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, 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.
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". The most recent inspection in December 2024 did not rate the school but reiterated the previous rating.
WWW calday.wirral.sch.uk

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 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.

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.
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".

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.

Overview

Location

The main school 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. The site is occupied by all-weather courts, fields and ten school buildings:Formerly: E Block – Classrooms and offices. Replaced by Twist Centre due to presence of asbestos.

Sports Facilities

In addition to the school field, swimming pool, sports hall and fitness suite within the main school grounds, Calday’s Glasspool Field, located on nearby Telegraph Road, offers three rugby union pitches, cricket field, athletics facilities, artificial turf hockey pitch and tennis courts. Formerly known as Paton Field, Glasspool Field was renamed in line with the removal of [|Paton House] from the house system.

Academic achievement

In 2019 the school was inspected and judged 'Good' repeating the judgement of Ofsted from inspections in 2016 and 2010.
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.
In 2015 Calday School had an A level pass rate of 99.2% at A*-E grades.

Extracurricular activities

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 has maintained a Combined Cadet Force since 1916, when a unit of the Officers' Training Corps was first formed.
Volunteering opportunities for students include the Refilwe Community Project in South Africa which the school has been involved in for over 10 years. Students have also been involved with various independent entrepreneurial pursuits.
Students can choose to take part in the Duke of Edinburgh Award, as well as other enrichment activities and clubs including Fencing, Cooking, Robotics and Classics.

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

Former Heads of Calday Grange Grammar School

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