Kettering Grammar School

Kettering Grammar School was a boys grammar school (selective) based on "Windmill Avenue" in Kettering, Northamptonshire. The female equivalent in the town was called Kettering High School.

History

The site is now known as the Tresham Institute ( [http://www.tresham.ac.uk/about/our_campuses/kettering Kettering Campus] ). The former buildings were knocked down in 2007.

pace research

The school had an extensive (amateur) space research department, known as the "Kettering Group", started by physics teacher, Geoffrey Perry and assisted by chemistry teacher, Derek Slater. This involved tracking satellites with radios, and eavesdropping on communications to astronauts. In 1966, they discovered a new secret Soviet launch station in north Russia, Plesetsk, before NASA or the American military knew about it.

Alumni

* H. E. Bates - writer.
* Jim Dale - entertainer
* John Gill (theologian)
* Phil Sawford, Labour MP for Kettering
* Tony Wright - Labour MP for Cannock.

External links

* [http://www.zarya.info/kgs.htm Details of the satellite tracking apparatus and team]
* [http://www.space.com/peopleinterviews/jperry_obit_000120.html Geoffrey Perry dies in January 2000]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/611875.stm Geoffrey Perry]
* [http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/trackind/getstart/oldcyts.htm History of the Kettering Group]
* [http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/trackind/trackin1.htm Satellite tracking]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/northamptonshire/content/articles/2007/07/23/ketterings_space_race_feature.shtml Kettering's Space Race (BBC article)]