Holgate School was a state school in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England. It was closed in 2012, when it was merged with The Kingstone School to form Horizon Community College. After Holgate closed, it was demolished and the site was turned into a car park for Horizon Community College.
Contents
Admissions
The school was awarded the status of Sports College in 2005 for its attention to sporting achievements.
History
Holgate School was founded in 1546 in Hemsworth by Robert Holgate, the Archbishop of York. In 1888 it was re-organised and moved to Barnsley, South Yorkshire. The grammar school had around 850 boys and moved to its present site in 1912. The school has now closed due to the conjoining of the two Barnsley schools Holgate and Kingstone, coming together to form Horizon Community College.
In January 1981, Michael Parkinson said that Barnsley Grammar School was to his education what myxomatosis was to rabbits.
Comprehensive
In 1978 it became a fully co-educational comprehensive school, having first admitted its first comprehensive first year intake in 1973. The sixth form went soon after, in 1980.
Academic performance
It got GCSE results under the England average but about average for Barnsley. Like all schools in Barnsley, except the Barnsley Academy, it had no sixth form, with A levels taken at Barnsley College.
Notable alumni
Sam Nixon - a UK pop singer and television presenter
Azeem Rafiq, cricketer
Barnsley and District Holgate Grammar School
Frank Atkinson CBE, Director from 1970 to 1987 of Beamish Museum, President from 1974 to 1975 of the Museums Association
Neil Alan Bell, actor
Denis Barker, former BP executive
Frederick Woodward Branson, X-ray pioneer
Sir Stuart Burgess CBE, Chairman from 1995 to 2004 of Finsbury Worldwide Pharmaceutical
Dave Burland, folk singer
Donald Chapman, Baron Northfield, Labour MP from 1951 to 1970 for Birmingham Northfield
Prof Norman Chapman, G. F. Grant Professor of Chemistry from 1956 to 1992 at the University of Hull
Prof Gordon Cherry, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning from 1976 to 1991 at the University of Birmingham
Prof John Coyne CBE, Vice Chancellor from 2004 to 2015 of the University of Derby, Chairman since 2017 of British Canoeing
Prof Donald Davie, poet
Brian Fieldhouse, Chief Executive from 1990 to 1995 of West Sussex County Council
Brian Glover, actor
Michael Green, Controller from 1986 to 1996 of BBC Radio 4, and Chairman from 1990 to 1995 of the Radio Academy
Jimmy Greenhoff, and his brother Brian, footballers
Former teachers
Peter Dews (director), theatre director (taught 1952-3)
Joseph Soar MBE, Organist and Master of the Choristers from 1952 to 1954 at St David's Cathedral (taught Music from 1904 to 1915)