Talk:Queen Anne Grammar School

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NONE of this content is referenced so has no place in the article, Wikipedia only reports on what reliable published sources say about a subject, not what we personally know...sorry. Theroadislong (talk) 17:20, 20 June 2016 (UTC)

Emily Netherwood was the first Headmistress of Queen Anne Grammar School. Doris Milner became the Headmistress in 1938 followed by Joyce Aspden in 1942. Following the retirement of Miss. Aspden in 1960, Irene Whittaker took over as Headmistress, a Geography teacher by profession, until she retired in 1985. There was a lot of building work during the 1970s as pupil numbers grew, and then more in the 1980s in readiness for the changeover from grammar to comprehensive. The school was converted into a co-educational comprehensive school in 1985 when a new Headteacher, Ernest Parkinson, arrived. Mr. Parkinson retired in 1987 and David Lane took over as Headmaster of the school. Mr. Lane retired in June 1997 and Christine M Priestley succeeded the post as Headmistress.

From 1985 onward Queen Anne was chiefly divided into 3 "Blocks".

The old school building (A Block) consisted of roughly 16 classrooms and further rooms including the Headteachers Office, school Reception, Medical Sick Room, and (after-school) Leisure Room. From a certain time until June 1999, only the first floor rooms of the old school were used for the aforementioned purposes and most first floor rooms only to teach Modern Languages (French, German and Spanish (the latter available from Year 9 onward)), Religious Education (R.E.), Information Technology (I.T.), and Special Needs classes. Close to the Headteachers Office was the old school entrance leading out onto the terraces and 13 tennis courts (with varying numbers of grass courts and concrete courts). However, this entrance-way was ceased to be used as such from a certain time and served as only a way in and out to and from the terraces.

The old school was attached to a newer building that formed part of A Block. A new school entrance (that was formally the back of the school) opened onto the Social Area furnished with seats of wood-and-leather and a drinks vending machine for use by the pupils and (less often) the school staff during break and dinner times. The newer part of A Block held the Gym and co-joined Sports Hall, the school Library with its Backroom, a Photocopying room, and the Head of Religious Educations Office. A number of classrooms were used to teach Design Technology (D.T.), Home Economics (H.E.) (Cooking and Textiles), and two classrooms for Art & Design. During morning break there opened the School Stationary Shop. There was also one smallish room reserved for detaining misbehaved pupils.

A portacabin-like building located just outside of the A Block first floor art rooms held 3 classrooms for teaching Design Technology (D.T.).

B Block consisted of 5 apartments with 2 Music rooms and a state-of-the-art Drama Studio accompanied by 2 changing rooms with one to accommodate each gender. The two subjects in question were separated by a passage leading out at each end to either the old school or to the "science block".

C Block (as it was known), or the Science Block, was a 3 storey high-rise building of glass and framework. Classes were held across all 3 floors in sectors. The ground floor taught lessons in humanities, chiefly History and Geography. The second floor taught lessons in English (Language and Literature) and Mathematics. The third floor housed several Science laboratories and Prep Rooms. An elevator was located at the back of the building but due to misuse by a number of pupils this came to become barred from use altogether.

The school became increasingly unpopular with the residents of York therefore in 1998, the then Director & Head of Schools of England, Michael Peter, ordered the monitoring of the number of enrolling pupils to Queen Anne for the following school year. Should the number fall too far below that of its rival schools it would be forced to close the following year. The number of new enrolling pupils fell well below the target margin and the school was kept open a further year for the Year 10 pupils to complete their GCSE studies by June 2000. Due to this, in 1999, the closure of the school were announced and the Year 9 pupils were transferred to different schools as it was in their best interest to commence and complete their forthcoming GCSE studies uninterrupted. There were no new pupil enrollments after 1998.

In September 1999, the final school year, a number of major changes came into practice. C Block was largely unused save 2 third floor Science laboratories and a couple of Prep Rooms used by teachers only. As the majority of the schools pupils came from disadvantaged backgrounds, it was forbidden for any pupil to enter this Block unless a lesson was scheduled in their timetable. B Block was used as per normal. Perhaps the biggest change came with the old school (or A Block) with all the lessons previously taught in C Block moving across (save Science) and therefore a few more of the classrooms coming into use since the schools earlier days. Art & Design, H.E., Physical Education (P.E.), Modern Languages, R.E. and I.T. remained taught within the same classes and rooms. Humanities and the English subjects moved to the ground floor below Modern Languages. Mathematics was now situated just after the Modern Languages rooms. By this time the school was small in number of staff and pupils.