Open Evenings – 21 & 22 June 2023

125 years ago, Heckmondwike Grammar School first opened its doors to students in and around Heckmondwike. In the intervening years the school has grown in size and stature and is now one of the top performing schools in the North of England, serving a diverse community across West Yorkshire.

To mark the 125th anniversary, the school is holding a celebratory open day on Saturday 1 July and is an open house for anyone to attend. We welcome current students and their families, former students, who may wish to meet up with their old classmates, former staff, or indeed anybody who is interested in looking round the school.

During the day, we will be offering guided tours, there will be live music from the school’s wonderful ensembles, afternoon tea served throughout the day and an opportunity to reminisce and celebrate the first 125 years of this great institution. We look forward to welcoming you.

If you are interested in attending, we would appreciate it if you could complete the following form. This will enable us to ensure the day runs as smoothly as possible and allow us to plan for catering.

https://forms.office.com/e/4BgX5LzRbA

 

 

‘What the Heck?’ was started as an enrichment activity for Year 12 students just after February half-term (2023) and very quickly developed into the product you can see below.
Articles cover a wide range of interests, from arts reviews to sport coverage and comment, from features about school life and fundraising to book reviews, horoscopes and crosswords.
This opportunity for students to demonstrate leadership, initiative and creativity is something they can take with them into future careers. The editorial team are all in Year 12 and are to be congratulated for their drive and ingenuity for getting this publication off the ground.
 
Congratulations to the editorial team for a superb achievement.

25-26

January 2025

2024-25
July 2025
Feb 2025
2023-24
2022-23

As ever, HGS will be taking part in a non-uniform day (optional wear-red theme) in an attempt to raise as much money as possible for this fantastic cause.

Donations can be made in school or via ParentPay.

This Red Nose Day, let’s come together to raise some smiles, and money, to help people through the toughest times of their lives. Thank you to everyone for supporting this great cause.

 

As part of the Year 9 Food Preparation and Nutrition trip to Fox’s Biscuits a couple of weeks ago, our pupils were asked to come up with ideas for new biscuits.  Fox’s expert product development team voted on these.
The winning biscuit flavours were Lemon, Lime and White chocolate (Ella Webb and Ananya Chinchalkar) and Marshmallow, Cream and Chocolate (Lujaine Housari).  Fox’s Biscuits development bakery kindly made up these winning products and Molly, Fox’s Senior Developer, brought these into school and presented them to the winning pupils.  We are so excited to see the new products made up and we are very grateful to Fox’s for this opportunity and to make links between our curriculum and future possible careers. Well done to all.
Keep your eyes peeled for these new products on the shelves in the future. They may have been pitched with some of the large retailers!

Lemon, Lime and White Chocolate – biscuit filled with a lemon and lime cream, smothered in white chocolate with a yellow chocolate piped decoration.

The Marshmallow, Cream and Chocolate biscuit description is a biscuit with chocolate cream with a marshmallow centre.  

Birthdays come and go, but it is not everyday you are 125 years old. On the 17th January 2023, Heckmondwike Grammar School has reached that milestone.

During this period, there have been 30 Prime ministers, 11 Headteachers, 2 World Wars and a global pandemic, to name just a few of the historical happenings.

Back in 1898, when the school opened, it was initially called Heckmondwike Higher Grade School and encompassed senior and infants’ sections. The secondary section then became known as the School of Science, when the infants were moved to an alternative site. Only later, in 1929 was the school re-named as Heckmondwike Grammar school. Back then the school served a very small, close knit textile town of Heckmondwike, where students and typically staff walked to school, living and working together. Now in 2023, the school serves a much wider area, with many of the 1500+ students travelling from the outer reaches of West Yorkshire and indeed a few from even further afield. Staff now number over 180 and similarly some travel long distances to work at the prestigious school.

Over the 125 years, the school has remained on its High Street site and the original building is still fully intact and has a prominent vista overlooking the town. Behind the Victorian façade, the school has tastefully been extended to now provide state of the art facilities to students.

To formally mark the anniversary, the whole school community, made up of approximately 1700 students and staff, depicted “HGS 125” on our Multi Use Games Area. The event was captured by drone to create this video. We hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it.

Today marks the start of a number of planned celebrations in school, with the cutting of a cake at lunchtime and the launch of the aforementioned video, all serenaded by all day HGS radio being presented by students with 125 years of music. Later in the year there are planned open events for everyone to join the celebrations, including a display of 125 years of HGS artefacts.

There will have been many ups and downs in the life of the school, particularly through the turbulent periods in history, but the school has never been in a stronger position, ranked No.2 in the North of England and in the top 20% of schools for top A level results. Indeed, as current custodians of the school we have never been better placed to welcome future generations, and for them to take advantage of all that the school has to offer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday the 13th of December saw 600+ guests attend Heckmondwike Grammar School’s annual Senior Prizegiving ceremony in the grand surroundings of Dewsbury Town Hall. The evening was a very fitting tribute to the outstanding successes of year 11 and 13 students in the record-breaking 2022 examinations.

Throughout the evening the audience were entertained by the fabulous School Band with standout performances of the Motown classic, “What Christmas Means To Me” and “You Will Be Found” from the musical Dear Evan Hansen.

The Guest of Honour, former student Peter Warden, who went on to represent GB in the Olympics, entertained the audience with tales from his career competing and latterly coaching around the world. Peter recognised the most important attributes of an athlete being determination and resilience – very much the same for students working in school.

There were many highlights to the evening, including Reuben Price being presented with the Rex Scholarum award for the highest academic success, having achieved 5 A* grades at A level. Reuben is now reading Mathematics at the University of Cambridge.

Mr Roberts, congratulated all the students and staff for their achievements this year, which were formally recognised in the Sunday Times Parent Power Survey in the ranking of second placed school in the whole of the North of England, which he felt is an exceptional achievement and recognises all the hard work over a number of years.

Thank you to all students, families and staff for attending , we hope you had a wonderful evening. Congratulations once again to all of our prize winners, and a special thank you to our Guest of Honour, Peter Warden.

Professional photographs taken at the event will be available to view and purchase via the following link https://beyonderphotovision.zenfolio.com/senior-prize-giving-22

 

 

 

 

Heckmondwike Grammar School has achieved the prestigious accolade of this top ranking in the Sunday Times Parent Power survey for 2023. Peter Roberts, Headteacher said, “the ranking reflected the outstanding work of students, staff and parents over a number of years and was just reward for the teamwork exhibited. “We have been ranked the number 1 secondary school in Kirklees and Calderdale for a few years and it is particularly gratifying to also be recognised wider afield.”

“During a very difficult period we have all pulled together to provide the best possible education to enable our students to fulfil their potential. 2022 saw record school results at both GCSE and A level, which is real testament to the students’ hard work and resilience. We had another excellent year for students progressing to university, with record numbers attending the top Russell group and Oxford and Cambridge.”

Mr Roberts went on to recognise the contribution to this success, of exclusively live remote lessons during the national lockdown phases, which maintained the very high standards of teaching and learning. He also commented the wearing of facemasks and high uptake of the vaccine had kept infection rates much lower than national and regional comparative data, so keeping students and staff in school.

“Such accolades are very pleasing and we are delighted to be recognised, but they only come about because of the week in week out hard work from students and staff and I salute my colleagues and students, they are an exceptional team.”