Sir Gilbert Claughton School
Sir Gilbert Claughton School was a secondary school located on Blowers Green Road in Dudley, England, in the Queen’s Cross area of the town. It opened in 1904 and closed in 1990.
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History
Grammar school
It opened in 1904 as the Dudley Upper Standard School, but after three years it became the Higher Elementary School. Another name change came in 1929, when it became the Dudley Intermediate School. In December 1957, it adopted the Gilbert Claughton title as the Sir Gilbert Claughton Grammar School.
A new classroom block was added in the late 1950s, mostly for the teaching of Science and other practical subjects.
Comprehensive school
Its status changed to comprehensive in 1975 and falling numbers on the school roll saw it close in 1990.
However, the school’s youngest two year groups were transferred to Holly Hall School and the new Castle High School (formed by a merger of The Dudley School and The Blue Coat School) in September 1989, leaving only the Fifth Year pupils at Sir Gilbert Claughton (Year Eleven came into force the following term). The school closed completely in July 1990 when the final year of pupils completed their GCSE studies.
The school traditionally provided education for pupils mostly within the 11 to 18 age group, and at one stage the school included a unit for hearing impaired pupils. In its final 18 years, however, the school only educated pupils within the 12 to 16 age group, and its closure coincided with the end of the local authority’s policy of pupils spending four years at secondary school instead of the traditional five years.
The sixth form had already closed, meaning that school leavers wishing to continue in education mostly went to the sixth form at The Dudley School or to Dudley College.
Current use
It was then turned into offices by Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council.