Ashby School

Ashby Grammar School, the original boys' school, was founded in 1567 by Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon.[2] The girls' grammar school opened in 1901. They merged in 1972 and became comprehensive. Ashby School became an academy on 1 October 2012.

Previously an upper school, in September 2022 the school expanded its age range to 11, and became a full secondary school.[3]

Ashby School is based on two main sites (A, C and S blocks; and B block), based on adjacent roads. The school has spent considerable funds on the construction of a new science block, new rooms in the design department, and more recently, a new block built to accommodate music, art and media studies. However, from the 2020 academic year onwards, the former B block has been renovated into a new Sixth Form Campus where all KS5 (Year 12 and Year 13) lessons will take place; KS4 (Year 10 and Year 11) lessons now exclusively take place in the former A and C blocks.

School House

The school provided boarding accommodation for 75 boys from 10 -18 attending Ashby School, Ivanhoe College and Ashby Church of England School. It is located in a much extended Georgian House. Ofsted noted the homely nature of the house but was critical of many aspects that no longer meet modern standards. Fifteen years ago it was judged to be good. Ofsted acknowledges that the new senior leadership team accepts the judgment and is working to resolve the problem.[4]

The boarding provision was removed a few years ago, and the buildings re-purposed into a sixth form area, as part of a change to make the school sites more secure. Separating the KS4 and KS5 students.

Until 2022, the school had four houses: Bullen (yellow), Ferrers (blue), Hastings (green) and Loudoun (purple).[5]

In 2021, a new house system was created by the sixth form senior team for sixth formers. These new houses are: Eagles (red), Falcons (blue), Hawks (green), and Kestrels (yellow). Since 2022, the senior team positions of head boy and head girl have been renamed to house captain.[6]

In October 2019, Ofsted gave the school an "inadequate rating", though conceding that the teaching was good and the students were well behaved enthusiastic learners. Inadequate management procedures brought the overall grade down. Safeguarding of students was ranked as inadequate due to fire procedures being not tight enough and registers not being completed accurately, for example students being marked as educated off-site when they are actually on-site.[7]

'Da Vinci' is the school's current gifted and talented system. The 'Tip Tops' is a group of primary pupils in years 5 and 6 from local primary schools in the Ashby area. They attend after-school sessions in which they are tutored in advanced mathematics, literacy, film studies, science, art, and philosophy by gifted and talented students from Ashby School. The Ashby School's gifted and talented programme was rated three stars by the National Association for Gifted Children in 2010.[8] In November 2011 a Russian cosmonaut involved in the planning of the crewed mission to Mars visited the school and gave a lecture to the 'G&T'.

In 2016 Ashby School created controversy when it proposed to auction the medals, including a Victoria Cross, won by Lt Col. Philip Bent that had been donated to the school "to inspire future pupils".[9][10] The medals had been on long-term loan to the Royal Leicestershire Regimental Museum (part of Newarke Houses Museum), but had not been on display there for over forty years.[10] The school planned to use the proceeds to fund the building of a sports pavilion.[9][10] In 2018, the school received funding from the National Healthy Schools Programme for a new pavilion.[11]

Former pupils are known as Old Ashbeians.

• Andrew Betts, basketball player
• Henry Dartnall, popular musician
• Dorian West (former England Hooker)
• The Young Knives
• Nathan Buck (Leicestershire County and England U19 Cricket Player)
• Tom Hopper (actor, best known for playing Sir Percival in Merlin (TV Series))
• Jane Plant, geochemist, scientist, and author

• Official site
• Leics CC page