Warwick School

Infobox UK school
name = Warwick School


size = 129px
latitude = 51.196552
longitude = -0.622504
dms = yes
motto = "Altiora Peto"
(Latin:"I seek higher things")
motto_pl =
established = Before 1066
approx =
closed =
c_approx =
type = Independent School,
day and boarding school
religion = Church of England
president =
head_label = Head Master
head = E.B. Halse, BSc FRSA (Senior School), G. R. G Canning, BA (Junior School)
r_head_label = Deputy Headmaster
r_head = W.M. Phelan, BA, MBA (Senior School), J. L. Elston, BEd (Junior School)
chair_label = Chairman of Governors
chair = Brigadier Mike Stephens
founder = Not known with certainty
founder_pl =
specialist =
street =
city = Warwick
county = Warwickshire
country = Englandflagicon|England
postcode = CV34 6PP
LEA =
ofsted =
staff = 125 in Senior School, 19 in Junior School
enrollment = 850 in Senior School, 229 in Junior School
gender = Boys
lower_age = 7
upper_age = 18
houses = 10
colours = Blue and White
publication =
free_label_1 = Former pupils
free_1 = Old Warwickians
free_label_2 =
free_2 =
free_label_3 =
free_3 =
website = http://www.warwickschool.org/
website_name = www.warwickschool.org

Warwick School is an independent school for boys in Warwick, England, and is reputed to be the third-oldest surviving school in the country after King's School, Canterbury and St Peter's School, York. Since these latter two are now co-educational, Warwick School can now claim to be the oldest boys' school in the country. Indeed, while there are several very old European choir schools such as Monserrat and Regensburg still in existence, Warwick School has never been tied to a cathedral and there seems to be no evidence to refute the claim that it is the oldest surviving boys' grammar school in the world. Such independent sources as the Victoria County History do not, however, entertain a foundation date before the middle of the sixteenth century. Its headmasters have been members of the Headmaster and Headmistresses Conference since 1896.

Enrolment

In the academic year 2007-8 there were 1,079 boys, aged from 7 to 18, at the school comprising:
* 1033 day pupils
* 46 boarders

Houses

Boys in the senior school are put into one of six houses which compete against each other in sports and other activities. The house system is now combined with the system of forms. Five of the houses are named after people connected with the history of the town of Warwick. The sixth house is called School. The Junior School has four houses named after more general historical figures.

The houses are:

Senior School:

* Tudor
* Guy
* Greville
* Brooke
* Leycester
* School (formerly the boarders' house)

Junior School:

* Drake
* Scott
* Wellington
* Nelson

History

The actual date of the school's founding is unknown, and the first documentary evidence for its existence dates back to 1123, according to Frykman and Hadley. The first historian of the school, A F Leach, who published his work in 1906, concluded that the school could have been founded as early as 914 AD, the date that the town of Warwick is first mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and was presumably later chartered by King Edward the Confessor (c.1004–1066). He also noted that the school had just moved to its present site on the banks of the River Avon in 1879. For several hundred years before Leach's ground-breaking work, though, it was believed that the school dated back merely to its re-founding by King Henry VIII in 1545 as "The King's New School of Warwick". Several premises have been used over the years, including the Lord Leycester Hospital and St Peter's Chapel over the Eastgate. The destruction of records in various fires means that the location of the school for almost the whole of the 17th century is not known for certain. The truth, therefore, seems to be that the present Warwick School is the legitimate successor of a small-town grammar school which dates from before the Norman Conquest.

The move in 1879 was spurred by the Warwick Educational Charities Scheme of 1875, where a schools' foundation was created that comprised the King's Grammar School, a Middle School for boys (up to 15), and a Girls' High School (opened in 1879). The Middle School was built in the Butts in the centre of Warwick, close to the site of where the old Grammar School had existed between c. 1697 and 1879, the former College of the Vicars Choral in St Mary's churchyard. In 1906, the Middle School and the Grammar School were united on Myton Road, the school's current premises, as Warwick School, with only The King's High School For Girls retaining the original royal name. The old Middle School buildings in the town centre were fully taken over by the King's High School in 1918. After a disastrous fire in 1970, however, the buildings, by now re-named St Mary's Hall, were demolished in 1981, and the site used for new buildings by King's High School in 2006. All that remains of the Middle School is its boundary wall along The Butts.

The name Warwick School, rather than The King's School or The King's Grammar School, gradually crept into use in the 1880s, and this name was fairly well established by the time of the merger with The King's Middle School (which had been briefly re-named The King's County School) in 1906.

Two histories of the school have been published. The first appeared in 1906 at the exact time that the existence of the original Grammar School was under threat, as unpublished accounts in the school archives show. The second was published in 2004; of the two co-authors, Gervald Frykman is the school's first Archivist, and used much recently-discovered material to bring the school's varied fortunes before World War II to life; while Eric Hadley, the editor of the school's yearly chronicle "The Portcullis", portrays the school's continued rise in numbers, and its successes, since then.Next door to the main school is the Junior School, opened in 1889. Although it closed and re-opened several times in the first half of the twentieth century, it has been fully operational since 1938, and now caters for approximately 230 boys from 7 to 11 years of age.

