The Thomas Hardye School

The Thomas Hardye School is a secondary academy school in Dorchester, Dorset, England. It is part of the Dorchester Area Schools Partnership.
The school is named after Thomas Hardye of Melcombe Regis and later Frampton. Hardye was a property owner who endowed the Dorchester "free" school in 1579, ten years after its completion by the town. It is unknown how old the original school was, given that the 1569 building was constructed to replace an older, damaged school building. Hardye was an ancestor of novelist Thomas Hardy and Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Hardy His monument is on the south wall of St. Peter's Church. The Tudor grammar school offered free education to boys of the town and neighbourhood. The building was destroyed in a 1613 fire, but was rebuilt in a few years and later flourished under the Puritan regime of Revd. John White. An oak screen was installed into the reconstructed school, alleged to have been salvaged from a Spanish Galleon. The oak screen was later moved between buildings and structures and remained part of the school until 2021. It survived the doldrums of the 18th century, though at times having very few scholars, and struggled through the first half of the 19th century. The Charity Commission eventually closed it whilst it was rebuilt, reopening in 1883. It was known as Dorchester Grammar School until approximately 1952, when the name Hardye's School was adopted as a reminder of the 16th century founder and links to the Hardye family.
Though he had as a child attended Isaac Last's rival establishment in Durngate Street, the novelist Thomas Hardy laid one of the foundation stones for the school's new building on the out-of-town Fordington site in 1927. The land had previously belonged to the Duchy of Cornwall, and the new building was formally opened in 1928 by the Duke of Cornwall, the then Prince of Wales, and remained the 'Hardye's' site until 1992. The Memorial Gates, dedicated in 1957, escaped demolition and were moved to the new Thomas Hardye School. Dorchester Grammar School for Girls was opened in around 1930, and Dorchester Modern School some time after the Education Act 1944. These schools formed the basis of the Thomas Hardye School.
In 1980, Dorchester's secondary schools changed from the grammar school system (with three schools: separate boys’ and girls’ grammar schools and a mixed secondary modern) to comprehensive. Dorchester Grammar School for Girls combined with the female half of Dorchester Secondary Modern to form Castlefield School, based on the site of the Dorchester Secondary Modern School, while the boys of the Secondary Modern moved to the site of Hardye's School. The boys’ school had boarding facilities until 1982. The current school is a merger of the former Hardye's School (boys) and Castlefield School (girls) in 1990. The school moved to The Castlefield School site in 1992. The Hardye's School site was subsequently sold in 1995 and developed into housing.
On Friday 12 December 2008, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall visited the school to officially open the newly constructed library and sports hall.
On 1 August 2011, the Thomas Hardye School officially gained academy status under the UK Government scheme.
In the school year starting 2022, the current headteacher Nick Rutherford, has installed a plan to remove the House system and instead replace it with a Year group based system. Houses up until this point had been advertised using coloured ties, however this has adapted to the Year group system.
The reasons for this change include:
The school suffered a cyber attack on Sunday morning, 21 May 2023, affecting its servers and limiting use of the local network, associated materials and email. The attack was accompanied by a ransom demand. As of August 2023 the situation is unresolved and being investigated by the National Cyber Security Centre and the Police.
The school provides government-funded education for children from Year 9 to Year 11, and takes them through GCSE and BTEC courses. It also has an integrated sixth form which takes pupils through A-Levels and AVCEs.
The school has the largest integrated sixth form in the United Kingdom which shares teachers, resources and facilities with the 'lower school'.
From 2008 to 2015 it offered the International Baccalaureate (IB).
The school has a partnership with local land-based college Kingston Maurward, offering practical alternatives to traditional A-levels.
Ancient Greek Club
Badminton
Fitness
Homework Club
Percussion Ensemble
A-Level Spanish Club
Dance Club
Football
GCSE French Club
Girls Rugby
Lego Club
Monopoly Club
Music Tech Club
Netball
Rugby
THS Show Rehearsals
CCF
CCF DofE
Audition prep
The school currently has a CCF (Combined Cadet Force) that has been running for the last 100 years. The CCF has an Army contingent as well as an RAF section. They train regularly and compete on a national level. The Army contingent is cap-badged to the Royal Tank Regiment as of the third of July 2023. They were previously badged to the Rifles was formerly Devonshire and Dorset Regiment and prior to that the Wessex Regiment. Also attached is a Drum Corps that performs annually at the Remembrance day parade, and regularly at other events such as school music performances and many other external events.
The Sixth Form's Model United Nations club regularly attend BISMUN (Bath) and BGSMUN (Bristol), as well as hosting its own in the summer. It has also sent delegates to MUNs abroad.
The school has a Debating Society, which has represented the school in the National Finals of the Oxford Union Debating Competition.
In 2010, the school was awarded the UNESCO school status (one of just 54 in the UK) for the "global outlook of students" at the Hardye's. UNESCO aims to promote quality education as well as international perspectives in schools and such values as human rights, mutual respect and cultural diversity. The Thomas Hardye School has also been declared a 'World School' by the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO). Much of this recognition is thanks to a pupil who gained the title of UK Young Scientist of the Year.
After Sports Voice submitted an entry into the BBC scheme (which sees a UK school twinned with a former school of a London 2012 Olympic athlete), the Thomas Hardye School was twinned with The Doon School, in the northern Indian city of Dehradun. The all-boys private school is one of India's oldest education institutions and was the school of India's first individual Olympic gold medalist Abhinav Bindra. The schools communicate regularly and are represented by a member of staff and pupil who arrange projects to exchange culture and prepare for the London 2012 Summer Olympics.
Along with all the schools in Dorchester, Thomas Hardye has been part of the DASP Olympic Torch Relay in celebration of the Olympics.
The school is twinned/associated with:
The school has a theatre (refurbished in June 2022) and a library with over 30,000 books. The school also uses the neighbouring artificial pitch and pools of the local sports centre operated by the not-for-profit trust 1610.