Colyton Grammar School is a co-educational grammar school located in the village of Colyford in East Devon, England that teaches students from years 7 to 13. The school has been classified by Ofsted as 'Outstanding' in three successive reports. The school has an open campus style setting situated on a site of over in total.
History
The school was founded in 1546 by a group of twenty yeomen and merchants who bought some land from the Crown "for the benefit of Colyton". Their first act was to endow a grammar school "for the goodly and virtuous education of children in Colyton forever". The school was situated in a single room over the porch of the parish church until the feoffees hired a room in the town and the school was moved. In 1612, the school moved to the Church House, which had been enlarged by having another story built on to it. The first headmaster on record was William Hull, who joined the school in 1603, for a salary of £5 a year. The first headmistress – Mrs. Susanah Stokes – was appointed in 1792. It was only in 1875 that the school was established as a day and boarding school with its current name – Colyton Grammar School. On 20 June 1876, the school population reached a record low of just one pupil. Numbers steadily increased again and by August 1884, there were 33 pupils. The school was closed in 1900 due to a lack of pupils and remained closed until 1905, when it was re-opened with a new headmaster. In 1913, a change made in the school's constitution allowed girls to be admitted for the first time and the school officially became a co-educational grammar school. A Board of Governors with fifteen members was instituted in 1914. In 1929, the school moved to its present site in Colyford.
Recent developments
The school began a program of development and expansion in 1991, adding and renovating many buildings over the subsequent two decades. This included two new Study Centres, the "Study Centre" and the "Sindalls Building", a major renovation of the Chemistry block, the "Jowett Building", a new, expansive Science and Design & Technology block, the "Feoffees Building", a new Music building, a new Art building, the large "Walker Building" which contains the school library, called 'The Elizabeth Preston Library', History, Psychology and Modern Languages classrooms, a new Humanities building, the "Coly Building", including RE and Geography classrooms, a new canteen named "Take Five", and a complete refurbishment of the "Cottrill Hall", the main school hall. On 1 January 2011, Devon County Council ceased to maintain the school. The school became one of the Coalition Government's Academies. Colyton Grammar School Academy Trust, an exempt charity and company limited by guarantee, assumed responsibility for this state-funded independent school. In late 2013, the Head of Science was convicted of making and distributing indecent images following a police investigation into his online activities.
Curriculum
The school is a member of the South West Academic Trust, which brings together selective schools across the south west of England to share good practice. The school, as of 2007, had students taking GCSEs in Year 10 as opposed to Year 11, allowing for a three-year Sixth Form. As of September 2016, the GCSE exams are taken in Year 11 again, with the first examinations being taken in 2017-2018. There were no GCSE examinations taken in the academic year 2016-2017. There were falling grades as part of a national trend in 2013 but since then grades at GCSE have recovered. Beginning in the academic year 2017-2018, 155 new students are admitted each year.
Staff
As of October 2019, there are 99 staff members at Colyton Grammar School.
