- The school was founded in 1570, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, by Reverend Henry Bury, a wealthy philanthropic clergyman.
- In 2017 Bury Grammar merged its girls’ and boys’ schools, but students are taught separately from Years 7-11. Outside the classroom, students enjoy a generous and varied extracurricular programme.
- The school has ties with Harvard University that date to 1640, when Henry Dunster, a former Master of Bury Grammar School, was appointed the first president of Harvard College. The ceiling of the school’s Roger Kay Hall is inspired by the design of the ceiling in the main hall of Harvard Hall, one of the oldest buildings at the Ivy League institution.
- For more than a decade Bury Grammar has participated in the World Challenge programme, with past expeditions to Madagascar, Mongolia, Costa Rica, Tanzania, Vietnam and Borneo. The school describes how the “expeditions are meticulously designed to foster global citizenship through authentic cultural immersion”.
- Notable alumni include the England cricketer Kate Cross, the first female player to be accepted into the Lancashire Academy while still at school, and the former MP for Bury North Alistair Burt, who served as head boy in 1973.
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