Praesis ut Prosis is our most famous phrase at LRGS: Lead in order to serve. So our Sixth Form works to develop independent thinkers with a social conscience. Our stated purpose is to Make a positive impact locally and globally by creating the leaders of tomorrow. 

Our historic mission is to transform young people’s lives: from any street to anywhere. We spring from deepest roots: the best of the old and the new. The strategic aim is Academic and all-round excellence as the school of choice. 

Who cares wins, one legendary teacher used to say – and we do. Pastoral care is the foundation of all our work. Who to turn to is the poster on every classroom wall. And we endlessly teach Do what’s right not what’s popular, and our ethos: No bystanders. 

We don't forget that to a parent a school is One child wide, one child high. The school must be a rainforest not a plantation, with a thousand niches so that each one can find their place to grow. 

Our founder left another set of words. Back in 1472 John Gardyner decreed that the school should forever read Psalm 130. That psalm is headed A song of ascents. It's a great mindset for the school: Hope, look upwards, grow! 

The service brings us back to Lancaster Priory and roots us at the centre of our city. Performance is powerful, and the service is a fabulous showcase for some amazingly impressive and talented pupils! And the Carol Service is a moment to pause and celebrate together in prayer and praise and song.

Thank you to the Priory Church for hosting us (as they have for several hundred years!) – and to our fabulous choir, musicians and readers.  Best wishes for Christmas and the New Year to the whole extended community of Lancaster Royal Grammar School - and to Old Lancastrians across the country and the world!

From the Middle Ages until 1851, the free schole was in the Priory churchyard, just outside the Castle's walls.  Next time you have a few minutes' wait for a train at Lancaster station, you should walk up to the little cobbled street of Hillside to find the plaque that marks the site. 

Archaeologists (including some of our pupils) excavated the original schoolhouse site a few years ago. 

They commented on its rich and varied history:  “The area is of interest for three reasons: (1) it lies within the Roman forts; (2) it was partly on the site of a Free School, which later became Lancaster Royal Grammar School, and (3) it was partly the site of a ‘malefactors’ (i.e. criminals etc.) burial place c. 1700-1818, in unconsecrated ground.”

They found Roman remains, but fortunately not the malefactors’ graves.  They traced the schoolhouse walls and flagstones.  They found fragments of inkwells and writing slates, and marbles – perhaps lost by schoolboys in the hurried end to a rowdy game between lessons one far-off day. 

The school building was rebuilt in 1682, with a date stone that was later moved to the wall of the current Sixth Form centre in Old School House. 

The history of Lancaster Royal Grammar School contains the history of our city.  But schools create the future, one generation at a time.   Brilliantly, our classrooms today are a picture of the city’s future too!

We also want students to gain knowledge and skills that will help them to achieve future career success. They need to communicate, work in teams, solve problems, make decisions, and understand employers’ expectations. 

The Praesis ut Prosis Award brings those two linked aims together. The PuP Award (as it is affectionately known) forms a distinctive strand of our Sixth Form DNA. Its name comes from our school motto which emphasises student responsibility: Lead in order to serve. 

Every Sixth Former works towards their PuP Award – Gold, Silver or Bronze. This is about values and belonging; it is about ambition and growth. The Awards encourage and reward commitment in four areas: 

• Community Volunteering: Unpaid work which benefits society, for example in charity shops, schools, hospitals or nursing homes
• In-school Service: Often prefect roles, charity fundraising, InspirUs, peer mentoring, contributions to clubs, sport, music, drama or the CCF
• Careers and Employability Workshops: Employer visits or talks, university summer schools and taster days, sessions with our independent careers adviser
• Work Experience:  Typically a work placement or a summer course 

Best wishes to all our Sixth Formers embarking on their PuP Awards right now!

I received this wonderful letter from Mrs Joy Saunders (1934-2022) shortly before her final visit to the school: 

Dear Dr Pyle,

Please excuse my writing to you at the start of a busy term. I am the younger daughter of a former headmaster R.R. Timberlake, and spent most of my youth living in School House, of which I have many memories. I was four when we moved there and only left in 1958 to get married. I am coming to stay nearby during half term and wondered if there were any chance of my being able to revisit School House after all these years.

