Kesteven and Sleaford High School Selective Academy, commonly known as Kesteven and Sleaford High School (KSHS), is a selective school with academy status in Sleaford, an English market town in Lincolnshire. It caters for girls aged between eleven and sixteen in Years 7 to 11, and girls and boys aged sixteen to eighteen in its coeducational Sixth Form.
From the 1890s, the lack of secondary schooling for girls in Sleaford became a growing problem, but the county council lacked the funds to expand the boys' grammar school to take on girls. In 1902, a group of businessmen and gentlemen from Sleaford formed a private company to run Sleaford and Kesteven High School for Girls based on Southgate. A private school, it catered for boys under 8 and girls of all ages, including boarders, and had a preparatory department for the younger pupils; girls in the district could sit examinations to obtain a limited number of local authority scholarships which paid their fees.
In 1919, Kesteven County Council took over the school (renaming it Kesteven and Sleaford High School). It continued to charge pupils for their schooling until the passage of the Education Act 1944, when KSHS became a state grammar school and fees were abolished; the preparatory school was wound down as KSHS shifted to cater for girls over 11 only. A modern building complex was completed in three phases between 1957 and 1968 and the school acquired additional playing fields. Plans to comprehensivise Sleaford's schools came to nothing in the 1970s, after which KSHS joined Sleaford Joint Sixth Form (SJSF) in 1983 with the town's other secondary schools. KSHS completed another major building programme in 1996, became a visual arts specialist college in 2003 and opened another building in 2006. It pulled out of SJSF in 2010 and converted to an academy in 2011, before being taken over in 2015 by the Robert Carre Multi-Academy Trust, which also managed Carre's Grammar School. It rejoined the joint sixth form in 2016. In 2025, the RCT ceased to exist and both grammar schools were taken over by the Community Inclusive Trust.
Admission to the lower school is through the eleven-plus examination (for Year 7) or the cognitive ability test (for Years 8 to 11); entry to the Sixth Form is not based on testing, though there are minimum qualification requirements. There were 763 pupils on roll in 2024. Teaching follows the National Curriculum and pupils generally sit examinations for General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) qualifications in Year Eleven (aged 15–16). They have a choice of three or four A-levels in the Sixth Form, which is part of the Sleaford Joint Sixth Form consortium with Carre's Grammar School and St George's Academy. In 2023, the school received a "well above average" Progress 8 score; 90% of pupils achieved English and mathematics GCSEs at grade 5 or above, which was far higher than the national figure. The average A-Level grade in 2023 was a B, slightly above the national figure; much higher proportions of A-Level leavers go on to higher education and to Russell Group universities than the national average, though the government's progression score for KSHS's Sixth Form leavers assesses their rate of progression as "average" relative to pupils' prior attainment. An Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) inspection in 2017 graded KSHS "good" overall.
History Background In the late 19th century, Carre's Grammar School was Sleaford's only secondary school; it admitted boys only. From 1893, Kesteven County Council's Technical Instruction Committee offered annual junior scholarships which paid the school fees for pupils who passed the scholarship examination, but because of the lack of other schools for girls, they were only tenable for girls at one institution in Lincoln, 18 miles away. As the Sleaford Gazette reported, there was no school "supplying a good, high-class education for the daughters and young children of middle-class and well-to-do residents in Sleaford and neighbourhood".
In the late 1890s, the county council wanted to expand Sleaford's secondary education provision. When the governors of Carre's Grammar School applied to the Technical Instruction Committee for a grant towards a new school building, the council wished to make the grant conditional on the school accepting girls. The governors suggested creating a separate girls' high school, but discussions turned to creating a combined high school for boys and girls. By 1899, plans had been approved by the county council and costed at £4,000, of which the council offered to provide £1,500. The Sleaford Tradesmen's Association supported the scheme and began fundraising. By September 1909, they had raised £540 and the school governors had raised a further £650, but £1,100 remained to be found. Aside from a commitment from Henry Chaplin to contribute £50 towards the cost, the situation had not changed by the end of the year. In 1900, a local newspaper reported that "no further action had been taken towards the construction of High Schools at Sleaford owing to the lack of funds, about £1,000 more being required."
