QEGS

Ashbourne’s Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, affectionately known as QEGS, is amongst the oldest schools in the country. It is an Academy open to all, not a grammar school, but has kept its historic name dating back to the time of Queen Elizabeth 1.

OFSTED MAY 2018: QEGS is a good school with outstanding leadership, behaviour & safety.

It was established under a Royal Charter granted by Queen Elizabeth I following a 1583 petition by Sir Thomas Cokayne (1520-1592) for a free school in Ashbourne, on the grounds that the lack of education meant people were “given over to wickedness and vices”.  

The original building on Church Street is now a grade 1 listed private residence, with the school moving to its current site on The Green Road in 1909. For much of the 20th century, the school was a selective mixed grammar but in 1973 it became a comprehensive open to all abilities and in 2011 became an Academy.  

It serves a large Derbyshire catchment area, from Hartington in the north to Longford in the south and Hulland to the east.  Ashbourne sits close to the Staffordshire border and the nearby village of Mayfield is not QEGS area.  

It is consistently graded good by Ofsted with some areas outstanding.  It continues to expand and develop, providing ever more impressive opportunities for today's students.