Saltwells Secondary School

This article details a number of defunct schools that were once located in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. For details of currently operating schools in the area, please see: List of schools in Dudley.

Dudley Boys Grammar School was a highly regarded [2] selective higher education school for boys aged from 11 to 18 years. Founded in 1562, it was located in Dudley, Worcestershire, and opened in July 1898 on its final site in St James's Road. 12 years later Dudley Girls High School opened in nearby buildings in Priory Road. The pupils of the two single-sex schools regularly held drama productions together, and a number of teachers taught at both establishments and the pupils of the two schools mixed on occasions for sixth form Physics lessons.

In 1966, plans were unveiled for the grammar and high schools to merge and form a mixed comprehensive school, but these took almost a decade to become reality. In September 1972, the age range had changed from 11-18 to 12-18 as part of a re-organisation by Dudley council which saw the entry age for secondary school increased in the towns of Dudley, Sedgley, Coseley and Brierley Hill. Dudley Grammar School closed in July 1975 after 413 years, when it merged with the Girls High School to form The Dudley School with effect from September 1975. The merger also included the smaller, less well known Park Secondary School which was located near the town's Grange Park, the buildings of which were briefly used as an annex to the new school until 1977.

After more than a century the buildings of Dudley Grammar School are still in existence; they now house Castle High School, which was formed in September 1989 on the merger of The Dudley School and The Blue Coat School. The grammar school buildings were expanded between 1990 and 1995 as the old High School building was gradually emptied and eventually demolished at the start of 1996. However, the grammar school swimming pool was closed and demolished in 1990 to make way for part of the expansion. The pool had opened in 1951 as a memorial to the former grammar school pupils who had died in the First World War and Second World War. Few schools in Dudley LEA have had a sixth form since July 1990, when the sixth form facilities at Castle High in Dudley town and High Arcal and Ellowes Hall in neighbouring Sedgley were axed. The sixth form facilities at Summerhill and Crestwood Schools in Kingswinford were closed a year later. There have also been no grammar schools since July 1975. However the much-praised King Edward VI College, Stourbridge produces excellent results worthy of a grammar school (as do most sixth form colleges) to allow pupils to reach their full potential at 18. Former pupils of the school were known as Old Dudleians. The Old Dudleians ran a website for a number of years, organised by Michael Taylor, then in 2005 'The Dudleians' was established as an entity for former students of Dudley Grammar School and Dudley Girls High School with the organisation of the first official joint reunion for 30 years.

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