Buildings

Although its 1879 buildings are still in use, there have been many additions since then, and most teaching now takes place in specialised departmental areas. The former Big School has been re-named the Pyne Room in honour of a former headmaster, but the original 1879 oak-panelled dining room is still in use. A brand new science centre was built on the site of the original 1879 sanatorium, being brought into use in June 2007. This building was officially named the Cheshire Science Centre in June 2008.

Guy Nelson Hall

The main hall of the school was built, following an appeal, between 1969 and 1970. It has seating for about 600 people. Alderman Guy Nelson, after whom the hall is named, was a long-serving Chairman of Governors (1938 - 1963). The hall can be rented out by external groups and contains a kitchen for use during events.

Bridge House Theatre

The school has its own theatre, holding between 275 and 310 people, the Bridge House Theatre. It was opened on 1 May 2000 by Dame Judi Dench and was designed by Michael Reardon Associates. It was intended from the start to be used both by the school and by local organisations in the town. The theatre is set out as many larger theatres are with both stall and circle seating and space for a small orchestra pit if needed. [http://www.bridgehousetheatre.co.uk/]

Thornton Building

The Thornton building is the latest development within Warwick School. It houses maths, DT, Religious Studies, Philosophy and Classics.

porting achievements

Warwick School offers a wide variety of sporting activities, with rugby union, cricket and tennis among them. On March 28, 2007, the school enjoyed rugby union success as the Under 18s Rugby Union team beat Barnard Castle School 24-23 at Twickenham Stadium, to win the Daily Mail Cup for the first time in the school's history. The 2008 campaign saw them through to the semi-final stage facing Wellington College, a match they narrowly lost.

Notable Old Warwickians

::See also

*Sabine Baring-Gould (author of "Onward, Christian Soldiers"), 1846
*Michael Billington (author, critic & broadcaster)
*A G K Brown (Olympic gold medallist, 1936) head boy, 1933 – 1934
*Daniel Byles (Guinness World Record holding ocean rower and polar explorer) 1985 - 1992, Head of House
*Abiezer Coppe (17th century "ranting" Baptist preacher) c. 1630
*Harry Greenway (Conservative MP for Ealing until 1997)
*Geoffrey Healey (co-designer, with his father Donald Healey, of Healey and Austin Healey cars) 1937 - 1939
*Louis Hilyer (Shakespearean actor) 1975 - 1981
*Eric Hope (concert pianist) 1928 - 1931
*William James (railway promoter) c. 1785
*Colin Jordan (National Organiser of the British National Party) 1934 – 1942
*John Masefield (Poet Laureate) 1888 – 1891
*Denis Matthews (concert pianist) 1932 - 1936
*Frederick Mulley (politician) 1929 – 1936
*John Owen headmaster c. 1595 – 1622
*Iain Pears (novelist)
*Martindale Sidwell (organist and choirmaster) staff, 1943 – 1946
*Marko Stanojevic (Italian international rugby union player)
*Sydney Watson (Oxford organist) 1914 - 1921
*Chris Whiteside (cricketer)
*Joe Whittaker (Soldier killed in Afghanistan. First and only OW to be killed in action, since the Second World War)
*M J Trow (writer)
*Nick Haley (creator of the iPod Touch advert)
*Paul Rothwell (member of the classical pop group; Only Men Aloud)

References

* cite book
title=A History of Warwick School with Notices of the Collegiate Church, Gilds, and Borough of Warwick
author=Arthur Francis Leach
date=1906
publisher=Archibald Constable and Company Limited
location=London
* cite book
title=Warwick School: A History
author=G N Frykman and E J Hadley
year=2004
publisher=Gresham Books of Oxford
id=ISBN 0-946095-46-9
* cite book
title=Guide to Independent Schools
author=Klaus Boehm and Jenny Lees-Spalding
url=http://www.schoolsguidebook.co.uk/schools/Warwick_School.html
year=2005-11-01
publisher=Trotman
id=ISBN 0-85660-984-6
chapter=Warwick School
pages=
* cite book
url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=16059
title=A History of the County of Warwick: Volume 8: The City of Coventry and Borough of Warwick
author=W.B. Stephens (Editor)
year=1969
publisher=
chapter=The borough of Warwick — Public education
pages=539 – 543
id= — The Victoria County History gives a detailed account of the history of education in Warwick from the time of the 1851 census onwards.
* cite web
url=http://www.isbi.com/isbi-viewschool/1932-WARWICK_SCHOOL.html
title=Warwick School
work=ISBI
accessdate=2005-12-19

Further reading

* cite news
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/education/04/school_tables/secondary_schools/html/937_6020.stm
title=Warwick School
publisher=BBC News
date=2005-10-19
* cite web
url=http://www.isinspect.org.uk/reports/2002/1277_02.htm
title=Warwick School
publisher=Independent Schools Inspectorate
work=ISI Reports
accessyear=2002-12-06
accessdate=2005-12-17
* cite web
url=http://home.clara.net./rfwilmut/warwick/wschool.html
title=Warwick School in 1961
author=Roger Wilmut
work=
accessdate=2005-12-17 — Mr Wilmut attended the school from 1953 to 1961. Pictures on the site include the New Buildings and Orlits, which were demolished in 1974 and 1995 respectively.

ee also

*List of the oldest schools in the world

External links

* [http://www.warwickschool.org/ Official website]
* [http://www.ents24.com/web/venue/24167/Warwick/Bridge_House_Theatre.html What's On at the Bridge House Theatre]