We were there during the war, and I spent many nights in the cellar during the bombing raids. These I enjoyed immensely, as we were given biscuits and drinks and I could read my book. There was an army barracks in town, and one icy day some of the tanks came down the hill, failed to make the turn down East Road and crashed into the building under the San. No-one was hurt, but both the tank and the building ended up in a poor state.

I was off school with TB for two years and rattled around the school, behaving pretty badly I think. I cantered my pony over the cricket pitch, persuaded some of the smaller boys to stay off school to spend the morning climbing trees with me and hid all the staff mark books in the rhubarb patch. I think these misdemeanours caused considerable annoyance.

I moved to the top floor and had the butler’s old room. Also on the top floor were two housemasters and the school cook – an Austrian Jewish refugee called Lotte, a wonderful cook, who taught me German.

The rest of the school was my playground. I used the school library, the dark room where I had fun printing photos, and the art room. I played duets with the art master, Bill Rickaby, and learned to play vicious table tennis from a housemaster, Tudor Davies. I wonder if the stuffed animal heads are still in the entrance to the new building. I doubt it. We were once preparing some musical event and went under the stage, only to discover a slightly shabby stuffed crocodile.

Further up the hill were the cemetery (where my pony was found eating the flowers off the graves), the workhouse, the prison and what was then called the ‘lunatic asylum’. Occasionally an inmate of these last three institutions took shelter overnight in our garage. My mother was extraordinarily kind and gentle with these benighted souls.

Anyway, I would simply love to revisit my old haunts, although I am aware that it might not be convenient. Perhaps you could let me know. 

Yours sincerely

Joy (Timberlake) Saunders

I always share these tips. Pupils normally just listen, but one boy a few years ago earnestly wrote them in his little notebook as he sat in that first assembly. He went on to do brilliantly, so I know they work! 

1. Get involved

In the classroom and beyond – in sport, music, drama, clubs and societies of every kind. It’s a rainforest not a plantation! There’s a niche for everyone to thrive. 

2. Do what’s right, not what’s popular

… even when no-one is watching!  Stick closely to those values that you have learnt at home and at your previous school.  Don’t be a bystander, do the right thing. 

3. Be a good friend

And if you want to make a friend, be a friend. It might take a little while to get to know everyone, but friendships are a brilliant part of school life. 

4. Read a lot!

LRGS loves reading. Reading will improve your vocabulary, your writing, and your thinking. It will make you an even more interesting person. Find things that are fascinating and fun! 

5. Build good habits for learning

Year 7 is all about foundations, so don’t worry if you're not sure about everything at first. Rome wasn’t built in a day – although the cement mixers were whirring from dawn till dusk! We are here to support you. Go for it!

Adaptive teaching

High quality teaching for every pupil in every classroom – the focus of our Teaching & Learning, SEND and Pupil Premium strategies and training. 

To a parent, a school is one child wide and one child high. Adaptive teaching means using our understanding of each class and individual – their differences and strengths – to help every pupil make progress and find joy in learning. What does this mean in Maths? In PE? In Geography? Not a new conversation, but a fascinating central focus. 

Artificial Intelligence

Provide clear guidance for staff and students on the use of AI in our digital strategy to enhance learning, support teaching and develop administrative processes. 

There are practical questions: Are students and their data safe? What homework should we set? Should we use AI to write reports? Beneath these are much broader questions. In this new digital environment, what work is meaningful? How can we deepen understanding? How will we develop critical and creative citizens? 

School Rebuilding Programme

Do all we can to secure the best possible facilities for current and future pupils with sustainability as our focus as we prepare for this generational opportunity. 

The prospect of major site investment is extremely exciting. New and refurbished buildings over the next few years should provide amazing environments for pupils and staff, with additional benefits including energy efficiency and sustainability. The SRP team have carried out a great deal of background work, but plenty of decisions lie ahead! 

Many former Year 7s will have happy memories of Glenridding, Pooley Bridge and Halton – whatever the weather! 

Outdoor education is every child’s right and an essential part of their LRGS experience.  It is about learning skills and gaining confidence.  Most of all, it is about deepening connection – to their environment and local area, and especially to one another. 

It is fabulous to see so many other residential trips coming up as well.  These include the German exchange, Year 8 Normandy experience, National rowing regatta, Silver and Gold DofE expeditions, CCF summer camps, Oxbridge visits, Lake District mountain biking, and the Norway canoe expedition.  (Which ones have I missed?!)

Education takes place outside the classroom, and beyond the reach of mobile phones and AI chatbots too.  Long may it continue! 

Our great purpose at Lancaster Royal Grammar School is to make a positive impact locally and globally, by creating the leaders of tomorrow.  And everyone at LRGS knows our school motto, that leadership means service:  Praesis ut Prosis. 

At the handover, we thank the outgoing leadership team for their brilliant example to younger pupils, and for the many essential but unthanked tasks they have fulfilled!  

It is also a moment for the Lower Sixth to set out their ambitions for the year ahead. 

We discovered a Prefect’s Oath from 1938 in our archives some years ago.  We now enjoy making the new Head Student team read that promise in assembly: 

I hereby solemnly promise that as a Prefect of the Royal Grammar School Lancaster, I will faithfully fulfil all the Duties of my Office, and that I will by Precept, Example and such Just Correction as may be necessary further a Tradition of Good Fellowship & Good Conduct, setting Loyalty to the Common Benefit before Personal Inclination or Private Advantage. 

Thank you and good luck to all our prefects for 2025-26! 

The school is featured in the third episode (Modern boarding).  The section on state boarding and LRGS starts at 25 minutes:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00282gw 

We have three boarding houses, and 120 boarding places for boys aged 11 to 18 and Sixth Form girls.  The boarding community is at the heart of our school.  Many of our boarders live relatively locally, but it is also wonderful to educate and care for pupils from across the country, and from Hong Kong to the Isle of Man! 

These are just a few of the 788 replies to that question from our last parental questionnaire - with many thanks to our families for their partnership and for all their support!

My boys have loved the school and thrived.

The school is very inclusive and the number of clubs and activities that you can get involved in is amazing.

LRGS sets high standards and has a strong sense of community. My child has discovered like-minded people to develop and share his passions.

Great school, my daughter is so pleased she chose LRGS for 6th Form. Has made great friends, and enjoying her A-Levels! 

Our son has settled extremely well and loves coming to school. We feel that the teachers know him well and want the best for him. Expectations are high which makes our son strive to do well.

The quality of teaching and opportunities for personal growth in the classroom and through extra-curricular activities hugely outweigh the longer travel time from Preston to Lancaster. Don't let it put you off. It's definitely worth it!

It is a very good school especially for boarding.

I have the sense that nothing is too much trouble. Staff go above and beyond for pupils.

My boys have enjoyed new subjects and learnt a lot of new skills. There are a lot of opportunities to play sports, and my boys feel included and part of the school.

Well led, best in the north for boarding school.

The teachers are great and the school has become more inclusive and nurturing over the years.

Teachers and staff are caring and supportive.

My daughter joined the school in Year 12 and she is thriving both academically and socially 😊

My son has overall very much enjoyed his time at LRGS, he has loved the Latin and Greek and how well they were taught.

Fantastic school.

There's something at LRGS for every pupil and the pastoral care is excellent.  Pupils are given the space to grow into adults throughout the school. 

LRGS provides the best education you could wish for.   

It has been an accepting and inclusive environment for my neuro-diverse child. The learning support team have been excellent and very responsive to my son's changing needs.

Dr Pyle said at an open evening, ’The heart of the school is its pastoral care’ and I would agree.

It is a vibrant school which has traditional standards and encourages physical and mental well-being. Sports are a real strength and have enabled my son to develop skills and friends. Academic standards are high.

Sport is excellent and encouraged well.

The website makes it sound excellent, but it is even better than it sounds. Excellent pastoral care, lots of opportunities and every chance for your child to reach their full potential - academically, socially and in sport/music/drama.

My son loves it!

We are fortunate at LRGS to have many great supporters who help to do just that. 

Thank you to the Friends of LRGS, our brilliant parents’ association, who run dozens of social activities, fundraising events and our school shop.  Their recent grants range from harnesses for Climbing Club and wetsuits for the CCF, to display boards for the Art department. 

The Old Lancastrian Club is our energetic association of former pupils, from 18 to 108.  We are also hugely grateful to them for making things happen for our students – from careers advice to school events and Sixth Form projects. 

The Friends and OL Club have both also committed significant support for the Royal Grammar Schools Cricket festival which we will host this summer. 

Great people surround and support us.  Thank you for making things happen! 

That grant allows LRGS students (Year 10 upwards) to apply for up to £500 for a project of their choice – to achieve something extraordinary! There are three categories:  Praesis ut Prosis (leadership & service), Excellence, and Enrichment. 

We have received brilliant applications for these competitive awards. These are some of this year’s successful entries. They give a glimpse of our students’ energy and creativity! 

• Flying: Fund a flying lesson, with a long-term goal of becoming a pilot. This pupil took the attached photo of the Upper Site! 
• Astrophotography: Buy an astro-imaging mount to track the motion of the stars
• Curling: Support costs of training and competition in elite curling
• Robotics: Fund equipment to complete projects with a long-term goal of becoming a Robotics Engineer
• CAD Society: To set up this new club with a 3D resin printer more precise than our existing machines
• Powerboat: Gain an RYA Instructor qualification to develop skills gained in the CCF RN Section, and share expertise with other pupils
• Laptop: Develop stock management software for a business, develop coding, support A-level Computing, and enter an essay competition
• Swim England: Gain a Pool Plant Operating Qualification to help maintain two not-for-profit pools that support children, including some from areas of significant financial need

We will be excited to see next year’s applications! 

Their stories are fascinating and diverse. Some of them have enjoyed coming back to see their step! Actor Sean Gilder is shown here. 

Christopher Urswick features on the bottom step. He studied here in the 15^th century, probably as a boarder. 

He became a household name during the Wars of the Roses. Urswick’s CV (or LinkedIn profile, perhaps) included serving as chaplain to Lady Margaret Beaufort, who was mother of Henry VII, the first Tudor king;  and as Master of King’s Hall which became Trinity College, Cambridge.

He was also Dean of Windsor, Dean of York, Canon of St Paul’s Cathedral, Archdeacon of Oxford, Henry VII’s ambassador in Europe; and he arranged the first marriage of Catherine of Aragon. Today’s pupils might match all that, but Christopher Urswick will remain forever the only Old Lancastrian with a speaking part in one of Shakespeare’s plays! 

The top step of our staircase is left symbolically empty: “Your name here?” Great stories start right here. 

I told the Lower Sixth this story about Russian dolls. 

David Ogilvy founded the advertising agency which bears his name.  He used to send a nested set of dolls to his new executives, with a message tucked in its centre.  He explained: 

“When you are appointed to head an office in the Ogilvy & Mather chain, I send you one of these Russian dolls. Inside the smallest you will find this message: ‘If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs, but if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, Ogilvy & Mather will become a company of giants.’”

At LRGS, we regard our new students in a similar way. 

We are not looking for pupils who will be smaller.  Their job is not simply to fit inside our box.  Our ambition is more expansive! 

Instead, we need each student to bring energy, interests and ideas to expand our horizons.  Their perspectives make us bigger, and better. 

We are on the edge of our seats to see what our new pupils will create, design and lead - so that we will be a school of giants.  Welcome! 

The Northern Grammar Schools Alliance is a network of excellence for selective schools to share expertise and develop new opportunities for staff and pupils.

The NGSA is not a new school structure or change in the status of any of those schools. It is a collaborative network of schools that serve a wide geographical area, and includes maintained schools, single academies and schools in multi-academy trusts.

Its schools share a core ethos of academic excellence, pastoral care and rich extra-curricular opportunity for pupils. The NGSA will help them to build further on all these strengths.

It includes the following schools: Clitheroe Royal Grammar School, The Crossley Heath School, Ermysted’s Grammar School, Heckmondwike Grammar School, Lancaster Girls’ Grammar School, Lancaster Royal Grammar School, North Halifax Grammar School, Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School Penrith, Ripon Grammar School, Skipton Girls’ High School.

We are celebrating 550 years since our school's endowment by the Mayor of Lancaster in 1472. 

The school existed as long ago as 1235, and our first named boarder (“Adam de Preston”) dates from 1288. 

However, John Gardyner’s will in 1472 left the profits from his watermill by the River Lune to fund the school in perpetuity.  Today we would recognise him as a philanthropist and social entrepreneur. 

