Lincoln Christ's Hospital School is an English statesecondary school withacademy status located in Wragby Road inLincoln. It was established in 1974, taking over the pupils and many of the staff of the older Lincoln Grammar School and Christ's Hospital Girls' High School (established in 1893), and two 20th-century secondary modern schools, St Giles's and Myle Cross.
Former Christ's Hospital Foundation Girls' School onGreestone PlaceFoundation stone of former girls' school
Hospital schools date from the 13th century as boys' schools for parents who could not afford to pay school fees. They were also known ascharity schools. The former Lincoln School may have dated from the 11th century, but it was re-founded as a charity school in the 17th century.[citation needed]
The endowment for Christ's Hospital Girls' School was derived from the formerBluecoat School on Christ's Hospital Terrace, Lincoln which was closed in 1883. This school was originally established in 1614 inSt. Mary's Guildhall, Lincoln before it was moved to Christ Hospital Terrace in 1623.[1] In September 1893 Lincoln Christ's Hospital Girls' High School was started, withAgnes Body as its headmistress.[2]
LCHS was formed from the merger of two single-sexgrammar schools, both of which had someboarders. From 1906 the boys' school, Lincoln School (probably dating back to 1090),[3] also known as Lincoln Grammar School, occupied a site on Wragby Road. The girls' school, Christ's Hospital Girls' High School, was founded in 1893 and was based at Greestone Place on Lindum Hill.
Lincoln Cathedral choristers were educated at the school until the mid-20th century; the Cathedral School for Boys, now known asLincoln Minster School, subsequently took over that role.[5]
On 22 July 1941 anRAFHandley Page Hampden crashed into the boarding house of the Girls' High School on Greestone Stairs,[6] killing Miss Edith Catherine Fowle, a languages teacher, as well as the occupants of the aircraft.[7]
The school entered the BBCYoung Scientists of the Year in 1972. The team had been noticed by BBC staff at the Lincolnshire Science Fair in November 1971. The team was Chris Dennison, aged 18, of Hawthorn Road; Chris O'Brien, age 18, of Riseholme Road; and Dave Smith, aged 17, of Manor Drive. All three took Physics, Chemistry and Biology A-levels.[8] The team appeared on 13 March 1972.[9] The team got to the final, recorded in Birmingham. Head of science, Ivan Sexton, and biology teacher, Andrew Brylewski, had helped the team.[10]
The final was shown on 27 March 1972,[11] being recorded on Monday 20 March 1972. The team won the final, with 230 points, the other teams,Danum Grammar School from Doncaster and a school fromDorset, received 224 and 223.[12] The team went to a science fair in the Netherlands in May 1972, and received a £350 prize. The topic of the team was about sowing wild oats.
In December 1971, a new headteacher was appointed for the new combined school, 49 year old Henry Arthur Behenna, the headmaster since 1968 ofGrove School, Market Drayton inShropshire.[13][14] He had difficulties at his previous school in Shropshire, when he sacked the 42 year old head of drama, from his £2,200 job, for not teaching the expected syllabus, as the drama teacher wanted a more 'modern' syllabus, with 'free expression'; 200 children subsequently went on a banner-waving protest throughout the town, to reinstate the drama teacher, but the teacher was not reinstated.[15][16] The dispute lasted until May 1971. At the time, Shropshire county council were more interested in how the school's results had plummeted over five years since becoming a comprehensive[17] He grew up inMevagissey,[18] and attendedSt Austell County Grammar School, taking a Geography degree atWorcester College, Oxford, and had served in the RAF Air Sea Rescue Service (Royal Air Force Marine Branch) in the war, then taught from 1959 atMelbourn Village College, where he became headteacher.[19]
In September 1974 the City of Lincoln was the only part of the county in whichLincolnshire County Council decided to abolish selective education. As a result, the city's two grammar schools merged with twosecondary modern schools founded in 1933, St Giles's Secondary Modern School for Boys on Swift Gardens and Myle Cross Secondary Modern School for Girls on Addison Drive, to become a new comprehensive school. The buildings of St Giles's are now a temporary primary school, and those of Myle Cross are the Chad Varah Primary School.
The deputy head, Mrs Bobbie Coxon-Butler, the former last deputy head of the High School for Girls, left the school in 1975 to become head of Hallcroft Secondary Girls School in Retford in September 1975,[20] which merged in 1979 with the Retford High School for Girls to form acoeducational comprehensive, and she became the headteacher.[21][22] She had trained at Warton College of Education in Lancashire, and was headteacher at Retford until 1987.[23]
The present-day school has hadLanguage College status since 2001, and offers lessons in French, Spanish, and German.[24]
Lincoln Christ's Hospital School became anacademy in September 2011. It is now independent of local authority control, and funded directly from central government. However, the school continues to coordinate its admissions withLincolnshire County Council.
1929–1937: Rev Charles Edgar Young; he became the headmaster ofRossall School, in Lancashire, until 1957
September 1937–1957: George Frederic Franklin; the 39 year old, attended theRoan School in London, followed byKing's College, Cambridge, where he read Modern and Medieval Languages, then taught for one year atMerchant Taylors in Merseyside, then atChrist's Hospital in Sussex; he was a friend of the headteacher of the City School[26][27]
1970-74: Mrs Sheila Margaret Wood; the 42 year old was the head of English atAdwick School, in the north of Doncaster, and previously when the school was the Percy Jackson Grammar School, before 1968;[34] Sheila became the head of another comprehensive from September 1974[35]
Academic subjects studied include: English, Maths, Double and Triple Award Sciences, BTEC Science, Forensic and Medical Sciences,* Media, Modern Languages, History, Geography, RE, Psychology,* Sociology, Philosophy and Ethics,* and Citizenship.
Vocational subjects studied include Fine Art, Art Textiles, BTEC Art, Music, Design & Technology, Drama, Drama & Theatre Studies,* Law,* ICT & Business Studies, Resistant Materials, Child Care, Electronics, Product Design,* Production Arts BTEC,* Performance Arts BTE,* Graphic Design, Photography and Engineering.*
When a grammar school, LCHS would have been the best performing school in Lincoln. As a comprehensive, its results place it in the top five most improved language colleges nationally. It gets GCSE results slightly above average, but A level results below average.[citation needed]
Mary Mackie (née Whitlam), novelist and non-fiction writer: 1953–58[40]
Lorraine Peters,[41] actress (Maureen Petchey, 1935-99), grew up at 97 Newark Road, appeared inEmmerdale andCoronation Street,[42] attended RADA withAlbert Finney
Janet Prictoe, lived on Longdales Road,[43] 800m runner in the mid-1980s
^Stocker, D. A.,et al (1991).St Mary's Guildhall, Lincoln. The Survey and Excavation of a Medieval Building Complex C.B.A. /City of Lincoln Archaeology Unit:The Archaeology of Lincoln, Vol XII–1, p. 8.
^Margaret A. E. Hammer, "Body, (Mary) Agnes (1866–1952)",Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004accessed 20 January 2017.
