Parmiter's School

Infobox UK school
name = Parmiter's School


size = 160px
latitude = 51.703
longitude = -0.389
dms =
motto = "Nemo Sibi Nascitur" [cite book
title = Adagia | author = Erasmus
edition = Leiden edition | year = 1700 | pages = 4.6.81] (Latin: "No one is born unto himself alone")
motto_pl =
established = 1722 and 1887 in Bethnal Green, 1977 at current site
approx =
type = comprehensive, voluntary aided
religion =
president =
head_label = Headmaster
head = Brian Coulshed
r_head_label =
r_head =
chair_label = Chair of Governors
chair = Mrs J Glossop
founder = Thomas Parmiter
founder_pl =
specialist = Technology and Music
specialist_pl = yes
street = High Elms Lane
city = Garston
county = Hertfordshire
country = England flagicon|England
postcode = WD25 0UU
phone = 01923 671424
fax = 01923 894195
LEA = Hertfordshire County Council
ofsted = 117576
staff = 80 teaching, 50 support
enrollment = 1237, with 260 in Sixth Form
gender = Mixed
lower_age = 11
upper_age = 18
houses = Beven color box|white, Carter color box|yellow, Lee color box|green, Mayhew color box|red, Renvoize color box|blue and Woolley color box|purple
colours = Burgundy color box|#900020, Sky Blue color box|#C0E0FF, White color box|white and Navy Blue color box|navy
publication =
free_label_1 =
free_1 =
free_label_2 =
free_2 =
free_label_3 =
free_3 =
website = http://www.parmiters.herts.sch.uk/
website_name = www.parmiters.herts.sch.uk

Parmiter's School is a co-educational school in Garston near Watford, Hertfordshire, England with a long and interesting history. Although the school admits pupils of all abilities it is partially selective (see below). It is currently the most oversubscribed school in Hertfordshire, and has often been recognised by the DfES for being one of the highest performing schools in the country by value added and raw score as a mixed ability school.

History

Thomas Parmiter was a wealthy silk merchant in East London, who died in 1681.In his will he left two farms in southwest Suffolk to provide £30 per annum for six almshouses and £100 per annum for "one free school house or room for ten poor children" in Bethnal Green, London.Mrs Elizabeth Carter donated land for the school and an annual income of £10, while William Lee donated £100 for the building of a school house and a further annual £10.The building in St John Street (now Grimsby Street) was completed in 1722.Over the years the Trustees of Thomas Parmiter's Estate looked after its investments carefully.A notably prescient move was the purchase in 1723 of property in Cambridge Heath using money lent by Edward Mayhew.cite book
title = The History of Parmiter's Foundation
author = M.J. Fletcher
edition = 2nd ed. | year = 1987
publisher = Edson Printers | location = Watford]

By 1730 the school accommodated 30 boys, growing to 50 in 1809.In 1839 it moved to new premises in Gloucester Street (now Parmiter Street) after the original site was acquired by the Eastern Counties Railway.(These buildings were destroyed by bombing during World War Two.)Peter Renvoise left the foundation the sum of £500 on his death in 1842.

In 1870, the Great Eastern Railway acquired most of the Cambridge Heath property for the sum of £27,000.The Charity Commission, acting under the Endowed Schools Act 1869, forced a new constitution on the foundation, directing one third of the income to the almshouses and two thirds to the school, which was by this time providing secondary education to 70 boys.Fees were to be introduced, with 40 foundation scholarships for boys from St Matthew's parish, Bethnal Green.The Gloucester Street school closed in 1885, reopening in new buildings in Approach Road in 1887. [ [http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/Details/Default.aspx?id=205711 Parmiter's School, Approach Road, Bethnal Green] , "Images of England", English Heritage National Monuments Record.] In 1913 a revised constitution created separate foundations for the school and the almshouses.The Parmiter phoenix was designed by W.A. Cross for the 40th anniversary of the Approach Road school in 1927.In 1951 the school became a voluntary aided grammar school.In 1966 and 1967 it successfully resisted plans by the Inner London Education Authority to merge it with St Jude's Church of England School to form a comprehensive school.Parmiter's Grammar School had grown to 525 boys by 1976, but the days of the grammar school were numbered.

In that year the Governors placed before the Secretary of State for Education and Science a proposal to build a mixed comprehensive school on a new site in Garston, Hertfordshire, which was approved in February 1977. The first intake of 1st Year students entered the Hertfordshire School in September 1977 and expanded by annual intakes until the full complement of forms from 1st Year (Year 7) to Upper Sixth (Year 13) had been achieved in September 1983.Parmiter's School in Garston was officially opened by Her Majesty The Queen in December 1981, the year of the Tercentenary of Thomas Parmiter's bequest.The grammar school in Bethnal Green closed in the same year.The school acquired grant maintained status in 1991, and returned to voluntary aided status in September 1999. [cite web
title = History of Parmiter's
publisher = Parmiter's School
accessdate = 2008-07-10
url = http://www.parmiters.herts.sch.uk/welcome/parmitershistory.html]

In both 2005 and 2006, the current Year 11 football team reached the final of the ESFA National Cup, narrowly losing twice.

Admissions

The school used to be highly selective (though always taking siblings regardless of ability, so making it technically a non-selective school), however following a judgment by the School Adjudicator for England the school was forced to cap its intake based on academic ability at 25%.

Last year therefore the school took pupils as follows:

Notable former pupils

Former pupils of the boys' grammar school in Bethnal Green:
* Tommy Walsh (TV gardener, Ground Force)
* Alp Mehmet (UK Ambassador to Iceland)
* Terence Knapp (actor, director, educator, and author)
* Geoffrey Woolley (Victoria Cross recipient)
* John Crow (former governor of the Bank of Canada)
* Richard Davies (actor, dancer and singer).

Former pupils of the mixed comprehensive in Hertfordshire:
* Nick Leeson (single-handedly responsible for the bankruptcy of Barings Bank)
* Jordan Parkes (Watford F.C. footballer)
* Captain Everything! (punk rock band)
* David GoodmanWho|date=September 2008 (senator)Fact|date=September 2008
* Young Husband (band)

Notable teachers

* Stuart Bates (member of pop band The Divine Comedy)

References