Stockport Grammar School

Stockport Grammar School is a co-educational private day school in Stockport, England. Founded in 1487 by former Lord Mayor of London Sir Edmund Shaa, it is the second oldest in the North of England, after Lancaster Royal Grammar School, and a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.

Foundation
The school was founded in 1487 by Sir Edmund Shaa, the 1482 Lord Mayor of London whose will provided for a school and a small chapel in St Mary's Church in Stockport and funds to maintain a priest to chant masses and teach grammar. Alexander Lowe, the mayor of Stockport, left the school a permanent home in Chestergate in his will. The school became increasingly successful with pupils being accepted at the ancient universities of Oxford, Cambridge and St Andrews, while the curriculum became increasingly broad with the rudiments of Greek joining a study of Latin, the Christian religion, writing in English and arithmetic. Five years after the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths met to discuss the possibility of transferring the school to a different site, new buildings open where Greek Street meets New Wellington Road. As well as paying for the building, the Goldsmiths also increased the salaries of the headmaster and usher and paid the running costs.

Current site on Buxton Road
The Greek Street building became unsuitable for the demands of a modern school, and the school was relocated in 1915 to its present site and was inaugurated on 29 January 1916 by the chairman of the Cheshire county council.

Move to coeducation
In 1980, girls were admitted to the school.

The Mile End buildings 1916-1980
The Hallam Hall, seen from across the Old Quad below was named after the Mayor of Stockport and major benefactor Ephraim Hallam. This was originally the School’s Assembly Hall and later the main library but due to the expansion of the School site, which included a new, multi-resource 14000 book library, the hall was converted into an entertainments room.

The main school building was constructed with a Victorian neo-gothic style of architecture. Other buildings which have been constructed since then have mostly remained continuous with the general style of the main site, particularly the muted red brick and distinctive yellow limestone bands which feature heavily on the main building.

New Woodsmoor building 2013 - present
In 2011, planning permission was received to erect a new teaching block on the Woodsmoor side of the site, to replace the Woodsmoor hall and laboratories that were demolished in 2010. The build was completed in June 2012, and the "black and white tower" and classics block were demolished later that year.

Academic performance
In 2023, the average grade at A-Level was B+, compared to B in all schools in Stockport and B nationally.

Extracurricular Activities
The school offers over 200 extracurricular activities to its pupils, with the Independent Schools Inspectorate rating the school's extracurricular provision as "outstanding" in 2011.

Duke of Edinburgh's Award
The school is its own Duke of Edinburgh's Award operating authority. In 2010, the school issued its 1000th Duke of Edinburgh Award, a milestone which was marked by the visit of Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex.

Model United Nations
In 1985 SGS represented the USSR at the 40th anniversary Model United Nations conference held at Central Hall, Westminster, to celebrate the first United Nations General Assembly. In 1990 the SGS delegation won the best delegation award at The Hague Model United Nations.

The school has hosted a biennial Model United Nations (MUN) conference since March 2006. At 2008's conference, Labour MP and former home secretary David Blunkett was the school's guest speaker. At 2012's conference, Senior Liberal Democrat MP, Andrew Stunell was the guest speaker.

Expeditions
The school runs a series of expeditions for Sixth Formers every two years to places such as Venezuela, Vietnam, Uganda, Namibia, Rwanda and in 2015 an expedition to Bolivia & Peru. In 2017, an expedition took 41 students to Borneo. Pupils participate in planning the trips and manage their own finances, accommodation, food and transportation.

The Stopfordian
The school's annual publication in 2012 was The Stopfordian, a comprehensive review of the school year. A predecessor was named simply Stockport Grammar School Magazine.

Taking Stock
The school has published Taking Stock, a newsletter rounding up recent news and photographs.

Old Stops' Review
Old Stops' Review, a new annual magazine containing news from ex-pupils, was first published in 2011.

Old Stopfordians
Former pupils are known as "Old Stopfordians", not to be confused with simply Stopfordians (the demonym of Stockport being "Stopfordian"), or the former pupils of Bishop Stopford's School at Enfield, who are also known as Old Stopfordians.

Stopfordians Lacrosse Club
The Old Stopfordians' Association in 2012 operated Stopfordians Lacrosse Club, who played in the North of England Men's Lacrosse Association Premier 2 division. The team then played their home games at Disley Amalgamated Sports Club.

