Poole Grammar School (commonly abbreviated to PGS) is a selective, all‐boys grammar school and academy in the coastal town of Poole in Dorset, on the south coast of England. It is a member of the South West Academic Trust (SWAT). The school was a mathematics and computing school, with an additional specialism, cognition, added in 2006. It is situated in the north of Poole, on the A349 (known locally as Gravel Hill), in a campus built in 1966, with various additions made since. Admissions The school has 1,200 male students from the surrounding area aged 11 to 18. To gain acceptance to the school, pupils must sit and pass the Eleven-plus exams, testing mathematics, English, and verbal reasoning. Excellence in the fields of sport or arts is not grounds for special admission; however, many of its pupils compete at county, national and international level, or go on to study at film schools, conservatories and art houses. History An early Poole Grammar School was built in 1628 by Thomas Robarts, Mayor of Poole. This school taught “Latin grammar and kindred subjects” and saw moderate success in the 18th century, before a decline against “competition from nonconformist academies and the general economic decline of the town,” and eventual closure in 1835. In 1902 the Board of Education approved funding for the construction of Poole Technical and Commercial School, offering “an education of a practical character for boys and girls of twelve years of age and upwards.” On 19 September 1904, following legal disputes between Poole Borough Council, Dorset County Council, and the Board of Education, on the interpretation of the Education Act 1902, the establishment of Poole Secondary School was reported by the Poole, Parkstone, and East Dorset Herald. Within its first two months of existence, Poole Secondary School was granted two acres of land at Seldown by Lord Wimborne. In 1907 the school's original site was built on this land for £6,500, to mixed reaction with some councillors regarding it as “squat”, but the Poole, Parkstone, and East Dorset Herald describing it as “one of the finest buildings in the town.” At this time, too, the first headmaster, A. J. Mockridge, was appointed, and around this time the current school colours were adopted. In 1909 a pupil of the school, Tim Aitken, participated in the first of Baden Powell's Scout camps on Brownsea Island. “The immediate post war years also saw