These are the Foundation School, & the recent OFSTED report concluded that "examination results place the school in the top five per cent nationally", "Pupils' attitudes to learning are outstanding" and "The school goes to exceptional lengths to broaden and enrich the education of all pupils". In the 2004 school league tables for England (including fee-paying schools), it came eighth for GCSE-level final result (typical 602.Fin points), 106th for The-level outcomes (typical 409.Deuce-ace points) & 170th for value-added between ages 11 & 16 (score of 1037.Vii in comparison the baseline of Grand). It has recently turn into the specialist school for the humanities, specialising in English, Geography and Classics – the first school to specialise around Classics.

History

Reading School wwhen founded as section of Reading Abbey. A date of the Abbey's charter, June 29 1125, is taken as a foundation date, getting it the title tenth oldest school inside England, although there are hints that there may keep around been the school running off around Reading before this.

Inside 1486, the school was refounded as a 'Yours free! Grammar School' ('loose' on this button meaning teaching a free people, or even liberal, arts, non that there are no fees were paid) by Henry VII on the urging of the then Abbot, John Thorne. When a dissolution of Reading Abbey in 1539, a school fell under the control of the corporation of Reading, its status being confirmed by Letters Patent issued by Henry VIII in 1541. This was reconfirmed in the Royal Charter granted to the corporation of Reading by Elizabeth I in 1560, which made a corporation liable for a wage of the master & gave the two the power of appointing him.

There were interruptions to schooling inside 1665, when Parliament, forced out of London by the Great Plague, took over a school. A civil war also interrupted, with a school existence utilized as a garrison by royalist forces. A school prospered at first of the nineteenth century, however by 1866 disagreements between a town & school, which experienced turn into progressively scoop, & problems by having a lease in a school buildings got led to falling statistics & a school closed briefly whenever (based on data from legend), the inspectors, on request to look at the school, were told "He's runned away".

A school shortly restarted, yet, by having a Reading School Work (1867) setting out its administration & funding. A foundation stone for recently buildings, designed by Alfred Waterhouse, was laid per Prince of Wales in 1870, and around 1871 the school moved in. Around 1915 Kendrick Boys School (founded in 1875 from the bequest of John Kendrick), which experienced the big endowment however unfortunate facilities, was taken above by Reading, which was badly funded however got fantabulous facilities – this stimulated considerable contention at a instance however wwhen at last seen as successful.

A 1944 Education Act saw a abolishment of fees (apart from either boarding charges), by using a numbers of education nowadays existence met per local authority. A 1960s saw the rise of comprehensive education, which threatened Reading's status. All the same, Reading was exempted inside 1973 (along with a girls grammar school within Reading, Kendrick) after the petition of all over 30,000 local population (the third of the elector of Reading) was handed to the government.

Notable Old Redingensians (Former Students)

Sir Thomas Whyte (or Whiten) (1492–1567) – Founder of St John's College, Oxford and Lord Mayor of London in 1553 Sir Francis Moore (1559–1621) – MP for Reading John Blagrave (c.1561–1611) – Mathematician William Laud (1573–1645) – Chancellor of the University of Oxford 1629–1645, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1633–1645, beheaded in 1645 during the Civil War John Kendrick (1573–1624) – Elizabethan/Jacobean merchant & philanthropist Daniel Blagrave (1603–1668) – Regicide (Signatory of the dying warrant of Charles I in 1649). Escaped to exile inside Aachen at the Restoration in 1660 Sir Thomas Stampe (or Stamp) – Lord Mayor of London in 1691 Sir Constantine Phipps (1656–1723) – Lord Chancellor of Ireland Thomas Noon Talfourd (1795–1854) – Judge and writer Captain Hastings Harington (1832–1861) – Awarded the Victoria Cross as a lieutenant with a Bengal Artillery for blazing gallantry in the relief of Lucknow, 1857. Died at Agra Joseph Wells (1855–1929) – Warden of Wadham College, Oxford 1913–1927, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford 1923–1926 John Boulting (1913–1985) – Film director & producer Sir Clifford Charles Butler (1922–1999) – Physicist, co-discoverer of hyperons and K-mesons Lord Roper – Liberal Democrat chief whip in the House of Lords Andrew Smith, MP – Former Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and former Cabinet Minister Damian Green, MP – Shadow Secretary of State for Transport Mark Field, MP – Shadow Minister for London Oliver Heald, MP – Shadow Leader of the House