Queens Park High School
Queen's Park High School or QPHS is a secondary school in Queens Park, Chester, in the United Kingdom. It is a Visual Arts College. The school symbol is the heraldic lion, and the school uniform consists of a blue jumper with a small white lion on the left hand side, and black or blue trousers.
History
Queen's Park High School only came under its current name in 1971 when it became a comprehensive school.
Chester City Technical Day School
From 1892 to 1911 the school was called Chester City Technical Day School and was located in the basements of the Grosvernor Museum in Chester. At this time the girls part of the school did not exist and the student body and faculty consisted of only 30 boys and 4 teachers. In 1911 a new building for the school was completed on Queens Park Road and the school is still housed there today.
City & County School Chester
Chester City Technical Day School now changed its name to City & County School Chester. The school was a grammar and accepted boys and girls, although they were taught in separate parts of the building.
Chester City Grammar School and City & County School Chester for Girls
In 1939 a new extension was granted to the school and the boys moved into it leaving the older building to the girls. The boys school changed its name simply to Chester City Grammar School and the girls school changed its name to City & County School Chester for Girls which became City High School for Girls, Chester.
Comprehensive
The school remained this way until 1971 when the two schools became one, a comprehensive school. Since then the school has received numerous extensions including a new Foreign Modern Languages Department and Library Learning Centre.
Extracurriculars
Musical
QPHS has a long history of annual school performances which usually run for a week in the spring term. The plays have included:
2004 Bugsy Malone
2005 The Wizard of Oz
2006 Oliver
2007 Little Shop of Horrors
2008 Grease
2009 We Will Rock You
And the forthcoming production of Hairspray will be showing in early 2010!
In days of yore the school had also been known to put on the odd opera or two, such as Il trovatore and La Tosca.
Other musical events
Every year QPHS puts on a Summer Concert and Candle Lit Christmas Evening. The events are usually like a cabaret night and the school band provides the music. QPHS also has two choirs, a Junior and Upper school choir. The music department also runs a school band which is full of violins, flutes, clarinets, cellos, saxophones and is the only school band in chester with a bassoon! Also, in February the school has an X-Factor like event called The V-Factor which runs on a similar principle. QPHS holds Battle of the Band once a year in the school hall as well.
Sports and clubs
-Rowing Club -Cricket Club -Football Club -Rugby Club -Trampolining Club -Faraday Club (Defunct) -Debating Society (Defunct) -Wireless Club (Defunct) -Caledonian Society (Defunct)
School magazine
The Inkwell - from 1912 to 1950 The Cestrian - from 1950 to 1971 Newsletter - from 1971 to present
Headmasters
1893 to 1911, J.A. MacMichael BA. BSc.
1912 to 1937, J.K. Wilkins MA. BSc.
1938 to 1942, E. Ayres MA.
1942 to 1948, R.P. Challacombe CBE. BA.
1949 to 1970, C. Race MA.
1971 to 1989, K.D. Munden BA.
1989 to 2009, A.D. Firman MA. MEd.
2009 to present, S.J. Casey BSc. PGCE. NPQH.
Notable Old Queen's Parkians
Chester City Grammar School
Russ Abbot
Sir Charles Bell CBE, Chairman of Coats Paton Ltd from 1967-75
Stephen Byers, Labour MP for North Tyneside since 1997 and for Wallsend from 1992-7
Sir John Enderby CBE
H. H. Wills Professor of Physics at the University of Bristol from 1981-96, Editor of Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter from 1997-2002, and President of the Institute of Physics from 2004-6
Prof Clifford Formston, Professor of Veterinary Surgery at the Royal Veterinary College from 1943-74
John Golding, Labour MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme from 1969-86
Jon Lloyd, Chief Executive since 2008 of UK Coal
John G. Robinson, railway engineer
Prof James Scudamore CB, Chief Veterinary Officer from 1997-2004
Keith Harris - Ventriloquist with Orville the Duck
City & County School Chester for Girls
Mary Whitehouse
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