Notable Old Stopfordians

 * John Amaechi OBE (1970-), English retired NBA basketball player and broadcaster in the USA
 * David Armitage (1965-), Professor of History at Harvard University.
 * Thomas Ashe (1836-1889), English poet
 * Admiral Sir George Back FRS (1796-1878), British naval officer and Arctic explorer
 * Sir Victor Blank (1942-), British businessman and philanthropist
 * Peter Boardman (1950-1982), British Himalayan mountaineer and author, died on Everest
 * Martin Bourke (1947-), former British diplomat and Governor of the Turks and Caicos Islands
 * Geoff Downes (1952-), English rock keyboard player and songwriter for the bands Yes and Asia
 * Marianne Elliott (1966-), Tony Award-winning theatre director
 * Peter Firth (bishop) (1929-2024), former Suffragan Bishop of Malmesbury
 * Michael Gilbertson (1961-), current Archdeacon of Chester
 * Roger Hammond (1936-2012), English film, television and stage actor
 * Mark Isherwood (1959-), Conservative member of the National Assembly for Wales for the region of North Wales
 * Chris Jones (1982-), English rugby union rugby player for The Worcester Warriors
 * Cecil Kimber (1888-1945), automobile engineer, founder of The MG car company
 * Sir Horace Lamb FRS (1849-1934), British applied mathematician and author of several influential texts on classical physics
 * Gordon Marsden (1953-), Labour Party politician who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Blackpool South
 * Paul Morley (1957-), English music journalist
 * Samuel Perry (1877-1954), Labour Co-operative politician and father of the British tennis champion Fred Perry
 * Neil Andrew Megson (1950-2020), English singer-songwriter, musician, poet, writer and performance artist Genesis P-Orridge.
 * Andy Stanford-Clark (1966-), leading British information technology research engineer for IBM and IBM Master Inventor
 * Di Stewart (1979-), television presenter on Sky Sports
 * William Tobin (1953-2022), astronomer and political candidate
 * John Turner (1943-), recorder player and former lawyer
 * Sir Frederic Calland Williams CBE (1911-1977), engineer and computer pioneer, who developed radar in World War II and the first stored-program digital computer

Headmasters
• 1496 Sir John Randall

• 1509 Sir Randall Hulton

• 1521 Sir George Bamford

• 1534 Sir William Chorlton

• 1534–1543 Scholemaister of Stopport (name unrecorded)

• 1557 Sir William Chorlton (reappointed)

• 1559 Leonard Harrison

• 1564 Thomas Leigh

• 1565 John Brownswerd

• 1579 Bamford

• 1587 Francis Lowe

• 1597 William Nicholson

• 1597–1598 William Lingard

• 1601 Kirke

• 1601 Lang

• 1601 Nicholson

• 1601–1602 John Cobb

• 1604 Thomas Bower

• 1609 Luke Mason

• 1610 Walter Pott

• 1623 Thomas Rossen

• 1625 Reginald Pott

• 1627 Edmund Clough

• 1628 John Pollett

• 1630 William Plant

• 1633 Samuel Edwards

• 1634 Bradley Hayhurst

• 1645 Randall Yarwood

• 1647 Thomas Peirson

• 1651 Rev Thomas Coombes

• 1668 Rev Daniel Leech

• 1669 Rev Joseph Whittle

• 1673–1674 Rev Samuel Needham

• 1683 Rev Timothy Dobson

• 1691 Rev George Esclome

• 1692–1693 Rev William Dickens

• 1703 Rev Joseph Dale

• 1752 Rev William Jackson

• 1792 Rev George Porter

• 1792 Rev Elkanah Hoyle

• 1829 Rev William Newstead

• 1832 Rev Thomas Middleton

• 1847 Rev William Gurney

• 1860 Rev Charles G Hamilton

• 1887 Rev William A Pemberton

• 1903 Alfred E Daniels

• 1929 Christopher Herman Gilkes

• 1941 Frederick H Philpot

• 1962–1979 Francis Willoughby Scott

• 1979 Hugh Wright

• 1985 David Bird

• 1996–2005 Ian Mellor

• 2005–2018 Andrew Chicken

• 2018-2023 Paul Owen