a fee-paying school for most of its history, and many scholarships and bursaries were given to pupils whose parents' could not afford the fees, in accordance with John Hymers' will for the training of intelligence, regardless of social rank. In 1946 Hymers became a "direct grant" school, with many pupils being paid for by the local authority, in a similar system to today's academies. However, this scheme ended in 1971, and the school governors chose to become a fully independent school, rather than joining into the new comprehensive system, and re-established the bursaries system after the Government-funded Assisted Places scheme ended in 1997. From 1972, girls (initially just two) were admitted to the sixth form, and in 1989 the decision was made to become fully co-educational. With the opening of the Humber bridge in 1981, the school's catchment area increased to cover the south bank of the River Humber, resulting in the school's numbers extending to their current figure of just under one thousand pupils in the 1990s. Primary education The College has a Junior School which accepts pupils into Years 4, 5 and 6 via an entrance exam, or through the "Associate Schools" program. Hymers currently has two associate schools: Hessle Mount School and Froebel House School, both of which provide education from reception. There is a system of academic tracking with Associate Schools, so that pupils attending these schools do not need to take the entrance exam for entry to the Junior School. Usually, there are just over 200 pupils in all three years of the Junior School (228 in the 2008 ISI report). In 2003, construction of a new Junior School building was completed, to replace an older building that has since been demolished. All children are sorted into one of the following four houses at the beginning of Year 4: Brandesburton, Gore, Holderness, and Trinity. Secondary education There has been a steady development of buildings and facilities, including design and technology workshops, art studios, language resource rooms, and IT suites. In recent years additional land has been purchased, a theatre (opened by and named after Dame Judi Dench), a music centre, science laboratories, an all-weather sports pitch, and other sports facilities have been constructed. A swimming pool was added in 2005. The school library was closed in 2001, with the majority of books being redistributed to decentralised resource rooms. This was upon the advice of government