The Royal Grammar School (RGS), Newcastle upon Tyne, is a selective privateday school for pupils aged between 7 and 18 years. Founded in 1525 by Thomas Horsley, the Mayor of Newcastle upon Tyne, it received royal foundation by Queen Elizabeth I and is the city's oldest institution of learning.[1] It is one of seven schools in the United Kingdom to bear the name "Royal Grammar School", of which two others are part of the independent sector.[2]
There are many public schools, the principal one being the Royal Free Grammar school founded in 1525 by Thomas Horsley, Mayor of Newcastle, and made a royal foundation by Queen Elizabeth. It is held in the old hall of St. Mary's Hospital, built in the reign of James I., and has an income from endowment of about £500, besides a share in Bishop Crew's 12 exhibitions at Lincoln College, Oxford, lately abolished, and several exhibitions to Cambridge. The number of scholars is about 140. Hugh Moises, and Dawes, author of "Miscellanea Critica," were once head-masters, and many celebrated men have ranked among its pupils, including W. Elstob, Bishop Ridley, Mark Akenside, the poet, Chief Justice Chambers, Brand, the antiquary and town historian, Horsley, the antiquary, and Lords Eldon, Stowell, and Collingwood.[5]
George III, on reading one of Admiral Collingwood's despatches after Trafalgar, asked how the seaman had learned to write such splendid English, but he answered himself, recalling that, along with Eldon and Stowell, he had been a pupil of Hugh Moises: "I forgot. He was one of Moises' boys."[10]
For the duration of the Second World War the school was evacuated en masse to Penrith, Cumbria, where a special train carrying staff and around 800 pupils arrived on 1 September 1939.[11][12] Meanwhile, the main school building was transformed into the Regional War Room, which undertook the vital strategic role of collating details of air raids across the region and passing these on to RAF Fighter Command. Several rudimentary air raid shelters were built above ground for military personnel, which although substantial enough to survive as store rooms until the end of the century would have offered little protection, even from an indirect hit. The school was one of several places in Newcastle upon Tyne where a small supply of ammunition to be used in the event of a German invasion was stored.[13]
Throughout the school (years 3–13) are four houses, named Collingwood (yellow), Eldon (green), Horsley (blue) and Stowell (red), although the Junior School previously had separate houses, named after colours (red, white, and blue).
There are 91 members of teaching staff in the Senior School. In the Junior School there are 16 members of teaching staff[14] including the Headmaster James Miller.[15] There are also approximately 68 members of maintenance staff and 14 private music tutors.
The RGS has Combined Cadet Force (CCF) Army, Navy and RAF[16] contingents, open to both boys and girls. Cadets have weekly training sessions after school, and opportunities to go on extended training and adventure trips during the holidays. The Army section of NRGS CCF is affiliated to the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, and the Navy Section is affiliated to HMS Calliope, a stone frigate which is situated on the Tyne next to the Baltic Art Gallery.[17]
In 2004 the school hosted the first Northern Junior Debating Championship, which has now become an annual competition. The school's debating society also regularly enters teams for other competitions, and has reached the finals' day of both the Oxford Union and Cambridge Union schools' competitions in recent years, winning the Cambridge Union competition in 2010. At a junior level, RGS won the Northern Junior Debating Competition in 2005, 2006, 2010 and 2014.[18]
The school magazine, Novo, comes out annually. A student-run newspaper, the Issue, came into being in the late 1990s; after a period of inactivity, it was relaunched as the re-Issue in September 2003. It ran roughly twice per term until its demise in summer 2005, but was replaced in early 2006 by The Grammar. At the end of the 2009–2010 academic year, The Grammar folded. In 2011 a new magazine called Vox was set up but is currently out of print. In 2017, an online group RGmemeS came into being. It is currently inactive.
From 1965, the school held a "Prizegiving" ceremony each November, to recognise academic achievement and bring the school together. Due to declining interest by parents, students, and teachers, the school replaced this in 2007 with a series of smaller gatherings and a public festival.
However, in 2009, Headmaster Bernard Trafford announced that a new Prizegiving ceremony, "RGS Day", would be hosted on the Saturday of the penultimate week of the school year.
The former Head of Drama, Jeremy Thomas, who had taught at the school for 28 years prior to leaving due to ill health, died December 2006. Thomas had campaigned for years for a new Performing Arts Centre, but died before being able to see the finished product.
The RGS's main buildings are in a complex located on Eskdale Terrace, Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne. The school hall houses an organ donated by Sir Arthur Sutherland to commemorate the 138 former pupils who were killed during the First World War.[19]
In 1996, a new Sports' Hall containing basketball courts and updated gymnastics facilities was opened. The building also provides facilities for table tennis, fencing, and weight-training, plus a gymnasium and climbing wall.
In 1997, Professor Richard Dawkins opened the new Science and Technology Centre (STC), with Physics and Design & Technologylaboratories downstairs, and Chemistry and Biologylaboratories upstairs. In 2003 the STC was renamed The Neil Goldie Centre in memory of Neil Goldie, who died earlier that year. At the time he was the school's Head of Science and Technology.
In 2005, the music and economics block was demolished. A new Performing Arts Centre and Modern Languages department was completed in September 2006. It includes a 300-seat auditorium, named the "Miller Theater" in memory of former headmaster James Miller, for school concerts and productions, a musical recital hall, a drama/dance studio, recording facilities, a band room, a percussion room, and a number of classrooms.
A floodlit all-weather surface has been in use since January 2006, on land that once was part of the school field. Aside from the school field, which is primarily used for rugby union, the school also owns land in nearby Jesmond for sports use. This was given to the school in recompense for the land it lost when the flyover was created at the top of the school – eating into some of the land owned by the school. The school is also the landlords of Sutherland Park in Benton. Sutherland Park is named after Arthur Sutherland (1878–1883), who bought the grounds of Benton Lodge in 1925 for Novocastrians Rugby Football Club. The ground and clubhouse was sold to the school at a later date. The club was set up by former pupils of the school in 1899; many Old Novos still represent and play for the club to this day. The school has also recently agreed a 50-year lease of the County Cricket Ground on Osborne Avenue, Jesmond.[20]
In October 2019 a new library, art facilities and pastoral care centre, was opened. In addition, the school also redeveloped the sixth form area, which opened in January 2020.[22]
The West Gate Road site in 1810The Rye Hill site in 1885
This article's list of alumni may not follow Wikipedia's verifiability policy. Please improve this article by removing names that do not have independent reliable sources showing they merit inclusion in this article AND are alumni, or by incorporating the relevant publications into the body of the article through appropriate citations.(September 2023)
Former pupils[a] are known as Old Novocastrians, which is also a demonym for a person from Newcastle upon Tyne.
^For a complete list of students up to 1954 see Stevens, Bryan Dodd (1955). Register of the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1545-1954. Gateshead: Northumberland Press. OCLC562307197.
^Pallister, George (1979). Evacuation: A Personal Account of the Newcastle Royal Grammar School in Penrith, Cumberland, During the Years from 1939 to 1945. Newcastle upon Tyne: Royal Grammar School.
