page_title: Wakefield
section_title: Education
hierarchical_section_title: Wakefield / Education
caption_attribution_description: English: Elizabethan Hall, Brook Street, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. Built in the 1590s as Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, in 1855 it was taken over by the Greencoats School, and in the 1890s became the Cathedral Boys' School. Since 1981 it has been a part of the Museum Service.
context_page_description: Wakefield is a cathedral city in the Wakefield District of West Yorkshire, England, on the River Calder and the eastern edge of the Pennines, which had a population of 99,251 at the 2011 census.
  The Battle of Wakefield took place in the Wars of the Roses and it was a Royalist stronghold in the Civil War. Wakefield became an important market town and centre for wool, exploiting its position on the navigable River Calder to become an inland port.
  In the 18th century, Wakefield traded in corn, coal mining and textiles and in 1888 its parish church acquired cathedral status. It became the county town of the West Riding of Yorkshire and was the seat of the West Riding County Council from 1889 until 1974, when the county and council were abolished, and of the West Yorkshire Metropolitan County Council from 1974 until its dissolution in 1986.
context_section_description: Wakefield's oldest surviving school is Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, a boys-only school established in 1591 by Queen Elizabeth I by Royal Charter.
  The original building in Brook Street is now the 'Elizabethan Gallery'. QEGS moved to Northgate in 1854.
  The school was administered by the Governors of Wakefield Charities who opened Wakefield Girls High School WGHS on Wentworth Street in 1878. These two schools today are independent schools. National schools were opened by the Church of England including St Mary's in the 1840s and St John's in 1861. The original St Austin's Catholic School opened about 1838. A Methodist School was opened in Thornhill Street in 1846. Pinders Primary School, originally Eastmoor School is the only school opened as a result of the Education Act 1870 which remains open today.
  Wakefield College has its origins in the School of Art and Craft of 1868 and today is the major provider of 6th form and further education in the area, with around 3,000 full-time and 10,000 part-time students, and campuses in the city and surrounding towns. In 2007 Wakefield City Council and Wakefield College announced plans to establish a University Centre of Wakefield but a bid for funding failed in 2009. Other schools with sixth forms include: QEGS, Wakefield Girls High School, and Cathedral High School, which is now a Performing Arts College for ages 11 to 18.
caption: The original Queen Elizabeth Grammar School on Brook Street
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