School building bright future as past is honoured

STUDENTS at Hipperholme Grammar School took part in a tasty team building challenge to mark an impressive milestone for the school – its 370th birthday.

Each year the school, established in 1648, holds a special event called Founders’ Day, to honour Hipperholme Grammar founders – Matthew Broadley, Samuel Sunderland and Joseph Lister.

To mark the occasion, pupils were this year challenged to push their structural knowledge to the limits as they attempted to build the tallest tower using raw spaghetti and marshmallows – in just 50 minutes.

Keeping the traditions of Founders’ Day alive, pupils and staff then headed over to Halifax’s Coley Church for a service where the junior choir sang an array of songs and hymns.

For the finale, each of the school’s forms presented their harvest boxes, ready to be donated to the local ‘dropin centre’ for those in need.

The special occasion also paved the way for Hipperholme Grammar School headteacher, Jackie Griffiths, to give an update on their plans to restore its 18th century hall – and how people connected with the school could donate to the fundraising campaign and buy a personalised plaque that would be part of a feature wall inside the building.

Mrs Griffiths said: “Our Founders’ Day celebrations have been fantastic and it’s rewarding to see each House working together to produce some amazing towers.

“The task reiterated the importance of our school hall campaign and how coming together as a team was crucial in helping us to achieve our fundraising target.”