields. Later it was reorganised as a comprehensive school under the name of "the William Parker School", and subsequently merged with Hastings Secondary School.
Noted Hastings Grammar School alumni
- Archibald Belaney (1888-1938), who emigrated to Canada, claimed to be half-Apache, and wrote a number of books under the name of Grey Owl.
Noted former teachers
- Tom Cookson (died 1993) husband of Catherine Cookson, popular novelist.
- Sion Jenkins, former deputy head. In 2004 he won an appeal against his conviction for murdering his foster-daughter in 1997 but may face a re-trial.
Further reading
J. Manwaring Baines, J. R. Conisbee, and N. Bygate, The History of Hastings Grammar School 1619-1966, published by the Governors of the Hastings Grammar School Foundation, 1956, revised 1967.
External links
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