Pate's Grammar School

Pate's Grammar School is a grammar school with academy status in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. It caters for pupils aged 11 to 18 and is a Beacon school. The school was founded with a fund bestowed to Corpus Christi College, Oxford by Richard Pate in 1574. The school became co-educational in 1986, when Pate's Grammar School for Girls merged with Cheltenham Grammar School.

In November 2012 Pate's was awarded with State ‘Secondary School of the Year’ by The Sunday Times in their Good Schools Guide. In 2013, the school was given an Outstanding judgement by Ofsted.

Academic achievements
At GCSE level in 2004, 100% of pupils entered earned five A* to C grades, and the school came twelfth in the BBC table of performance in A-/AS-Level. Again in 2005, 100% of pupils earned five A* to C grades at GCSE, and in 2006, 100% of pupils passed in at least seven subjects with grades A* to C. In 2008, more A* grades were achieved collectively than any other grade put together at GCSE level.

The physics department was recognised as the best in the country in a survey published by The Observer in May 2006.

In 2012 The Sunday Times ranked Pate's as the fourth best state secondary school in the United Kingdom. It was also awarded with State ‘Secondary School of the Year’.

Sporting achievements
The senior rugby team was coached by ex-England scrum-half Peter Kingston until his retirement in 2009.
In 2007 Pate's senior rugby teams completed a season unbeaten for the first time in 21 years.

The Old Patesians club has grounds and a clubhouse in Leckhampton, which was built when their previous premises were demolished to make way for Cheltenham's tallest building, Eagle House.

Community
The school has a school council; the team of pupils and sixth formers from across the school is intended to help the students enjoy their time at Pate's more beneficially and give them a voice in school affairs.

The school competes in the Young Enterprise competition held amongst schools nationwide. In 2007, it reached the national finals for the Make Your Mark Enterprise Challenge held in London.
The school was also named as one of the four winners of the annual BBC School's Question Time competition in 2009. During the 1970s the school were winners of the BBC radio show Top of the Form.

Pate's is also involved with charity work and has a Charity Committee appointed each year; in 2007–2008, over £16,000 was raised. The school is situated in a deprived area of Cheltenham and under the headmaster Richard Kemp deprived students were encouraged to apply.

The current headmaster is Russel Ellicott, who took over from Shaun Fenton in September 2012.

Developments
The boys school was established in 1586. The Gothic premises in the High Street were demolished in 1967 to make way for a concrete supermarket, at a time when many other historic buildings, which would now be listed and protected, were also lost. The school playing field existed quite remote from the school in Hesters Way, and a replacement school was built there, after the boundaries had been altered to make way for the Princess Elizabeth Way and Coronation Square council developments. The majority of pupils lived in more affluent areas on the opposite side of the town and needed to commute by public transport. The building was designed by architects who had won awards for New Hall College Cambridge, but its appearance was not popular, it incorporated various impractical features, and developed structural problems. It was demolished in the 1990s and replaced by an adjacent new building. During this period the school somehow lost its nomanclature with Richard Pate, and his name instead became associated with the girl's school at Pittville

The school raised funds in order to complete new fitness facilities. The £50,000 fitness suite was officially opened by Geoff Hurst in April 2010.

In summer 2012, Pate's Grammar completed the construction of a new refectory, costing £1.75 million. This also involved upgrading the school canteen to a cashless catering system operated by sQuid. It was opened by the Duke of Gloucester on 5 October 2012. Plans have been announced for a new sixth form block to be built and completed summer 2019.

In 2013, a new school block was opened named 'The George and Eve Tatam Block', after alumni who also sponsor higher level study at the Corpus Christi College of both Oxford and Cambridge.

In spring 2019, a new sixth form block opened following a grant received in 2017. The three-storey building comprises study spaces and IT facilities on the lower two floors, whilst the upper floor houses the senior library. The building links directly to the George and Eve Tatum Block next to which it is constructed.

