Two days later, on December 19, the doors will close for the last time on Midhurst Grammar School, the Intermediate School at Easebourne and the Herbert Shiner Intermediate School at Petworth.

On January 1, they will become the Midhurst Rother College. There will be a new headteacher, Dr Joe Vitagliano, a new uniform and a new school badge.

For the time being the school will operate on the Midhurst site and on the intermediate school site at Easebourne, but plans are already in progress to build a state-of-the-art £30m new academy.

The grand reunion will take place in the school hall on the river site from 7pm to 9pm and is being billed as a chance for old friends and colleagues to reminisce and enjoy entertainment provided by the present students of the three schools.

The invitation is open to all former students, existing and former staff and governors.

Tickets which will include a glass of wine and 'posh nibbles' are £5 and available from the grammar school town site reception on 01730 812451.

On display during the evening will be reminders of days gone by. Former staff and pupils are also being invited to share their memories, funny or poignant stories and photographs for a book commemorating the schools.

Anyone who would like to take part should email Kay Grimstead on kgrimstead@wsgfl.org.uk or write to Mrs Kay Grimstead at Midhurst Grammar School.

Midhurst Grammar School, founded in 1672 by Gilbert Hannam was a charity school for 12 poor Protestant Midhurst boys, but the beginning of the 19th century brought a time of achievement and fame for the school under the leadership of two headteachers, the Rev Wooll and the Rev Bayly.

The impressive Memorial Hall was built and boarding was available, but the prosperity did not last and Gilbert Hannam's school was forced to close in 1859.

In 1880 it was refounded as a boys' day and boarding grammar school.


Later, West Sussex County Council stepped in and took responsibility, the town site was developed and Capron House became an addition.

In the 1950s the present river site school opened as Midhurst County Secondary School for boys and girls and some ten years later, in 1966, there was a joining of both the grammar and the secondary school to form the present comprehensive school.

Midhurst Intermediate School opened in 1970 after the introduction of the three-tier system of education in the Midhurst area to cater for increasing numbers of children.

The Herbert Shiner School started life in l961 as a secondary modern providing education for pupils aged 11 to 16 in Petworth, Northchapel, Duncton, Graffham, Fittleworth, Bury and Coldwaltham.

Herbert Shiner School entered into a formal collaboration with Petworth Primary School in September, 2004 and the two became 'federated' in 2006.

Herbert Shiner School underwent major refurbishments and Petworth Primary School was relocated on to the Herbert Shiner site in a new state-of-the-art building in September, 2006.



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