Kettering Grammar School

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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.

Contents 1 History 2 Space research 3 Alumni 4 External links

[edit] History

The site is now known as the Tresham Institute (Kettering Campus). The former buildings were knocked down in 2007.

[edit] Space 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.

[edit] Alumni

• H. E. Bates - writer.
• Tony Wright - Labour MP for Cannock.
• John Gill (theologian)
• Jim Dale - entertainer

[edit] External links

• Details of the satellite tracking apparatus and team
• Geoffrey Perry dies in January 2000
• Geoffrey Perry
• History of the Kettering Group
• Satellite tracking
• Kettering's Space Race (BBC article)