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It is a ''Foundation School'', and a recent OFSTED report concluded that "examination results place the school in the top five per cent nationally", "Pupils' attitudes to learning are outstanding" and "The school goes to exceptional lengths to broaden and enrich the education of all pupils". The 2005 Key Stage 3 results were both the best in the country for value-added and for the average points score of each student. In the 2004 school league tables for England (including fee-paying schools), it came eighth for GCSE-level results (average 602.5 points), 106th for A-level results (average 409.3 points) and 170th for value-added between ages 11 and 16 (score of 1037.7 compared to a baseline of 1000). It has recently become a Specialist School for the Humanities , specialising in English , Geography and Classics – the first school to specialise in Classics - despite entry being selected by mathematics and verbal and non-verbal logic ability. HISTORY Reading School was founded as part of Reading Abbey . The date of the Abbey's charter, June 29 1125 , is taken as the foundation date, making it the ninth oldest school in England , although there are hints that there may have been a school running in Reading prior to this. In 1486 , the school was refounded as a 'Free Grammar School' ('free' here meaning teaching the free, or liberal, arts, not that no fees were paid) by Henry VII on the urging of the then Abbot , John Thorne. After the Dissolution of Reading Abbey in 1539 , the school fell under the control of the Corporation of Reading, its status being confirmed by Letters Patent issued by Henry VIII in 1541 . This was reconfirmed in the Royal Charter granted to the corporation of Reading by Elizabeth I in 1560 , which made the corporation liable for the salary of the headmaster and gave them the power of appointing him. There were interruptions to schooling in 1665 , when Parliament , forced out of London by the Great Plague , took over the schoolhouse. The Civil War also interrupted, with the school being used as a garrison by royalist forces. The school prospered at the start of the nineteenth century, but by 1866 disagreements between the town and school, which had become increasingly exclusive, and problems with the lease on the school buildings had led to falling numbers and the school closed briefly when (according to legend), the inspectors, on asking to see the school, were told "He's runned away". The school soon restarted, however, with the Reading School Act ( 1867 ) setting out its administration and funding. The foundation stone for new buildings, designed by Alfred Waterhouse , was laid by the Prince Of Wales in 1870 , and in 1871 the school moved in. In 1915 Kendrick Boys School (founded in 1875 from the legacy of John Kendrick), which had a large endowment but poor facilities, was taken over by Reading, which was poorly funded but had excellent facilities – this caused considerable controversy at the time but was ultimately seen as successful. The 1944 Education Act saw the abolition of fees (apart from boarding charges), with the cost of education now being met by the local authority. The 1960s saw the rise of comprehensive education, which threatened Reading's status. However, Reading was exempted in 1973 (along with the girls grammar school in Reading, Kendrick ) after a petition of over 30,000 local people (a third of the voters of Reading) was handed to the government. NOTABLE OLD REDINGENSIANS (FORMER STUDENTS)
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