Today we complete our series giving headteachers the chance to write on educational issues. This week the head of Bradford Grammar School, Stephen Davidson, focuses on the grammar school traditions.

BRADFORD GRAMMAR School was founded in 1548 "for the better teaching, instructing and bringing up of children and youths in grammar and good learning and to continue for that use forever" - a principle which today continues to underpin all that the school stands for.

From early beginnings close to the cathedral, our fully co-educational school's magnificent building stands in almost 30 acres of grounds within a mile of the city centre.

We are not for moving out into the leafy suburbs - we are proud to be Bradford's Grammar School and perceive our location as a strength, giving as it does easy accessibility to well over 1,000 pupils who live within our 30,000 square mile catchment area.

Grammar school by name, grammar school by nature. We are an unashamedly academic meritocracy believing that bright boys and girls thrive in an environment which promotes academic excellence alongside a wealth of opportunities for music, drama, art, technology and sport.

Fundamental to our ethos is that such opportunity should not simply be for those who can afford the fees (modest for a school with the national prominence of BGS) because the social diversity of the school is one of its greatest strengths.

Since the abolition of the centrally funded Assisted Places Scheme in 1997, the school has offered more than 20 new means-tested bursaries each year from its own resources, and one of the thrusts of our current appeal is to raise a further £1 million to enhance that bursary fund - we are well on the way to achieving that ambitious goal.

Ambition - a good word as, along with the development of confidence, it is at the heart of our philosophy.

The outstanding success of our co-educational initiative, which in 1999 saw girls welcomed into BGS at every age from seven up to 13, following almost 20 years of girls in the sixth form, underlined the popularity and support the school enjoys throughout West Yorkshire.

Moving from Manchester Grammar School was never going to be an easy decision to make but everyone who knows me understood that Bradford Grammar School was the school for me.

Why? First and foremost the pupils, whose delightful self-effacement, loyalty, humour and commitment make it a privilege to be their headmaster, and because of all schools Bradford Grammar School shares Manchester Grammar School's high academic and personal expectations and sense of purpose.

Our school motto 'Hoc Age' - 'Do It' says it all with typical Bradford pragmatism and economy of effort.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.