Coat of arms of Manchester Grammar School, being a difference of the canting arms ("owl-dham") of Hugh Oldham (d.1519), Bishop of Exeter, founder of The Manchester Grammar School and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. The chief displays the arms of the See of Exeter
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Motto |
Sapere Aude (Dare to be wise) |
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Established | 1515 |
Type | Independent day school |
High Master | Dr Martin Boulton |
Deputy High Master | Dr Paul Thompson |
Chair of Governors | Maurice Watkins |
Founder | Hugh Oldham |
Location |
Old Hall Lane Manchester M13 0XT United Kingdom 53°26′55″N 2°12′37″W / 53.448611°N 2.210278°WCoordinates: 53°26′55″N 2°12′37″W / 53.448611°N 2.210278°W |
DfE URN | 105591 Tables |
Staff | c. 240 |
Students | c. 1480 |
Gender | Boys |
Ages | 7–18 |
Publication |
New Mancunian |
Former pupils | Old Mancunians |
Website | www |
New Mancunian
The Manchester Grammar School (MGS) is the largest independent day school for boys in the United Kingdom (ages 7–18) and is located in Manchester, England. Founded in 1515 as a free grammar school, it was formerly adjacent to Manchester Parish Church (later Manchester Cathedral) until 1931 when it moved to its present 28-acre site at Fallowfield. In accordance with its founder's wishes, MGS has remained a predominantly academic school and belongs to the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.
In the post-war period, MGS was a direct-grant grammar school. It chose to become an independent school in 1976 after the Labour government abolished the Direct Grant System. Fees for 2016–2017 were £11,970 per annum.
The school's motto is ("Dare to be Wise"), which was also the motto of the council of the former County Borough of Oldham (now, with the same coat of arms, the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham), granted on 7 November 1894. Sapere aude is a quotation from Horace, famously used by Immanuel Kant and also the motto of The Enlightenment.
The MGS coat of arms, which the school displays in the Memorial Hall, were the arms borne by Hugh Oldham, Bishop of Exeter. It consists of the arms of the Bishopric of Exeter and Oldham's personal arms side by side. The Exeter arms depict the keys and sword, emblems of St Peter and St Paul, to whom Exeter Cathedral is dedicated. Oldham's family arms display owls, which it is assumed were chosen as a pun on the first syllable of his surname, and red roses, indicative of his Lancastrian ancestral origins.