Schools & Colleges
and Lord Mayor of London, Sir Wolstan Dixie.
T
The most distinguished of the school’s former pupils is Thomas Hooker, founder of Hartford, Connecticut, and Father of American Democracy. The best known of its teachers is undoubtedly Dr Johnson, moralist, poet and author of the famous dictionary, who taught here in the mid-eighteenth century. The main building of today’s school was built in 1828, and faces the historic market square of Market Bosworth, making a distinctive landmark. However, in 1969 the school was closed, as new, much larger comprehensive schools found favour. It was to revive the best aspects of the grammar school tradition that the Leicestershire Independent Educational Trust was formed in 1983 and, four years later, the Dixie Grammar School was re- opened as a selective, independent, day school for boys and girls of all backgrounds between the ages of ten and eighteen.
The school has recently announced ambitious plans for the redevelopment of its campus at the centre of the historic town, and launched an architectural competition which has resulted in four architectural practices, all of whom have experience in the design of school building and working with listed buildings, being shortlisted. The key focus will be a new multi- purpose hall and science block - the initial phase will also include the building of a new car park for the use of both the school and the local community, including the doctors’ surgery.
he earliest records of the school’s existence date from 1320, but it gained its present name when it was re-founded in 1601 under the will of an Elizabethan merchant
In 2009, the school invested in modernising and redeveloping its sports ground on the outskirts of the town within walking distance from the school. The ten hectare site provides three senior natural turf pitches (one rugby with a grass six lane athletics track) on the lower plateau, and two senior football pitches on the high plateau, with plenty of room to provide further pitches in the future. In addition, the school is currently seeking planning permission to install a brand new artificial hockey pitch.
In 2006, the school commissioned the STRI to write a report on the sports ground. Its recommendations were to invest in a primary and secondary drainage system to help improve the drainage capacity of the pitches. So, in 2009, as well as a new £750,000 sports pavilion, the school employed the services of Pugh Lewis to undertake the drainage work, installing a primary system at five metre centres and sand bands at one metre centres for the two plateaus.
At the time, the school used the services of a local contractor to cut the grass and mark out the pitches, It was always the schools intention to employ a full time groundsman after they had invested the best part of £140,000 on the drainage, plus the cost of the new pavilion.
At the same time, Stephen Green was looking to move nearer home, heard about the school’s search for a groundsman, and duly applied. The school did not need much persuading, as Stephen comes with an excellent pedigree, having spent the best part of twenty-five years working in professional football, firstly at Leicester City from 1988-1996, before moving to Nottingham Forest working under Steve
Welch until 2005, and finally as Steve’s assistant at the new Wembley Stadium. Stephen felt he needed a change from
professional football, and also wanted to work near his family who live just fifteen minutes away from the school. So, in 2009, he took up his new appointment working alongside the school’s bursar, Martin Roe, who he has struck up a excellent working relationship with. It was not long before Stephen had persuaded Martin of the importance of investing in the right equipment, and the school purchased a new Toro Sidewinder triple cylinder mower, a Kilworth rear rotary deck mower, two dimple line markers, a 34hp compact tractor and a Charterhouse Verti-Drain. A new Blec seeder and Sisis Multitiner came a few months later. Along with a petrol hedge trimmer and a strimmer, Stephen started off with an excellent set of equipment. He also got the school to invest in two new sets of football goalposts, plus a new set of rugby posts. Two sets of five-a-side goals were also updated to ensure that they complied with the new goalpost safety regulations.
When Stephen arrived, the pitches, even with the new drainage in place, were not in the best of health. Very little attention had been focused on them, and the condition of the sward was poor. The first job Stephen did was to have the whole ground sprayed with a selective weedkiller, as there was more weed than grass. Also, many of the sand bands had sunk. So, another of the pressing tasks he undertook was to spend hours backfilling and seeding the drainage runs. Once Stephen has levelled and seeded all of the drains, both upper and lower levels of the ground were seeded from corner to corner.
This work, combined with a revamped
“When Steve arrived, the pitches, even with the new drainage in place, were not in the best of health”
JUNE/JULY 2012 PC 95
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