Former headmasters and headmistresses

Pate's Grammar School
 2012–Present: Russel Ellicott
 2006–2012: Shaun Fenton
 2000–2006: Richard Kemp
 1986–1999: David J. Barnes

Cheltenham Grammar School
 1983–1986: P.J. Bamford
 1971–1983: Bernard Wilkinson
 1952–1971: Dr Arthur E. Bell
 1937–1952: Geoffrey Heawood
 1918–1937: R.R. Dobson
 1882–1906: John Style
 1868–1882: Henry Martyn Jeffery, FRS
 1859–1868: Henry Hayman
 1852–1859: Dr Edward Rupert Humphreys

Pate's Grammar School for Girls
 1982–1986: J. Whiting (Acting Head)
 1971–1982: Mary M. Moon
 1970-1971: Jean O Huddlestone (Acting Head)
 1952–1970: Margaret E. Lambrick
 1946–1952: Dame Margaret Miles
 1934–1946: Muriel Jennings
 1911–1934: Anita N. Miles
 1905–1911: Helen Headley

Notable former pupils

Pate's Grammar School
 Ben Chacko, Editor since 2014 of the Morning Star
 Sian Berry, Green Party Leader in the London Assembly
 Matt Smith, professional footballer 
 Sue Limb, novelist

Cheltenham Grammar School
 Adrian Bailey, Labour MP since 2000 for West Bromwich West
 Sir Benjamin Baker KCB KCMG FRS FRSE, engineer of the Forth Bridge.
 Rt Rev Ernest Blackie, Bishop of Grimsby from 1935 to 1937
 Tony Christopher, Baron Christopher, general secretary from 1976 to 1988 of the Inland Revenue Staff Federation
 Rear Admiral John Clink, Flag Officer Sea Training since 2015
 Prof William Henry Corfield who revolutionised hygiene and household sanitation in Victorian England.
 Geoff Dyer, writer
 Kit Fine, philosopher
 Sir Frederick Handley Page CBE FRAeS, founder of the aircraft company Handley Page
 Gustav Holst, composer
 Prof Anthony Howe, Professor of Modern History since 2003 at UEA
 Gilbert Jessop, cricketer
 Prof Martin Hume Johnson, Professor of Reproductive Sciences from 1992-2012 at the University of Cambridge (Christ's College)
 Brian Jones, musician and founder of The Rolling Stones
 Piers Coleman, theoretical physicist, Professor of Physics Rutgers University. 
 Sir Peter Lampl OBE, founder of the Sutton Trust
 Robert Lanchbury, Gloucestershire cricketer
 Philip Lane, composer
 Gordon Lewis CBE FREng, aeronautical engineer, and designer of the Olympus and Pegasus engines with Bristol Siddeley
 Dr Bob Parkinson, rocket engineer with British Aerospace, worked on HOTOL
 John Ringham, character actor
 John Roberts, Liberal MP from 1885–1906 for South Caernarfonshire, Eifion
 H. J. Round, scientist, played an important part in the discovery of light-emitting diodes
 Rex Tucker, TV director
 Sir Edgar Vaughan, Ambassador from 1960 to 1963 to Panama
 Desmond Wilcox, TV reporter, husband of Esther Rantzen

Pate's Grammar School for Girls
 Mary Honeyball, Labour MEP since 2000 for London
 Dame Felicity Lott, soprano
 Dame Lesley Rees, endocrinologist, professor of chemical endocrinology since 1978 at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry
 Prof Fiona Sampson, poet, professor of poetry since 2013 at the University of Roehampton
 Anne Warner, professor of developmental biology at UCL, and director from 1999-2006 of UCL's Centre for Mathematics and Physics in the Life Sciences and Experimental Biology

See also
 Old Patesians RFC

References

External links
 Pate's Grammar School, official site

 Pate's Grammar School OED (Outdoor Education Department), official OED site

 Pate's Grammar School CCF (Combined Cadet Force), official CCF site

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Category:Schools in Cheltenham
Category:Grammar schools in Gloucestershire
Category:Educational institutions established in the 1570s
Category:1574 establishments in England
Category:Academies in Gloucestershire