Wilmington Grammar School for Boys

Wilmington Grammar School for Boys (WGSB)
Wilmington Grammar School for Boys (WGSB)
Address
	Common Lane; Wilmington, Dartford, Kent, DA2 7DA; England
Coordinates	51°25′43″N 0°11′38″E / 51.4287°N 0.1938°E
Information
Type	Grammar school; Academy
Motto	Forward Thinking – Traditional Values
Established	1954; 70 years ago
Ofsted	Reports
Head teacher	Mr Charlie Guthrie
Staff	73
Gender	Boys (Mixed Sixth Form)
Age	11 to 18
Enrolment	926
Houses	5 (Brunel, Darwin, Newton, Stevenson, Telford)
Website	http://www.wgsb.org.uk/

Wilmington Grammar School for Boys (WGSB) is a grammar school with academy status in Wilmington, Kent.

From 1954 to 1982 the school was called Dartford Technical High School. Today it is a specialist engineering school with a strong emphasis on design technology, mathematics and physics.

The uniform consists of navy blue blazers, white shirts, grey or black trousers and different ties for each house within the school.. Suits are worn in the sixth form. The school is situated directly alongside Wilmington Academy and has multiple bus services that also serve Dartford Grammar School for Girls, Dartford Grammar School, Wilmington Grammar School for Girls and Wilmington Academy.

Departments

The school has the following departments: Science, Mathematics, Design & Technology, Business and Economics, Geography, History/Government and Politics, English, Art, Modern Languages (including German, French and Spanish), Media, Information Communication Technology, Religious Education, PE and Music. The school no longer teach Drama.

Houses

There are 5 different houses in WGSB:

Brunel, (Dark Blue, Yellow, Light Blue and a Purple Stripe)
Darwin, (Dark Blue, Yellow, Light Blue and a Silver Stripe)
Newton, (Dark Blue, Yellow, Light Blue and a Black Stripe)
Stevenson, (Dark Blue, Yellow, Light Blue and a Green Stripe)
Telford, (Dark Blue, Yellow, Light Blue and a Red Stripe)

Notable pupils

Paul Carr, writer, journalist and commentator
Ben Thompson, footballer who plays as a midfielder for Millwall F.C
Ben Sheaf, footballer who plays as a midfielder for Arsenal
Mackenzie Crook, actor (The Office, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl)^{[citation needed]}
Neal Hazel, criminologist and former Her Majesty's Deputy Chief Inspector of Probation for England and Wales
Keith Richards, musician, The Rolling Stones^{[citation needed]}
Michael Swanton, an authority on Old English literature and the Anglo-Saxon period
Nick Lee, cricketer

F1 in Schools

The technology department at WGSB competes in an international competition called F1 in Schools which is where students form a team of 3–6 students and then design and build a car made from a block of balsa wood (More details on F1 in Schools page). The school has taken part in this competition since the 2007–2008 season, with numerous successes.

The team Redshift succeeded the London & South-East England Regional Final and then came 3rd in the national final at the ExCel Arena, London. They then later became a collaboration team, meaning that they joined another team – which was a team from Singapore. The team renamed from Redshift to X-Shift, since the Singapore team were called something that was inaudible but began with an X. This meant that they took part in the World Finals held in Texas.

Another team called Turbocharged has taken part in the Bloodhound SSC class, which is the same as the F1 class but it is designing a car based around the Bloodhound SSC. The team succeeded the regional final in the 2012–13 season, and then won the national final, meaning that they were national champions and gained a new world-record time for their car racing down the track (this record was 0.587 seconds). In the 2013–14 season, the team entered again into the competition and were unsuccessful, but after lodging a complaint about other teams being illegal, meant they were able to move to the national finals as a wildcard. The team then proudly attended the national final and won the it again, meaning that they are the only team that has ever become national champions twice.

For the 2015 Bloodhound SSC Class, a new team was formed called Vortex. The team consisted of three old members of Turbocharged, and a new member. Vortex did not succeed in the regionals, but were selected as a wildcard to progress to the nationals. They had the fastest time, but this was considerably slower than previous years, as the rules had changed, forcing the 8-gram car up to 30 grams. The team used the same principle of golf balls to create a turbulent boundary layer, to increase the speed of the car. The team won the national finals.

Notes and references

External links