Calday Grange Grammar School

Calday Grange Grammar School, commonly known as Calday, is a non-denominational, selective boys' grammar school situated in West Kirby, on the Wirral peninsula, England. Founded in 1636, the school admits boys aged 11 to 18 and, since 1985, girls for the sixth form only. The school hosts the Wirral Able Children Centre,^[2] and has been awarded Sportsmark Gold and Investors in People status. It was previously a specialist technology and modern foreign languages (MFL) college under the former high performing specialist schools (HPSS) programme.

Calday Grange Grammar School
School badge Exterior of the Walker and Hawkins buildings, prior to extensive refurbishment.
Location
Grammar School Lane West Kirby , Wirral , CH48 8GG England
Coordinates	53.3675°N 3.163°W / 53.3675; -3.163
Information
Type	Grammar School
Motto	Nisi Dominus Frustra
Established	1636; 389 years ago (1636)
Department for Education URN	139144 Tables
Ofsted	Reports
Chair of Governors	Caroline Ashcroft
Headmaster	Stephen Gray
Gender	Boys (mixed sixth form)
Age	11 to 18
Enrolment	1,509 (Jan 2024) [1]
Houses	Glegg   Bennett   Hollowell
Colours
Alumni	"Old Caldieans"
Website	Calday Grange Grammar School

By September 2019, a total of 1,492 boys were enrolled at the school, with 398 enrolled at the co–educational sixth form. The last inspection in which a rating was conferred by government agency Ofsted occurred in September 2019 and rated the school as "good".^[3] The most recent inspection in December 2024 did not rate the school but reiterated the previous rating.^[4]

School History

Early history

Founded in 1636, Calday Grange Grammar School is Wirral's oldest surviving grammar school. It was established as a free grammar school on the present site in Grange (historically known as Calday Grange, giving its name to the school) by local landowner William Glegg. From when it started with 12 pupils, the school has grown into an establishment of over 1500 students – which includes over 400 male and female students in the Sixth Form.^[5]

Trust status

Calday Grange Grammar School became a trust school on 1 January 2009, transferring ownership of the school land and buildings to a Charitable Trust called "The Calday Grange Trust". The Calday Grange Trust was a partnership between Calday Grange Grammar School, the University of Liverpool, Unilever Research and Development and Maestro Services Ltd. Calday Grange Grammar School was the first Wirral School to convert to Trust Status.^[6]

In September 2011, the school informed parents that "The School has received notification from Companies House that the Calday Grange Trust Company has been dissolved. This has been notified to the Governing Body who contacted Wirral Local Authority and indicated their wish to revert to the Foundation Schools Instrument of Government".^[7]

Academy status

In July 2011, the process for converting to an academy school was begun, and the school converted to academy status with effect from 1 January 2013.^[8]

Overview

Location

Main campus

The main school campus is located on Grammar School Lane, West Kirby, close to the Wirral's Dee Estuary coastline. Students travel primarily from the Wirral, Cheshire and North Wales areas.^[9] The site is occupied by sports cages, fields and ten school buildings:

• Art Building (A) – Art
• Business Centre (B) – Business Studies, Economics, Psychology and Law (sixth form only)
• Main Building (C) – Reception, Assembly Hall, Dining, Sports Hall
• Peter Dodd Building (D) – Design and Technology and Computing
• Glasspool Building (G) – English, Mathematics, Library
• Eric Hawkins Building (H) – Foreign Languages
• Michael Twist Centre for Music and Performing Arts (T) – Music and Drama
• Walker Building (W) – Sciences, History, Geography and Religious Studies
• Nigel Briers Building (W) – Study areas and offices
• Pavilion (P) – Physical Education department, sports field and swimming pool

Formerly: E Block (E) – Classrooms and offices. Replaced by Twist Centre due to presence of asbestos.

Each building has a letter code consisting of the first letter of its name (except the Briers Building, which is considered part of the Walker Building). These letters are used to designate room names, for example: the second room (2) on the first floor (1) of the Hawkins Building (H) would be H12.

Sports campus

In addition to the swimming pool, sports hall, gym and sports field within the main school grounds, Glasspool Field serves as the school's main sports facility. Located a mile southeast of the main school, on Telegraph Road, it comprises three rugby union pitches, cricket field, athletics facilities and artificial turf for hockey and tennis. Glasspool Field was formerly known as Paton Field, renamed in line with the removal of Paton House from the house system.

Academic attainment

In 2019 the school was inspected and judged 'Good' repeating the judgement of Ofsted from inspections in 2016^[10] and 2010.^[11][12]

In 2015 96% of the year group achieved 5 GCSE passes at grades A* to C with 96.2% gaining at 5 A* to C grades including English and Maths. Four students achieved 10 or more A* grades.^[13]

In 2015 Calday School received its best A level results since 2010 with a pass rate of 99.2% at A*-E grades.^{[14][better source needed]}

Extracurricular

The school is ranked 7th for state school sporting achievement. The top state schools were revealed in the November 2019 edition of School Sport magazine and it places the school in the top 1% of schools in the country for sporting outcomes. The school maintains a Combined Cadet Force. The combined Cadet force has been at Calday since 1916,^[15] when a unit of the Officers' Training Corps was first formed.

Volunteering opportunities include supporting the Refilwe Community Project in South Africa which the school has been involved in for over 9 years. Students have also been involved with various independent entrepreneurial pursuits.^[16]

School houses

The school has three houses named after past benefactors and headmasters. Members of each house are identified by different coloured stripes on the school tie from years 7 to 11.

  – Bennett; named after Thomas Bennett, benefactor of the school in 1676.

  – Glegg; named after William Glegg, founder of the school in 1636.

  – Hollowell; named after Rev. William Hollowell, former headmaster 1891–1920.

There was a fourth house,   Paton, named after Sir Alfred Paton. It was taken out of the house system in the 1990s for simplicity in form-group allocation.

Notable former students

See also: Category:People educated at Calday Grange Grammar School

• Andrew Baddeley - Athlete in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.^[17]
• Philip May – banker, and husband of Theresa May^[18]
• Sam Quek, British Field Hockey player, winning Olympic Gold in 2016.
• Daniel Craig, British actor.
• Dick Uren – England international rugby union player.^[19]
• James Hype DJ and music producer
• Andy McCluskey, Lead singer with OMD and music producer.

Heads of Calday Grange Grammar School

Years	Calday Grange Grammar School
1886–1891	Charles T. Blanshard
1891–1920	Rev W. Hollowell
1920–1945	Reginald Thomas Booth Glasspool
1945–1953	R. Eldred. Witt
1953–1964	Prof Eric Hawkins
1965–1978	Rev Kenneth Saxon Watkinson Walker
1978–1979	Peter Dodd (Acting)
1979–1986	Peter Dodd[20]
1986–April 2001	Nigel Briers
April–July 2001	Brian Magor (Acting)
September 2001–September 2002	Nigel Briers
2002–Suspended Oct 2009	Andrew John Hall - Suspended for a period of time during his role as headteacher
October 2009–May 2010	Mike Skelly (Acting)[21]
October 2010–May 2011	Andrew John Hall reinstated as headmaster.
April 2010–April 2012	Gareth Williams, executive director during suspension[22]
April 2012–December 2019	Mark Rodaway
January 2020–April 2020	Mike Twist (Acting)
April 2020–	Stephen Gray