The Vyne Community School
The Vyne Community School, Basingstoke was created out of the merger of two pre-existing schools, Queen Mary's School for Boys, Basingstoke a selective Grammar School, also known as QMSB, and Charles Chute Secondary Modern School, which occurred in 1970. Initially the school was known as Queen Mary's & Charles Chute School, and was the result of the U.K. Government's policy in the 1960s to make all maintained (state funded) schools comprehensive. In the first instance the school remained a single sex institution, becoming coeducational in 1971–72. The name "Queen Mary's" was later transferred to the Queen Mary's College, a Sixth Form College, in Cliddesden Road, Basingstoke. The school was thereupon renamed The Vyne School, in commemoration of the links that both schools had to The Vyne, a property owned by the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, former home of the Sandys and Chute families, just north of Basingstoke.
| The Vyne Community School | |
|---|---|
| Address | |
| |
Vyne Road , , RG21 5PB England | |
| Coordinates | 51.27396°N 1.08908°W |
| Information | |
| Type | Community School |
| Established | 1970 |
| Local authority | Hampshire |
| Department for Education URN | 116440 Tables |
| Ofsted | Reports |
| Gender | Coeducational |
| Age | 11 to 16 |
| Website | http://www.vyne.hants.sch.uk |
The school is a coeducational community school, for young people aged 11–16, and still occupies the site of the former Queen Mary's School for Boys, in Vyne Road, Basingstoke. It is a specialist school for the Performing Arts.
The Vyne is also the only school in Basingstoke to have a Combined Cadet Force (CCF).
Notable Alumni
Kit Symons - Professional association football manager and former Welsh international footballer. Former manager of Crystal Palace, Colchester United and Fulham.
Steve Hewlett - Professional ventriloquist and Britain's Got Talent finalist.
Rus Yusupov - Inventor of video-sharing platform Vine and quiz app HQ Trivia.
Alex Macqueen - British actor, well known for starring in The Thick of It and Pompidou.
Monty Don - British broadcaster and lead presenter of the BBC gardening television series Gardeners' World since 2003.