Gardyner set out three prohibitions.  The Schoolmaster must not “frequent alehouses,” “keep company with bad women” or play “unlawful & dishonest games”. 

He also gave three instructions.  The school must “educate boys in grammar, freely.”  Its timetable should run from 6am-8am, 10am-noon and from 2pm-6pm.  And the school should recite Psalm 130 (“De profundis”) each day. 

The mill and its proceeds have long since vanished, but Gardyner’s far-sighted dream of a free school for Lancaster goes from strength to strength. 

Tradition and transformation.  The best of the old and the new.  

It is amazing what energy and goodwill can conjure out of thin air! 

The first phase of around 2000 tests for staff, keyworkers’ children and boarders who stayed in school has been completed, and the operation is now scaling up for the next 3600. 

This will allow all our pupils to be tested before they return to lessons, with two further tests in the following days. The school will then move on to the joys of self-testing and registering tests at home. 

Along with the existing measures in place, and the change to masks in classrooms, the school can gain a further measure of reassurance from these tests. 

Testing times indeed. Thank you to the team!

Jack Mockett was the first of 110 former LRGS pupils to be killed in the Second World War. He was a submarine engineer on HMS Oxley, sent to patrol the coast of Norway on the day that war broke out. 

Another British submarine, HMS Triton, patrolled nearby.  On 10^th September 1939, HMS Triton spotted an unidentified vessel which ignored all warning flares.  The captain gave the order to fire. 

HMS Oxley was the unidentified submarine.  It had drifted from position for reasons that will never be known. 

Jack Mockett died with 52 other men as HMS Oxley sank.  His family were not told that his submarine was sunk by torpedoes fired in error in the fog of war.

There are another 109 stories of bravery and loss from our former pupils. 

But let’s not finish there.  War eventually ended, and the school’s then Headmaster spoke at Speech Day in October 1945.  After every crisis, he reminds us, there will be a springtime: 

“It was a strange feeling to come back in September at the beginning of this new School year, the annual Springtime of every Schoolmaster’s and every Schoolboy’s life.  To consider planning for the future instead of for the next day was a most unusual experience.”

Spring will come again.  Hold that hope!   

We will remember them.

For the school – the end of weeks of planning.  For pupils and parents, the end of five long months at home. 

But it was actually a start line, of course.  A new school year sets everything in motion – the start of many possibilities and adventures! 

It has been fabulous to have pupils back this week; boarding houses busy; all year groups in by Monday. 

There may be problems, and we will solve them as we go.  There will be unforeseen events, which we will deal with one by one. 

There is a Latin phrase, Solvitur ambulando, which means: “It is solved by walking.”

One step at a time, three miles an hour. Moving forwards together.

This isn’t a finish line. But it is the start of a particularly precious new term and year. 

Welcome back!

A group of staff, parents, governors and students was challenged recently to define that shared purpose for LRGS. “Martin Luther King didn’t have a mission statement,” said Kevin Roberts, hosting us: “He had a dream.”

“I can’t believe I’m writing this now,” one of his friends wrote in the book of memories for Reece, “and not in 80 years’ time.”

The first weekend of term looked like this. 

We often see the Lake District turn white, but we’re close to the coast and snow rarely settles in Lancaster. 

One hundred years later, however, “Extreeme Floodes” from the River Lune (Loyne) had ruined the mill. The Mayor was worried. 

Our first known boarder was a certain Adam de Preston, mentioned in a court case in 1292. Adam had been sent to “Thomas le Scholemaystre of Lancaster,” and boarded with the Schoolmaster. 

We have developed an increasingly explicit focus on well-being at LRGS. 

One governor said that a neighbour had asked him: “Is it expensive?” 

It has been lovely to host Year 6 transition afternoons recently – the end of primary school approaching, and the beginning of a new adventure! 

Fifty teachers gathered in Blackburn last week to watch a primary maths lesson in the hall of Lammack Primary School. We had travelled from across Lancashire, but the teacher – Mrs Zhang – had come much further, from Tianshin No. 1 Primary School, Shanghai. 

Our ancient motto is one statement of our values. You will lead – do so for the benefit of others. Lead in order to serve: Praesis ut prosis.