Situated in the Hamilton suburb of Leicester, Gateway Sixth Form College occupies a purpose-built campus that opened after a move from its long-standing city centre location. The new campus, completed at a cost of £33 million, replaced buildings the college had used since 1933, when it occupied a three-storey house dating from 1772 alongside purpose-built extensions for science, art, and design.
Origins and Early History
The college began life in 1928 as Gateway Grammar School for boys, initially housed in Skeffington House – the building that now contains the Newarke Houses Museum. Its founding purpose was closely tied to what was then the Colleges of Art and Technology, later known as Leicester Polytechnic and now De Montfort University, and the curriculum leaned heavily towards craft and practical subjects. The school’s first headmaster, Harold Dent, who served from 1928 to 1931, went on to edit The Times Educational Supplement and held a professorship in education at the University of Sheffield. Under headmaster Hyman Frazer (1952-1971), whose granddaughter Lucy Frazer became a UK Cabinet minister in 2023, Gateway began to function more like a conventional grammar school while still teaching craft subjects. The school was also notable for accepting pupils who had not passed the 11-plus exam, taking them on at 13 and 15 years old. In 1976, under M H Bailey, the school became a mixed sixth form college, a change that shaped its modern identity. Gateway joined Better Futures Multi Academy Trust in April 2019.
The Former City Centre Site
Before relocating to Hamilton, the college stood in Leicester city centre close to De Montfort University, Newarke House, Leicester Castle, Castle Gardens, and the Daniel Lambert Museum. A short walk away was the bridge from which the body of Richard III was reputedly thrown. The college used that site from 1933 until 2009.
Students and Alumni
Gateway currently has around 1,200 students aged 16 to 18, alongside approximately 400 adult students. Its alumni include paralympian ice sledge hockey player Matt Lloyd, after whom the college named an annual community sports award, and Independent MP Claudia Webbe. Former pupils of the grammar school years include Sir Damon Buffini, head of private equity firm Permira; Greg Clarke, who chaired the FA from 2016 to 2020 and the Football League from 2010 to 2016; physicist Harold Hopkins, who developed the zoom lens and contributed significantly to fibre-optics research; Malcolm Clarke, a composer at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop who wrote music for Doctor Who in the early 1980s; and jazz and classical trumpet player Henry Lowther.