SCHOOL REPORT: BRGS is a very popular, selective, 11-18 foundation school with a large sixth form.

The school is situated on a hillside overlooking the Rossendale Valley in the village of Waterfoot, between Rawtenstall and Bacup.

The school's history goes back to 1701 and it has been on the present site since 1913, since which time it has had only five headmasters.

In the 1980s there were proposals to make the school part of a local further education college and then to reorganise it along comprehensive lines but both were fiercely resisted and finally defeated.

The move to grant-maintained status in 1989 was a clear mark of the lively interest of the governing body and the deep affections in which the school was, and is, held by parents.

In 1991, technology college status was awarded to BRGS. In 1999, grant-maintained status was abolished by the Government and the school became a foundation school.

OUR AIMS: The school aims to bring about the total development of all students, thus enabling them to grow into balanced and responsible adults.

We try to make the school a place where students can discover and develop their talents, interests and abilities to the full.

They discover and adjust to their own limitations.

At BRGS students can learn to understand and respect the ideas and attitudes of others in order that all may live and work together in harmony.

THE PUPILS: BRGS has more than 1,200 pupils on roll, including a sixth form of approximately 420 students.

Admission to year 7 is by academic ability, tested by an entrance examination in November each year. The school is very over-subscribed and priority is given to children from Rossendale primary schools. Admission to the sixth form is by GCSE points and interview and about one third of students join the sixth form from other 11-16 schools.

SOMETHING TO BRAG ABOUT: Consistently high GCSE and A-level pass rates: 97 per cent GCSE pass rate in 2001 with 100 per cent gaining at least five A* to C passes; 94 per cent A-level pass rate in 2001. Sporting success in football, basketball and, notably, national champions in netball and orienteering. Eleven students went on to Oxford and Cambridge last year.

STAR PUPILS: Sir John Egan (ex-chairman of Jaguar and Ford), Patti Cauldwell (TV presenter), Betty Jackson (fashion designer), Carlo Nash (Premiership footballer).

WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH A £100,000 WINDFALL?: Build two classrooms to accommodate our ever-expanding sixth form.