Secondary schools around Barnsley

He's a nationally ranked distance runner, but unfortunately he's got the footballing ability of a goldfish.

 

Billy the Fish was a fine player

 

Couldn't agree more. There's too much emphasis placed on the league tables as such.
If your kid is bright and willing to learn they'll do well at most schools.

 

I'd recommend attending as many of the open evenings as possible, let your kid get a feel for the school, the staff and the environment. They'll learn better where they feel comfortable.

 

Not been a grammar school since 1800's

 

Why change name ?

 

And ?

 

Been a Grammar School since year dot.

 

I'm fairly sure it was a grammar school in the 1960s, when I played chess for Holgate Grammar School against Penistone Grammar School. If it wasn't a grammar school, then what was it? There weren't any comprehensive schools. It was either a grammar school or a secondary modern school, and I am fairly sure that it wasn't the latter. Barnsley County Borough, at the time, to which Penistone did not belong, was very unusual in having a 3 tier system of secondary education. Roughly 20% of 11 plus examinees went to Holgate, the Girls' High School or Broadway. Children who just missed out on the grammar schools went to Longcar Central or Mark Street Central, which both taught to GCE O-level, but did not have 6th forms, and all the rest of 11 year olds, perhaps 65% -70%, proceeded to secondary modern schools, which they left at the age of 15 with absolutely zero academic qualifications. The CSE examination was introduced in the 70s to coincide with the raising of the school leaving age from 15 to 16. After fifteen or sixteen years, this exam, and the O-level, were combined into one exam in 1988, as the CSE qualification had always been regarded as second rate. It was considered that it made sense for the comprehensive principle to be reflected in the public examination system at age 16.

 

I was once told by a reliable source that the school had been founded 100 years before Columbus set sail for the New World and has been in continuous education from day one. Only one other school in this country can make this claim and Penistone Grammar school could be the oldest school in the country to have been in continuous education. Maybe this is why the name has been kept. I was also told that the school was one of the first three experimental comprehensives set up in the country in the late 1950's.
I'm happy to be corrected on any of these points if anyone is better informed.

 

I hadn't heard about experimental comprehensives. You may well be right, though the move to comprehensive education was always more of a Labour preoccupation, and the Tories were in power in the late 50s.

 

Its not the oldest, no but it's one of only two that have been continuously open since they were founded. Not closing since 1392 may be why the name continues. Just a thought.