Change of name to give Cannock school an edge
One of the country's top schools is changing its name – to distance itself from the current rash of new academies. High-achieving Chase Academy in Cannock will now be called Chase Grammar School.
Its principal, Mark Ellse, says the change was sparked by confusion caused by the Government's agenda of converting schools to academies. He said: "Academic achievements at our school are some of the best in the county, with A-level results being among the best in the country.
"We are independent and offer a different kind of education to the increasing number of academies in Staffordshire."
A new sign will be ordered for the St John's Road campus, nine months after the current sign was installed as part of a refurbishment of the building.
The logo embedded in the new wrought-iron gates will also be changed. It embodies the initials CA, which will now become CGC.
Parents have been told that pupils can continue wearing their uniforms, which also incorporate the old crest, until the clothes wear out or are outgrown.
Headed notepaper will have the Grammar School title added. School secretary Karen Anderson said its reputation was built on the Academy name and there would be a transition period, using both names, while people got used to the change.
The 300-pupil independent school is the best in Staffordshire and 42nd in the UK for its A-level results. It was originally a teaching convent – The Holy Rosary, dating back to 1879 – and became Lyncroft School in the 1970s under headteacher Malcolm Mash.
Mr Ellse chose the name Chase Academy when he arrived in 1996. "We were very happy being called Chase Academy – it was different then and said something of the school's academic aims and our interest in the arts and music," he said.
"Now almost all secondary schools are academies.
"There is an attachment to the old name but the school has traditional values at its heart."