1901–02: Origins The problem was solved in 1901, when a syndicate of local gentlemen and businessmen launched a venture to establish a school for girls on a private basis. In November 1901, E. H. Godson purchased the architect Charles Kirk's house on Southgate (a road in Sleaford) along with five cottages and stabling for £2,150; Godson was acting on behalf of the syndicate, "who propose[d] to convert it into a High School for girls". A company, The Sleaford and Kesteven High School for Girls Ltd, was incorporated on 12 December 1901.Copy of a Certificate of Incorporation for The Sleaford and Kesteven High School for Girls Ltd (no. 72143), dated 12 December 1901. Kept in The National Archives, reference number ED 35/1539. Its board of directors was chaired by W. V. R. Fane. By January 1902, the directors had issued 2,500 shares at £1 each and proceeded to allotment. Margaret Lewer, from Lincoln High School, was appointed headmistress and the school scheduled its opening for after Easter. Shortly before the school opened, the board of directors had asked the county council for grant in aid towards equipping and maintaining the school buildings, but the Board of Education would not sanction it because the school was for-profit. The school opened on 6 May 1902 and had 23 girls in attendance on its first day, taught by Lewer and two members of staff; there were five boarders.
1902–19: Private school The school was arranged into three forms: the youngest (kindergarten) form included under 8s; the middle form was for juniors, aged 8 to 12; and the eldest housed the seniors, aged over 12. Boys under the age of 8 could attend. Most students were fee-paying. The amount depended on their form; in 1905, the parents of a child in kindergarten paid £1 5s a term, while the termly fees for juniors were £2 12s and for seniors £3 3s. These fees covered the provision of a "main course", while parents would pay additional fees towards stationery and meals, and could opt at further cost for their children to partake in games and "extra" courses. When the school opened, the Technical Instruction Committee agreed to add the school to the list of places where the county's Minor Scholarships were tenable. These enabled girls to attend without paying fees, but there were relatively few and girls qualified by sitting the eleven-plus examination; the number of free places changed depending on the number of fee-payers.
The school occupied Kirk's house on Southgate and used the garden for sports. The headmistress, her assistants and boarders also lived in the building. By 1904, a building with additional classrooms had been added at the end of the house's garden and the house was extended in c. 1904. In 1905, there were 93 pupils on roll, 23 of them boarders and 3 of them boys.Completed form entitled "Recognition of a School for Purposes of s. 3(3) and s. 4 of Teachers' Registration Regulations" (form 879), filled in for the Girls High School, Southgate, Sleaford, dated 13 March 1905. Preserved at The National Archives, Kew (reference no. ED 35/1539). In 1909, the company secretary asked the Board of Education about the school's eligibility for grants under the Regulations for Secondary Schools; the Board advised that the school would be eligible if the company were wound down and converted into an Educational Trust under a scheme made by the Board of Education. The Board would regard the paid-up share capital of £2,250 as debentures, which could be redeemed within 30 years.Letter from J. W. MacKail at the Board of Education to E. H. Godson at Sleaford and Kesteven High School for Girls Ltd, dated 2 October 1909, internal reference S.B.2587/09. Preserved in The National Archives, Kew (reference no. ED 35/1539). Four years later, the county council inquired about having the school registered as a Pupil Teacher Centre, but in 1914 the Board would not allow this as the school was still being run for profit.Letter from Hudson Donaldson, Secretary of the Education Committee, Kesteven County Council, to the Secretary, Board of Education, dated 1 December 1913. Stamped internal reference S.B.9212. Preserved in The National Archives, Kew (reference no. ED 35/1539).Letter from Edmund Phipps, Board of Education, to Hudson Donaldson, Secretary to the Education Committee, Kesteven County Council, dated 17 January 1914 and marked with the internal reference S.B.9212. Preserved in The National Archives, Kew (reference no. ED 35/1539).
1919–44: Conversion to state school and new buildings The Education Act 1918 made the provision of secondary education compulsory. To meet these requirements, the county council drew up a scheme for providing secondary education across its jurisdiction in August 1918 and decided to take over the running of the school and purchase its premises.Letter from Hudson Donaldson, Secretary to the Education Committee of Kesteven County Council, to the Secretary, Board of Education, dated 23 November 1918. Stamped with the internal reference S.B. 5073. Preserved in The National Archives, Kew (reference no. ED 35/1539). Negotiations progressed through the autumn, and the company was voluntarily wound up in December 1918.The London Gazette. 24 December 1918 (issue 31081), p. 15082. The takeover was completed on 14 January 1919, and it was around this time that the name changed to Kesteven and Sleaford High School.The exact date is given in The school remained fee-paying (with the exception of scholarship students), still accepted boarders and retained its preparatory school for young children (including boys).
In 1920, wooden huts were added on a stretch of grassland to provide more classrooms and an assembly hall. Further extensions were completed in 1924 and 1927, and another wooden building was added in c. 1930. Plans to completely rebuild the school were drawn up in the early 1930s, but were never enacted; more temporary buildings were added in 1937.
1944–70: Postwar expansion and abolition of fees