after recovering from a country-wide low point in schooling in the eighteenth century, headmasters from william pirie to george thompson successively raised standards, such that in 1904, when the school had 110 pupils, six ocs held open awards at oxford or cambridge, and another was a city and guilds scholar. by 1962, university education also having been made free to students, the school sent 55 students out of 80 leavers into higher education.