Bryanston School

Bryanston School

Motto	Et nova et vetera (Both the new and the old)
Established	1928
Type	Independent school
Religion	Anglican
Head	Sarah Thomas
Founder	J. G. Jeffreys
Location	Bryanston Blandford Forum Dorset United Kingdom
Staff	118
Students	670 (as of 2011)
Gender	Mixed
Ages	13–18
Houses	12
Colours	Dark Blue & Yellow
Website	www.bryanston.co.uk

Coordinates: 50°51′58″N 2°11′10″W / 50.866°N 2.186°W / 50.866; -2.186

Bryanston School is a co-educational independent school for both day and boarding pupils in Blandford, north Dorset, England, near the village of Bryanston. It was founded in 1928. It occupies a palatial country house designed and built in 1889-1894 by Richard Norman Shaw, the champion of a renewed academic tradition, for Viscount Portman, the owner of large tracts in the West End of London, in the early version of neo-Georgian style^[1] that Sir Edwin Lutyens called "Wrenaissance", to replace an earlier house, and is set in 400 acres (1.6 km²).

Bryanston is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and the Eton Group. It has a reputation as a liberal and artistic school using some ideas of the Dalton Plan.

History

The school opened on 24 January 1928 with 23 pupils and seven members of staff. In 2004, the school had around 650 pupils and 80 teachers.

During the mid-1930s, Bryanston School was the location of Anglo-German youth camps where the Hitler Youth and Boy Scouts tried to develop links. ^[2]

In 2005 the school was one of fifty of the country's leading independent schools which were found guilty of running an illegal price-fixing cartel (exposed by The Times newspaper), which allowed them to drive up fees for thousands of parents, although the schools made clear that they had not realised that the change to the law (which had happened only a few months earlier) about the sharing of information had subsequently made it an offence.^[3] Each school was required to pay a nominal penalty of £10,000 and all agreed to make ex-gratia payments totalling three million pounds into a trust designed to benefit pupils who attended the schools during the period in respect of which fee information was shared.^[4]

Facilities

The school has many facilities at the disposal of its students, including:

• Over 400 acres (1.6 km²) of grounds
• A 25 metre indoor heated pool
• 4 indoor squash courts
• 3 indoor eton fives courts
• Free weights room
• Gym ( Rowing Machines, Treadmills, Cross-trainers, Exercise bikes, Benches, Multi gyms)
• 2 sport halls (1 wooden gymnasium)
• Up to 50 tennis courts ( 36 permanent: 10 grass, 12 carpet, 15 hard)
• 2 Astroturf Pitches
• Medical centre, with over 20 beds
• 600 seat theatre (Coade Hall, named after Thorold Coade)
• 3 tier Science centre with 1 tier for each of Biology, Chemistry and Physics
• Cafeteria
• A darkroom
• 2 tier technology centre (upstairs ICT and Design & Technology downstairs)
• Music school, hosting approximately 600 individual music lessons, a senior orchestra, string chamber orchestra, junior wind band, concert band, six choirs, choral society, brass trio, wind, string and vocal ensembles, many different chamber groups, jazz bands and rock bands.
• Outdoor Greek Theatre

Heads of Bryanston

• J. G. Jeffreys (1928–1932)
• Thorold Coade (1932–1959)
• Robson Fisher (1959–1974)
• David Jones (1974–1982)
• Bob Allan (acting head, 1982–1983)
• Tom Wheare (1983–2005)
• Sarah Thomas (2005– present) — First female head of Bryanston. Previously, since 1999, she was Deputy Head of Uppingham School and before that taught classics at Sevenoaks School for 13 years before moving to Bryanston.

Old Bryanstonians

Main article: Old Bryanstonians

Alumni of the school are known as Old Bryanstonians; there is an alumni organisation called The Bryanston Society. "The Society exists to further the cause of Bryanston in the broadest possible sense. It aims to bring together the whole Bryanston family through social and sporting events." ^[5]

Other information

• The school estate has Europe's tallest London Plane tree (160ft). This tree may also be England's tallest deciduous tree.^{[citation needed]}
• Each year, the JACT Ancient Greek Summer School is held at Bryanston; the school has played host to many of the United Kingdom's classicists, both as teachers and pupils.

See also

• List of independent schools in the United Kingdom
• Don Potter (1902–2004), sculptor, potter and teacher at the school 1940–1984
• R. Norman Shaw (1831–1912), architect of the main building
• The Coade Hall, a theatre at the school

References

1. ^ "An approximation to what was later to be called Neo-Georgian", according to Roderick Gradidge, Dream Houses: the Edwardian ideal 1980:49
2. ^ The mystery of Hitler's 'spyclists' Radio 4 Today Programme
3. ^ Independent schools face huge fines over cartel to fix fees - Times Online
4. ^ The Office of Fair Trading: OFT names further trustees as part of the independent schools settlement
5. ^ Bryanston Society objectives, Bryanston School, UK.

Further reading

• The Burning Bow, Thorold F. Coade. London: Allen & Unwin (1966). ISBN 0-04-370001-2.
• Bryanston Reflections: Et nova et vetera, Angela Holdsworth (editor). London: Third Millennium Publishing (2005). ISBN 1-903942-38-1.

External links

• Bryanston School website
• UK Schools Guide entry
• Independent Schools Inspectorate report, 2007
• Dorset Life article on the history of the school building
• Leading sculptors mark school's 75th birthday, The Guardian, 2 June 2003