User:Max53hayward/Haywards Heath Grammar School

Haywards Heath Grammar School was a state-funded grammar school in Sussex, England, that was opened in 1958. It closed 22 years later in 1980 when it became a sixth form college.

History
Haywards Heath Grammar School was founded by East Sussex Education Committee on 9 September 1958 on a new purpose built educational campus off Harlands Road and overlooking the centre of Haywards Heath.

The school selected its boys and girls from children within its mid-Sussex catchment area who passed the 11-Plus IQ exam. The last ‘grammar school year group’ of pupils to join the school at aged 11 was in 1973, after East Sussex Education Committee (ESEC) decided to phase out selective education across all its schools, in line with government policy at the time.

ESEC's original plan had been for the school, which for most of its life had about 800 pupils, to evolve into a new comprehensive school for 11-18 year olds. To that end, from 1974, the school starting taking 11-year-old children of all abilities from its catchment area.

But in 1974 county boundary changes resulted in the mid-Sussex area being transferred to West Sussex County Council. WSCC decided the school should become a sixth form college for the area. This meant that the last year new group of 11-year-olds to join the school was in 1975.

In 1980 the school was formally renamed Haywards Heath College to reflect the school’s new status as a sixth form college for A-level students aged 16-18.

In 2005 Haywards Heath College merged with Crawley College of further education, and became one of the campuses of the new Central Sussex College.

Alumni

 * Greta Scacchi, actress.
 * Eddie Shah, media and property entrepreneur. Pioneer in the deployment of newspaper technology in the 1980s, and founder of the Today national newspaper in 1986.
 * Anne Milton, Public Health Minister in the Department of Health since 2010. Conservative MP for Guildford since 2005.
 * Tim Godwin OBE, Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police since 2009.
 * Professor Rosemary Hails, MBE, ecologist, and Supernumerary Fellow at St Anne’s College Oxford.
 * Stephen Martin, Chief Executive from 2000-3 of the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales
 * Philip Payton, Professor of Cornish and Australian Studies at the University of Exeter.

Headmasters

 * Edward Wynter. 1958-1977
 * Mr Bishop. 1977-1980