Pate's Grammar School

Pate's Grammar School is a grammar school with academy status in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. It caters for pupils aged 11 to 18 and is a Beacon school. The school was founded with a fund bestowed to Corpus Christi College, Oxford by Richard Pate in 1574. The school became co-educational in 1986, when Pate's Grammar School for Girls merged with Cheltenham Grammar School.
Pate's has been awarded 'State Secondary School of the Year’ twice by The Sunday Times in their Good Schools Guide in 2012 and 2020. In 2013, the school was given an Outstanding judgement by Ofsted.

Academic achievements

At GCSE level in 2004, 100% of pupils entered earned five A* to C grades, and the school came twelfth in the BBC table of performance in A-/AS-Level. Again in 2005, 100% of pupils earned five A* to C grades at GCSE, and in 2006, 100% of pupils passed in at least seven subjects with grades A* to C. In 2008, more A* grades were achieved collectively than any other grade put together at GCSE level.
The physics department was recognised as the best in the country in a survey published by The Observer in May 2006.
In 2012 Pate's achieved the fourth best state secondary school results in the United Kingdom. It was also awarded with 'State Secondary School of the Year’. In 2019 the school was ranked as one of the top secondary state schools in the UK with 95.6% of grades at A*-B at A-level and 87.5% of grades at 9-7 at GCSE.

Sporting achievements

The senior rugby team was coached by ex-England scrum-half Peter Kingston until his retirement in 2009.
In 2007 Pate's senior rugby teams completed a season unbeaten for the first time in 21 years.
The Old Patesians club has grounds and a clubhouse in Leckhampton, which was built when their previous premises were demolished to make way for Cheltenham's tallest building, Eagle House.

Community

The school has a school council; the team of pupils and sixth formers from across the school is intended to help the students enjoy their time at Pate's more beneficially and give them a voice in school affairs.
The school competes in the Young Enterprise competition held amongst schools nationwide. In 2007, it reached the national finals for the Make Your Mark Enterprise Challenge held in London.
The school was also named as one of the four winners of the annual BBC School's Question Time competition in 2009. During the 1970s the school were winners of the BBC radio show Top of the Form.
Pate's is also involved with charity work and has a Charity Committee appointed each year; in 2007–2008, over £16,000 was raised. The school is situated in a deprived area of Cheltenham and under the headmaster Richard Kemp deprived students were encouraged to apply.
The current headmaster is Russel Ellicott, who took over from Shaun Fenton in September 2012.

Developments

The boys school was established in 1586. The Gothic premises in the High Street were demolished in 1967 to make way for a concrete supermarket, at a time when many other historic buildings, which would now be listed and protected, were also lost. The school playing field existed quite remote from the school in Hesters Way, and a replacement school was built there, after the boundaries had been altered to make way for the Princess Elizabeth Way and Coronation Square council developments. The majority of pupils lived in more affluent areas on the opposite side of the town and needed to commute by public transport. The building was designed by architects who had won awards for New Hall College Cambridge, but its appearance was not popular, it incorporated various impractical features, and developed structural problems. It was demolished in the 1990s and replaced by an adjacent new building. During this period the school somehow lost its nomanclature with Richard Pate, and his name instead became associated with the girl's school at Pittville
The school raised funds in order to complete new fitness facilities. The £50,000 fitness suite was officially opened by Geoff Hurst in April 2010.
In summer 2012, Pate's Grammar completed the construction of a new refectory, costing £1.75 million. This also involved upgrading the school canteen to a cashless catering system operated by sQuid. It was opened by the Duke of Gloucester on 5 October 2012. Plans have been announced for a new sixth form block to be built and completed summer 2019.
In 2013, a new school block was opened named 'The George and Eve Tatam Block', after alumni who also sponsor higher level study at the Corpus Christi College of both Oxford and Cambridge.
In spring 2019, a new sixth form block opened following a grant received in 2017. The three-storey building comprises study spaces and IT facilities on the lower two floors, whilst the upper floor houses the senior library. The building links directly to the George and Eve Tatum Block next to which it is constructed.

Former headmasters and headmistresses