Colyton Grammar School (CGS) is a co-educational grammar school (and Academy) located in the village of Colyford in East Devon, England that caters for pupils aged 11 to 18. The school has been classified by Ofsted as "Outstanding" in three successive reports. As of 2023 it was ranked by The Sunday Times as the ninth-best state school in the country, and the second-best in the South West. Founded by local merchants in 1546, the school is situated on an 18-acre site near the Devon coast.
History
In 1546 a group of 20 yeomen and merchants petitioned the Crown to buy back the confiscated property of the executed Earl of Devon. They were granted this land and property in a Royal Charter in 1546 by a deed of enfeoffment there by becoming the Feoffees of Colyton, one of the 80 oldest charities in England still operating today. Their first act was to endow a grammar school in the later half of the 16th century and by a second Royal Charter granted by Elizabeth I directing a school be maintained with a grant of £5.00 a year "for the goodly and virtuous education of 20 poor boys forever".
The existing school was a petty school situated in a single room, the parvise room, over the porch of the parish church where the local priest educated the son of local merchants and yeomen until the Feoffees converted The Church House (a property confiscated from the Earl of Devon) in 1612, the first real home of Colyton Grammar School remaining there until 1927 when the school moved to its present site in Colyford.
The first headmaster on record was William Hull, who joined the school in 1603, for a salary of £5 a year. The first headmistress – Mrs. Susanah Stokes – was appointed in 1792. It was only in 1875 that the school was established as a day and boarding school with its current name – Colyton Grammar School.
On 20 June 1876, the school population reached a record low of just one pupil. Numbers steadily increased again and by August 1884, there were 33 pupils. The school was closed in 1900 due to a lack of pupils and remained closed until 1905, when it was re-opened with a new headmaster.
In 1913, a change made in the school's constitution allowed girls to be admitted for the first time and the school officially became a co-educational grammar school. A Board of Governors with fifteen members was established in 1914. In 1929, the school moved to its present site in Colyford.
Recent developments
The school began a program of development and expansion in 1991, adding and renovating many buildings over the subsequent two decades. This included two new Study Centres, the "Study Centre" and the "Sindalls Building", a major renovation of the Chemistry block, the "Jowett Building", a new, expansive Science and Design & Technology block, the "Feoffees Building", a new Music building, a new Art building, the large "Walker Building" which contains the school library, called 'The Elizabeth Preston Library', History, Psychology and Modern Languages classrooms, a new Humanities building, the "Coly Building", including RE and Geography classrooms, a new canteen named "Take Five", and a complete refurbishment of the "Cottrill Hall", the main school hall.
On 1 January 2011, Devon County Council ceased to maintain the school. The school became one of the Coalition Government's Academies. Colyton Grammar School Academy Trust, an exempt charity and company limited by guarantee, assumed responsibility for this state-funded independent school.
In 2019, the Drama Studio was removed and replaced with a classroom and a new Wellbeing Centre. The old computing rooms were converted into classrooms and the tech labs were turned into the new computing rooms. Following these redevelopments, in 2022 the East Wing of the school was renovated to install a new Drama Studio named after former teacher and benefactor Sid Bradbeer. It was opened by actor and alumnus Tom Brittney.
In 2023 a partnership investment between the school, Parents’ Association, alumni, local grant awarding bodies and the local authority resulted in a new sports-pitch, available for the students and the local community. It was opened by Ollie Devoto of the Exeter Chiefs.