The King's School, Grantham


The King's School is a British grammar school with academy status for boys, in the market town of Grantham, in Lincolnshire, England.

History

The King's School has an unbroken history on the same site since its re-endowment in 1528 by Richard Foxe, although its history can be traced back to 1329. Sir Nikolaus Pevsner in his Buildings of England, dates the original School building to 1497. Foxe was born and raised locally. He entered into the service of Henry Tudor, while Henry was in exile in Brittany. When Henry took the throne of England as Henry VII, Foxe became his secretary, and later founded Corpus Christi College, Oxford and Taunton Grammar School. In the 16th century the School became known as the Free Grammar School of King Edward VI. Scholars numbered perhaps a few dozen at foundation, and there were still fewer than one hundred until the 20th century.
Isaac Newton was a King's School scholar between 1655 and 1660. As was customary in his time, he carved his signature on the wall of what is today's school side hall, although the signature has never been confirmed as authentic; visitors from around the world come to view this indication of Newton's education. A replica of the signature is on display in Grantham Museum.
The novelist and eccentric Frederick Rolfe was briefly a teacher at the school.
In 1988, a comprehensive illustrated history of the School was published by former King's School mathematics teacher, S J Branson: The King's School Grantham – 660 years of a Grammar School.

Today

The King's School has just over 1000 boys as pupils, and has been a selective state grammar school since the implementation of the 1944 Education Act.

School links

King's and another Grantham grammar school, Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School, have shared teaching resources for sixth form study in certain subjects. Since 2006–2007, timetables for this study have been co-ordinated between both schools to aid learning.

Notable former pupils

Famous early scholars