St. Olave's Grammar School (formally St. Olave's and St. Saviour's Church of England Grammar School) ( or ) is a selective secondary school for boys in Orpington, Greater London, England. Founded by royal charter in 1571, the school occupied several sites in Southwark, before establishing a location on Tooley Street in 1893. It moved to the suburb of Orpington in 1968, and has admitted girls to its sixth form since 1998.
A former Sunday Times State School of the Year (2008), the school is selective at both initial entry and for entry to the sixth form, but it has been criticised for policies that led to students being excluded from the sixth form for not achieving high grades. In 2017, parents threatened legal action against the policies applied by headteacher Aydin Önaç (who subsequently resigned), and the London Borough of Bromley instituted an inquiry whose critical report was published in July 2018.
General information
The school is a beneficiary of the St Olave's and St Saviour's Schools Foundation. Its historic sister school is St Saviour's and St Olave's Church of England School in New Kent Road. Established in 1903, as a girls grammar school, this is now a non-selective girls' school.
Until the scheme was discontinued in 2010, St Olave's was designated as a science, mathematics and computing specialist school. The school later applied for academy status; in 2015 this was reported to be 'on hold' pending resolution of governance issues between the Diocese of Rochester, the school and the Department for Education.
Members of the school are known as Olavians, and alumni as Old Olavians. There are four houses: Bingham, Cure, Harvard and Leeke. These exist for the purposes of the classes and house competitions in the Lower School (Year 7 to 9) and for games competition in Year 10.
It was the Sunday Times State School of the Year in 2008 and in 2011 was ranked as the fourth best performing state school in the country at A-level by the Financial Times.
Admissions
Year 7 entry
The school has been heavily oversubscribed in the past (more than 10 applicants per place in 2008). Entry had for some years solely been determined by a pair of competitive papers in English and Mathematics; however, due to the demand for entry to the school, a two-stage entrance process existed. Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning (which had formed the 3rd entrance paper until the Autumn 2007 exams, for entry September 2008) formed part of Stage 1, a single multiple-choice paper which also included English and Maths. Those who passed this first paper then took Stage 2, the traditional pair of English and Maths papers. Marks for the two stages were then standardised and aggregated; the candidates with the top 124 aggregate marks were offered places in Year 7.
Sixth form
Competition for sixth form places is also high. Pupils are selected for the sixth form on the basis of their GCSE results, and pupils have been subsequently expelled for under-achieving. In 2017 parents claimed this practice was illegal, and petitioned for judicial review.
Choristers
St Olave's exclusively provides Choristers for the Choir of the King's Chapel of the Savoy, London, which is a Chapel Royal, the Chapel of the Royal Victorian Order and of the Duchy of Lancaster. Until the school relocated to Orpington, it used to provide the choir for Southwark Cathedral through its connection to the St Saviour's foundation. However, the Charity Commissioners required that activities and intended beneficiaries related to Southwark had to be continued to be provided for by the Foundation, which supports the Cathedral choir today.
History
St Saviour's Grammar School
A new lease for the parish church of St Saviour’s dated 16 June 1559 included a pledge to start a school within two years. Within a few weeks a school for boys was functioning in temporary accommodation. On 24 November 1560 the four first wardens of the school were elected, and on 4 March 1561 a lease was handed over to the wardens for a new schoolhouse: a building in the Green Dragon, formerly Cobham’s Inn. A licence/charter for St Saviour’s Grammar School was obtained in 1562.
In 1676 the building in the Green Dragon was destroyed in the Great Fire of Southwark—the City of London fire was in 1666—and a new building was built on the same site.
In 1839 the school site was required for the enlargement of the Borough Market and a third building was built in Sumner Street in 1839. It was smaller than the previous one due to a decline in numbers.