Knights Templar School

Knights Templar School is a co-educational secondary school with academy status located in the market town of Baldock in North Hertfordshire, England. In a February 2006 Ofsted report, the school was described as "outstanding", one of only eight secondary schools in Hertfordshire to be so recognised.  It retained its "outstanding" status following a further Ofsted inspection in February 2009. The Knights Templar School gained academy status on 1 April 2011. Following an Ofsted inspection in October 2012 the school was categorised as "good" against a newer, far more demanding Inspection framework.

In September 2014 the school celebrated its 75th anniversary.

-http://www.ktemplar.herts.sch.uk/

## History:

The school claims no connection with the Masonic order of Knights Templar or with *The Da Vinci Code* – rather, it is named after the chivalrous medieval order of the Knights Templar, who founded Baldock and built the original 12th-century parish church of St. Mary the Virgin in the town. The motto of the Knights Templar School is "Courage and Courtesy".

The school opened the day after the start of the Second World War in 1939 as the Baldock County Council School and within a week of opening had welcomed evacuee children from Stratford in London; in 1944 a photographer from the Ministry of Information took a series of pictures of students at the school to show the positive way that a typical country school was adjusting to life during wartime. These images showed students having medical examinations, taking part in sports and domestic science lessons, cooking over open fires and cultivating the school's playing field to grow food.

By 1949 the school was known as Baldock Secondary Modern School, at which time His Majesty's Inspector for Schools (HMI) found it to be flourishing under the 'dynamic personality' of the Headmaster, Mr Frank Hancock MBE, who had created a 'very happy and active school' with overseas trips, school camps, Sports Days and strong links with the local community. However, the inspectors found the syllabuses to be too ambitious with the school moving forward too quickly, with teaching staff confused by arrangements which were complicated and difficult to manage.

Finally, the school was renamed *The Knights Templar School* by Vivian Crellin, the then headmaster of the school and a scholar of Baldock's medieval history.

Since that time the school has been greatly extended with several new buildings and ever increasing pupil numbers, leading to oversubscription every year. As of September 2013 there are 1350 pupils, with 103 teachers and 60 support staff.

In September 2013 the school opened a new purpose-built Sixth Form block with specialist classrooms, tutor meeting rooms and computer suites, and a new Science Centre was opened in 2016 by Lord Robert Winston. As a former specialist school in sport the Knights Templar School also has a million-pound sports centre with fitness suite and a floodlit all-weather sports pitch.

## Houses:

The school Houses are Crellin, Hancock, Hine, Pembroke, Bennett, Knights and Templar, named after former Headmasters of the school (Hancock and Crellin); local educationists (George N. Bennett, who taught at the Pond Lane (Council) School in Baldock for over 40 years) and Alderman Neville Hine who for many years was Chairman of Managers of Baldock County Council School and worked for the building of the Knights Templar School; 'Strongbow', the Earl of Pembroke (the school is built on land owned by the Earl in the medieval period), and the Knights Templar who built the parish church St. Mary the Virgin c.1125.

## Music at the School:

The school has a strong musical tradition, with about a third of all pupils taking extra tuition in an instrument or voice. The Big Band and Senior Chamber Choir perform locally and the school organizes a music tour bi-annually, geared mainly towards these two groups (though anyone is welcome). Recent tour locations include Budapest in Hungary during July 2006 and Liguria in Italy in July 2008. A former pupil, Frances Balmer, won the 2004 BBC Proms Young Composers' Competition.

Recent Sixth Former and Royal College of Music Junior Department student Ben Goldscheider plays the french horn with the National Youth Orchestra and in 2013 was the joint winner of the Toddington Music Society Young Musician of the Year Competition.  In 2014 he won The Marlowe Young Musician Of The Year Competition, and in May 2016 he won the Brass Final in the BBC Young Musician competition, going on to the Semi Finals and then the Finals.  From October 2016 he began four years music study at the Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin.