History

The Lytham Schools Foundation dates back to a flood disaster at Lytham in 1719 when a relief fund was established. Almost 200 years later the Trustees of this fund decided to establish a grammar school for the education of boys. King Edward VII School was opened on 25 September 1908. It was followed by the building of Queen Mary School in 1930 to provide a similar education for girls. The Foundation’s motto, ‘Sublimis ab unda’, means “raised from the waves.”

After the 1944 Education Act, both King Edward VII School and Queen Mary School entered the state system as direct grant schools, mixing fee-paying with “eleven-plus” students. During the 1970s this grant was removed by the government, to be replaced in the 1980s by the Assisted Places scheme. When this in turn was removed following the 1997 General Election, the Governors announced the merger of the two schools.

King Edward VII and Queen Mary School was officially opened by Sir Richard Evans, Chairman of BAE Systems, in 2000. In September 2003 the school moved to the King Edward site, which benefited from extensive redevelopment.

The first phase of this redevelopment included a purpose built Preparatory School for children from Years 3 to 6, 11 new classrooms for the 11-18 school with superb facilities for Information Technology, Art and Modern Languages, a new canteen, changing facilities for girls and refurbished classrooms for Maths, English, Music and Food Technology. A splendid new Kindergarten, adjacent to the Pre-Preparatory building, also opened in September 2003. This was followed by the completion of a spacious and modern Library, with 10,000 titles and 24 networked computers, in 2005.

The school occupies a superb site with extensive playing fields, including an international standard floodlit astroturf pitch, overlooking the Irish Sea. As we look forward to the centenary of the former boys’ school in 2008, King Edward VII and Queen Mary School offers both girls and boys continuity of education from 2 to 18 years.