Guildford County School

Guildford County School
Motto	Non nobis Domine; (Not unto us, O Lord)
Established	1909
Type	state school
Headteacher	Jack Mayhew
Location	Farnham Road; Guildford; Surrey; GU2 4LU; United Kingdom; Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
DfE number	936/5400
DfE URN	139193 Tables
Ofsted	Reports Pre-academy reports
Staff	approx. 60
Students	1,069
Gender	Coeducational
Ages	11–18
Houses	Tudor ; York ; Windsor ; Stuart ; Hanover ; Lancaster
Patron	Julian Lloyd Webber, Howard Goodall
Website	Guildford County School

Guildford County School (GCS) is a co-educational day school on Farnham Road (A31), Guildford, England, approximately 200 metres from Guildford town centre. It has around 950 students enrolled, including the Sixth Form, and about 87 teachers. The school's admissions policy is without entrance examination and largely centred on catchment. It is run by its headmaster Jack Mayhew (as of 2013).^[1]

In September 2004, the School was granted Specialist Music College status, designated by the Department for Education and Skills. Julian Lloyd Webber and Howard Goodall are patrons of the school.

History

Grammar school

The school opened its doors in 1905 at its first premises on Nightingale Road and then moved in 1914 to its current site at Farnham Road. A Block is the oldest building and more buildings were added during the following sixty years.

Comprehensive

In 1977, the girls' grammar school became a mixed 11-18 comprehensive school. Between 1977 and 1979, a second teaching block was built together with another gymnasium.

The school became grant-maintained in September 1990 and three years later a three-storey building named after the former Chairman of Governors, Stanley Cobbett, was opened by the then MP David Howell alongside the Headmaster David Smith, his wife Linda and daughters Lucy (head girl), Anna and Ellie. With the change in the age of transfer from 12 to 11, the school roll grew to over 900. The school became a Foundation School in 2000^[2] and an Academy School in 2013.^[3]

Exam results

In the summer 2010 examinations around 66% of pupils attained five A*-C GCSE grades including maths and English, in line with the county average and higher than the 50% national average. 66% was the 37th highest rate in the county out of 73 schools in Surrey who declared their GCSE results.^[1]^[4]

For the 2010 A-level results, the average point score per student (an aggregate of all the grades achieved by a candidate) at Guildford County was 713.5. This was the 58th highest score out of the 73 Surrey schools which declared results and was the lowest average score of any sixth-form college in the Guildford and Godalming area.^[4] 10% of achieved A-level entries were at grade A and 63% were at A-C.^[1]

House system

There are six houses at Guildford County School, named after royal houses:

Tudor (yellow)
York (white)
Windsor (purple)
Stuart (blue)
Hanover (green)
Lancaster (red)

Sport

There are a variety of sports available at Guildford County School. The Winter House Sports competition involves team sports, whilst athletics are a component of the Summer House Sports competition.

During the winter season, boys' sports include rugby, football, cricket, basketball and badminton, whilst cricket and softball are the main sporting components in the summer. Girls' sports include netball and rounders.

Music

Guildford County School is a specialised music college.

On 21 October 2008, all choirs and musical ensembles performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London to an audience of around 1000.^{[citation needed]} The concert was held to celebrate The Voice and the use of singing as an educational tool; the members of Guildford County School were joined by several junior schools from around Surrey that worked alongside GCS on the project.

Choirs

The school has choirs: Boys' Choir, Girls' Choir, Chamber Choir, Gospel Choir, Senior Choir, Community Choir, Sixth Form barbershop group and Schola Cantorum. In 2007, the Boys' Choir and Schola Cantorum both recorded CDs at the University of Surrey. In 2010 the Boys' Choir won a competition that resulted in them singing at an education conference at International Convention Centre, Birmingham.^{[citation needed]} There are school orchestras; a Chamber Orchestra and a Big Band. Mountside Music works with the school, providing music lessons.

Alumni