Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Faversham 3.55

Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School is a selective co-educational grammar school with academy status in Faversham, Kent, southeast England. It was formed in 1967, when the Faversham Grammar School for Boys, the William Gibbs School for Girls and the Wreights School merged and moved into new accommodation opposite.The school is attended by approximately 984 students, who come from Faversham and the nearby towns of Whitstable and Herne Bay. The school is a Mathematics and Computing Specialist School, a title gained in 2005. In 2009, Modern Languages was also added to that list. The headteacher is David Anderson, who had extensive experience in Kent Grammar Schools prior to his appointment.HistoryFoundationOriginally Faversham Grammar School, the School was founded in 1527 by John Cole, who endowed it with property of which he made Faversham Abbey the trustee. The property was confiscated by Henry VIII when he dissolved the abbey in 1538, and the school had to close. In 1576 the borough council successfully petitioned Queen Elizabeth I for return of the endowment, and the school re-opened. The school had no permanent home of its own till 1587 when, as a result of community effort, the purpose-built premises were erected on the western edge of the Shooting Meadows, where archery was then practised. Here the school's modern-day successor has its buildings and playing fields. The new premises of 1587 were timber-framed, and 60 tons of oak were needed for the frame, which (as usual with this type of building) was first ‘test-assembled’ off-site.