about 300 of whom are in the sixth form. The majority of pupils, approximately two thirds, enter at age 11 in the first form, a few (3-5 pupils) enter in the second form at the age of 12, with the remainder entering at 13 in the third form. Admissions are based on an entrance examination set by the school, and an interview. The school partakes in a number of sporting activities, and has enjoyed some success, including finishing within the top two in the Daily Mail Cup twice. The school maintains a grammar school ethos, and as such runs a number of outreach programmes for students from local maintained schools, for which it won the Independent School Award 2010 for Outstanding Community/ Public Benefit Initiative. The Headmaster is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. History The founding of the school dates to 1509 and the death of Robert Beckingham, a wealthy grocer, a member of the Worshipful Company of Grocers and a Freeman of the City of London. In his will he requested that the parishioners of St Olave's Church, Southwark, should obtain a licence to endow a chantry priest to say masses for his soul. If they failed to do this within two years of his death, his executors had discretion either to use the property to 'make a free scole at the Towne of Guldford' or to put the income to some other good charitable use. The licence was not obtained within the required time, and so in 1512, Beckingham's executors formally conveyed the lands in the bequest to a body of trustees consisting of the Mayor of Guildford and four 'sad and discrete men' who had formerly been mayors. With the rents, they were to provide a free grammar school in Guildford with a 'sufficient schoolmaster', to teach thirty "of the poorest-men's sons" to read and write English and cast accounts perfectly, so that they would be fit to become apprentices. The school was built in 1520 in Castle Ditch (now Castle Street) with financial assistance from Guildford municipal corporation. Over the coming years the school ran into financial difficulty and so "The Mayor and Approved Men" of Guildford petitioned Edward VI to grant them further endowments for maintenance. One of the King's closest advisers, William Parr, had a particular affection for the town, having himself spent a large amount of time at the King's