The school was founded as Archbishop Holgate's Grammar School in 1546 by Robert Holgate, the then Archbishop of York. The link between the school and successive Archbishops of York has been continuous throughout the school's history,[1] and as recently as 2004, the Archbishop of York held the post of Chair of Governors for the school.[2]
Until 1985, it was an all-boys' grammar school. With the reorganisation of education in York in 1985, the school changed its name to Archbishop Holgate's School, and became a co-educational [comprehensive] school. During this transition period the outdoor swimming pool was converted to an indoor pool, a new sports hall was built, and upgrades were made to music, design and technology, home economics and other facilities. The school's facilities now include an indoor heated swimming pool, a chapel and a boathouse on the River Ouse. In 2009 a £4.3 million[4] two-storey learning centre with landscaping, parking and bike storage, called the LearningCentre@AHS was built,[5][6] and now serves as the home of the school's sixth form facilities.
Recent headmasters have included Donald Frith OBE (1959–1978), Dr J M Frost (1979–1984), and Alan Walker, an old boy and former English teacher at the school (1984–92), all of whom have since died. Dr Frost went on to become principal of the then-new York 6th Form college (now York College (York)), established in the building previously occupied by Ashfield Secondary Modern School, and opened as part of the reorganisation in 1985. The last headmaster was John Harris (1992–2010), who joined the school when it had the lowest results in York, and saw it through expansion from 439 students in 1992 to almost 900 and the best exam results in the school's history before his retirement in 2010.[7] The current headmaster is Andrew Daly, who prior to joining the school, held a position in the senior leadership team at St Wilfrid's Catholic School and Sixth Form CollegeinWakefield.[8]
In 2007 the school was inspected by Ofsted and was judged as "outstanding".[9] Similar to most secondary schools in York, it gets well above-average GCSE results,[10] with 70% of Year 11 students achieving five or more A*-C grades including English and Maths in 2009 (87% achieved five or more GCSE passes at grade C and above).[11]
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