Altrincham Grammar School for Girls

Infobox UK school
name = Altrincham Grammar School for Girls


size =
latitude = 53.3812
longitude = -2.3605
dms = dms
motto = Fortiter, Fideliter, Feliciter "Bravely, Faithfully and Cheerfully"
motto_pl =
established = 1910
approx =
closed =
c_approx =
type = Foundation secondary school
religion =
president =
head_label = Headteacher
head = Dana Ross-Wawrzynski
r_head_label =
r_head =
chair_label =
chair = Chair of Governors
founder = Cliff Wrightcitation |url=http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/reports/pdf/?inspectionNumber=277540&providerCategoryID=8192&fileName=school6s5_106362_20051206.pdf |title=Altrincham Grammar School for Girls |format=PDF |publisher=Ofsted |year=2005 |accessdate= 15 June 2008]
founder_pl =
specialist = Language College
specialist_pl =
street = Cavendish Road
city = Bowdon
Altrincham
county = Greater Manchester
country = England
postcode = WA14 2NL
LEA = Trafford
ofsted = 106362
staff =
enrollment = 1,250
gender = Girls
lower_age = 11
upper_age = 18
houses =
colours =
publication =
free_label_1 = Also called
free_1 = Altrincham Girls Grammar School
AGGS
free_label_2 =
free_2 =
free_label_3 =
free_3 =
website = http://www.aggs.trafford.sch.uk/
website_name = www.aggs.trafford.sch.uk

Altrincham Grammar School for Girls (sometimes referred to as Altrincham Girls Grammar School or AGGS for short) is an all girls secondary school situated on Cavendish Road in Bowdon, in Greater Manchester, England. Serving about 1,250 students age 11 to 18, it is the biggest single-sex grammar school in England.

Brief overview

Altrincham Grammar School for Girls has been a successful and prosperous school since its founding in 1910 and has since been recognised as outstanding in its most recent Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) inspection for 2005–2006. In the inspection carried 5 years earlier in 2000, AGGS was found to be "an extremely effective school that sets very high standards and achieves these through high quality teaching and excellent management and leadership". [citation |title=Altrincham Grammar School for Girls |publisher=Ofsted |url=http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/oxedu_reports/download/(id)/6972/(as)/106362_224006.pdf |year=2000 |format=PDF |accessdate=10 September 2008]

History

AGGS was a product, alongside many other schools, of the 1902 Education Act which set out to build new schools especially motivated towards the provision of enhanced education for girls. It was not originally planned as a girl's school but as a dual school with boys. However it was finally agreed that the lot (the area was a originally inhabited by a substantial derelict house with spacious grounds called Bowdon Lodge) was not big enough for both the boys and girls school and the Bowdon lodge site was reserved for a girl's school and the provision for the boys was sought elsewhere.The building was designed to accommodate one hundred and eighty children, thirty of whom were at nursery age and the school was opened on Monday, 4 July 1910.In September 1910, the school was eventually populated by sixty pupils eager to learn. Three full-time and five part-time staff were employed which is a distinct contrast with today's 80 plus teachers. The original plan for the school was to cover an age-range from five to eighteen years but in 1931, the school's 21st anniversary, it lost most of its preparatory department.The headmistress for the first twenty-three years of AGGS was Miss Mary Howes Smith whose portrait can still be seen to this day, hanging on the wall of the main hall. The school motto, which can still be seen on an illuminated light-oak board in the main hall, originates from this era also. It was designed to reflect the values of Altrincham County High School (as the school was named at the time), and the students who attended it. The school's motto – "Fortiter, Fideliter, Feliciter" – translates as Bravely, Faithfully and Cheerfully.In 1933 the school saw the retirement of its first headmistress. From its inception, Miss Howes Smith had moulded and nurtured Altrincham County High, providing the foundations for the school seen today.

References

External links

* [http://www.aggs.trafford.sch.uk/ Altrincham Grammar School for Girls website]
*" [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/alevels-bestperforming-grammar-schools-461849.html A-Levels: Best-performing grammar schools] ", "The Independent", 17 August 2007.