Derby Grammar School

Derby Grammar School is a selective independent school in Littleover near the city of Derby, England. Founded in 1985 to take the place of Derby School, which had closed in 1989, it educates boys between the ages of 4 and 18 and girls in the Sixth form.

Derby Grammar School
The Main Building
Location
Littleover, Derby
,
Derbyshire
,
DE23 4BX

England
Information
TypeIndependent
MottoVita sine litteris mors
Latin Life without learning is death
Religious affiliation(s)Church of England
Established1995
HeadDr Ruth Norris
Staff45 (approx.)
GenderBoys; Coeducational Sixth Form
Age4 to 18
Enrolment240 (approx.)
HousesAtkinson, Bemrose, Blackton, Derby
Colour(s)Green & navy blue
Chairman of GovernorsSarah Flear
VisitorsThe Bishop of Derby, The Duke of Devonshire
Former pupilsOld Derbeians
Websitederbygrammar.org

The school currently has about two hundred and forty pupils. The Sixth form has been co-educational since September 2007, and an Infant school was opened in September 2019.

Admissions

The school is academically selective; scholarships and bursaries offering a discount on the school's fees are available.[1]

Premises

The school occupies Rykneld Hall, a Grade II listed 18th-century country house at Littleover, built in 1780 as a private residence and used as a hospital in the second half of the 20th Century. After conversion, the school was opened in 1995.

Teaching buildings for Humanities, Sciences, Design and Technology, and Arts have been added to the campus, along with the main school hall, which is linked with the old quadrangle and contains a stage and an organ, with an attached kitchen. The new block, called the Bagshaw Building, was opened in 2000. There is also a cricket pavilion.

The woodland, mature trees, grassland, and water areas in the school's grounds are designated as Wildlife Site 38 and safeguarded in the City of Derby's Local Plan, Policy E4 (Nature Conservation). Such sites are "considered irreplaceable".[2]

New school sports facility, Rykneld Sports Centre, located a short distance away from the main site, was opened in September 2017.

Curriculum

The curriculum is built around teaching for GCSE and A-level. Subjects taught include English, Latin, French, German, Spanish, Classics, Maths, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, History, Ancient History, English Literature, Geography, Religious Studies, Art, Music, Design Technology and Economics.

Sport

The main sports offered at the school are cricket, hockey, and rugby union, plus athletics, cross country, swimming, squash, and badminton.

Extra-curricular

Activities include school dramatic productions, the Duke of Edinburgh Award, public speaking, World Challenge, debating, a School choir and orchestra, adventure training and the Arts Award examined by LAMDA. There are music and drama workshops, some being joint events with Derby High School for Girls and the Hot House Music Schools youth music group.

The School supports various charities, including YMCA Derbyshire and the Gedeli B School in the Mwanza Region of Tanzania. It raises money annually for both projects and sends Sixth Form students out every year to Gedeli B School to assist with teaching, maintenance of classrooms and other tasks.[3][4]

School motto, arms and badge

The school's coat of arms, badge, and motto, are all based on those of the former Derby School. The motto, Vita Sine Litteris Mors (Life without learning is death), is that of the former school and is a quotation from Seneca's Epistulae morales ad Lucilium.

Old Derbeians

The term "Old Derbeians" originally meant only former pupils of Derby School, but the Old Derbeians Society is now open also to ex-pupils of the new school, who are called both New and Old Derbeians.[5]

References
  1. scholarships and bursaries at derbygrammar.org
  2. "City of Derby Local Plan Review – Adopted Plan. Ch 9 Environment". City of Derby Local Plan Review. Derby City Council. Archived from the original on 5 May 2015. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
  3. "Derby Grammar School student picks up top national prize - ISA Schools.org.uk". Retrieved 1 November 2018.
  4. "Derby Grammar School has smashed its target to raise £50,000 in 10 years to help improve the lives of schoolchildren in Africa - Attain News p.4 October 2018". Retrieved 1 November 2018.
  5. Main page of the Old Derbeian Society web site, accessed 27 February 2008

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