Grantham College


Grantham College is a further education and Sixth Form college in Grantham, Lincolnshire, England.

History

Grantham College was previously known as the Grantham College for Further Education.
In the early 1970s there were advanced proposals by Kesteven County Council to abolish the eleven-plus selection system in the Grantham area and use Grantham College as the only sixth form in the town. Mary Large, the Chairman of the Kesteven Education Committee, said that more young people preferred to go to college rather than stay in a school sixth form because of the 'more adult atmosphere'. In 1973 the Education Secretary, Margaret Thatcher, had to approve the plan, which involved converting her former school, Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School, into a mixed comprehensive. It was not approved.
In April 1974 control of the college passed from Kesteven to Lincolnshire County Council in Lincoln. Later, in 1979, it became Grantham College of Further Education. In the early 1990s control passed to the Further Education Funding Council for England, then to the East Midlands Learning and Skills Council based at Leicester. Also in the early 1990s the college name was shortened to Grantham College, and became an Associate College of Nottingham Trent University. It is now an Associate College of the University of Bedfordshire, and Bishop Grosseteste University College, and through these it offers HND, HNC, and Foundation degree courses.
The college was never officially a fully developed sixth form college, although used for that purpose; in 2008 a purpose-built sixth form college opened in Grantham at the Walton Girls High School.
From September 2010 the College provided for equestrian courses at The Paddocks Equestrian Centre at Hough-on-the-Hill, a village to the north of Grantham.

Structure

Grantham College's Elsham House building was built by Richard Hornsby & Sons in the 1860s. The college has 77 residential places in Sedgwick Hall and Sedgwick Mews halls of residence. A satellite to Grantham College is Sleaford College, in the nearby town of Sleaford.
Grantham College is accessed via the A1 and East Coast Main Line, and the A52 from the east. However, most college usage is by those who live in close proximity. Similar education is available further north from Grantham, at Lincoln College's sites in Lincoln and Newark-on-Trent, and to east at Boston College in Boston. The other nearby Lincolnshire towns of Spalding and Bourne do not have FE colleges.

Notable alumni