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Queen Mary's Grammar School

Queen Mary's Grammar School
QMGlogofullsize.jpg
Motto Quas dederis solas semper habebis opes
(What thou hast given alone shall be eternal riches unto thee.)
Established 1554
Type Grammar school
Location Sutton Road
Walsall
West Midlands
WS1 2PG
England
52°34′39″N 1°57′59″W / 52.5775°N 1.9665°W / 52.5775; -1.9665Coordinates: 52°34′39″N 1°57′59″W / 52.5775°N 1.9665°W / 52.5775; -1.9665
Local authority Walsall Borough Council
DfE number 335/5404
DfE URN 136773 Tables
Ofsted Reports
Gender Boys (mixed sixth form)
Ages 11/12–18
Houses Aragon
Petypher
Darby
Gryphon
Colours Blue, Yellow, Green, Red
Website www.qmgs.org

Queen Mary's Grammar School (QMGS) is a selective boys' grammar school with academy status located in Sutton Road, Walsall, England, about a mile from the town centre and one of the oldest schools in the country. The sixth form is coeducational.

Admittance to the school is by entrance exam taken at the age of 10/11; 120 pupils enter the school in September each year. This will soon change to 150 pupils in September 2016. There are 96 to 120 pupils in each of the other, older year groups. In sixth form there are currently (as of 2014) 162 pupils in Year 12 and 143 in Year 13 attending schools around the borough. At this stage of the school, girls are also admitted. The school has grown from 718 in 2011 to 826 in 2014.

It was founded in 1554 by George and Nicolas Hawe, two leading townsmen, with Queen Mary I as its royal patron and benefactor. At this time it had about sixty pupils, all boys, and taught Classics almost exclusively.

It has grown significantly since its foundation and moved three times. Originally housed in an old town guild-hall near St Matthew's Parish church, it moved to Park Street in 1811, into new buildings in Lichfield Street in 1850 (a site now used by Queen Mary's High School for Girls) and finally to a purpose-built school on the Mayfield site in 1965.

Queen Mary's performs very well in exams across the board, with consistent success in the sixth form. In recent years, the school has become a specialist Language College. The extra funds from this have, amongst other things, facilitated the building of a new wing of the school buildings. The school recently completed work on a new sports hall to support the current gym and swimming facilities. The Science Block was also updated, with new Biology labs being built. A new sixth form block has been constructed and it opened late September 2012. The School is rated by Ofsted 'Outstanding'.

The school's badge is based on the Heraldic badge of Queen Mary and reflects her parentage, being formed from half a Tudor rose (a symbol of Henry VIII) impaled with a sheaf of arrows (a symbol of Katharine of Aragon). The badge was modified slightly during the 2006/2007 school year. A fully red rose was changed to an accurate red and white Tudor rose, which is usually shown with a red outer rose and a white inner one. However the school's Tudor rose, based on early school records, has a white outer rose and a red inner one, which the College of Arms accepts as equally valid. Despite the update, there are still some subtle differences between the current badge and Queen Mary's.


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