The King's School, Ely

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The King's School, Ely

Established	c.1000
School type	Independent school
Headmistress	Mrs Sue Freestone
Location	Ely, Cambridgeshire, UK
Students	Approx 700
Website	The King's School

The King's School, a public school in Ely, England, founded sometime before the Norman Conquest. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. The headmistress is Mrs Susan Freestone (formally of Sibford) who came to the school in 2004.

1 History
2 Houses
3 Notable Alumni
4 See also
5 King's in the news
6 External links

[edit] History

The King's School in Ely is one of seven schools established, or in some cases re-endowed and renamed, by King Henry VIII in 1541 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries for the education of 'poor friendless boys'.

The school keeps a strong link with the cathedral by which it is overshadowed. One notable school tradition is the "hoop trundle", an event where the Kings and Queens scholars beat sticks against a wooden ring along the lane up to the south door of the cathedral. The school has seven internal houses, into which the pupils are sorted: Hereward, School, Hill (formally Etheldreda), Osmond, Wilkinson, Withburga and Torfrida – the latter two being named after sisters of Etheldreda, the founder of Ely Cathedral.

The school also has an International Study Centre, a Junior School and a pre-prep school as well as Nursery. In its entirety, the school has over 900 pupils. Spread over a wide campus, different parts of the school occupy different buildings, distributed around the centre of the city. However, all the sections do make use of certain facilities, such as sports facilities and the Monastic Barn.

[edit] Houses

The Senior School has eight houses - four boarding and four day houses.

Canonry This is a girls boarding house, established in September 2006, for the Girls Choir of Ely Cathedral, all of whom are members of the school. The house is located very close to the Cathedral itself for ease of access to the Cathedral for practice and performance (in evensong, each Wednesday).

Hereward Hall is a boys boarding house, situated on Barton Square in Ely, on the site of an old Cambridge college. It contains about 55 boys, and is often considered the most competitive of all the houses, having consecutive wins in many school competitions, not least music.

Hill House is a girls boarding house, situated on the corner of Barton Square and Back Hill. It was, until September 2006, the only girls boarding house, until the girls choir house was formed. It is the largest of all the boarding houses. It was renamed Etheldreda House in the 1970's, following the introduction of girls into the school, but was renamed to Hill House recently.

School House is a boys boarding house based along the gallery, on the road up to the west tower of Ely Cathedral. It houses approximately 60 boys, and is a strong sporting house, rivalling Hereward House.

Incomplete Farenheit 19:27, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

Osmond House is a boys' day house founded by Mr. Osmond who once taught Chemistry at the school, Osmond has a long history of writing 'is gay' on notice boards throughout the school but mainly in the house, breaking toilets, and urinating in soap dispensers.