| Motto | ΤΟ Δ’ΕΥ ΝΙΚΑΤΩ (Let right prevail) |
|---|---|
| Established | 1845 |
| Type | Independent School |
| Headmaster | Richard Cairns MA Oxon |
| Chaplain | Father Robert Easton |
| Chairman of the Governors | Professor Lord Robert Skidelsky |
| Founder | William Aldwin Soames (1787-1871) |
| Location | Eastern Road Brighton East Sussex BN2 0AL England |
| Local authority | Brighton and Hove |
| Staff | 150 |
| Students | 711 (ages 11 - 18) |
| Gender | Co-educational |
| Ages | 3–18 |
| Houses | 11 |
| Publication | Brighton College Newsletter |
| Former pupils | Old Brightonians |
| Website | www.brightoncollege.net |
Brighton College is an institution divided between a Senior School known simply as Brighton College, the Prep School and the Pre-Prep School. All of these schools are co-educational independent schools in Brighton, England, sited immediately next to each another. The Senior School caters for children ages approx. 11 to 18. The current headmaster is Richard J. Cairns.
The Good Schools Guide called the school a "Happy and forward-looking town school with a wide and healthy spread of pupils and parents", also stating: "A good bet to become an even more impressive school in the future."[1]
In September 2011, Brighton College will open Brighton College Abu Dhabi, the first in a planned chain of international franchises "aimed at the new rich in fast-growing economies" [2] for the purpose of generating revenue to be diverted back to the home campus in the UK.[3]
Founded in 1845 by William Aldwin Soames, who collected a group of like-minded local citizens to join him in the task (especially Edward Cornford, a solicitor), Brighton College was the first of the public schools to be founded in Sussex.[4]
Brighton College has 11 houses[5] which all serve a similar but different purpose. The houses are all split by gender, although staff of both sexes can be attached to any house. All houses contain between 48 and 70 pupils.[5]
The house system provides not only a framework on which sporting, music and other competitions can be formed, but also a core community for the children.[5]
Community spirit in the houses allows the day students a similar experience of camaraderie as the bonds formed by pupils who live and work together in boarding accommodation.[6]
Staff attached to the day houses include a House Master/Mistress and a tutor for each Year Group or 'form'.[7] These staff are academic teaching staff, and the House Masters/Mistresses are drawn from the senior teachers. These, with the assistance of Form Tutors, are responsible for overseeing pupil achievement and welfare.
The structure of the boarding houses varies slightly from that of the day houses, in reflection of their subtly different role within the College.
All houses have a House Master/Mistress and the team of form tutors. They also have a duty teacher in each house, who at any given time can be called upon by students in need. The ethos of the boarding houses tends to be one of extended family,[8] giving the House Masters/Mistresses a less distant role to their counterparts in the day houses.
Staff in boarding houses have the option to live within the School grounds.
Of these, Abraham and School are boy's boarding houses, and Fenwick and Heads' are girl's boarding houses.
The most recent addition is Heads' house which was opened in September 2010 in order to create room for the large number of girls boarding.
The school occupies a large site in the east of the city, facing south onto Eastern Road. It is immediately to the east of the site of the former Kemptown railway station, across Sutherland Road.
The school's principal buildings are in the gothic revival style by Sir George Gilbert Scott RA (flint with Caen stone dressings, 1848–66). Later buildings were designed by his pupil and former student at the College Sir Thomas Graham Jackson RA (brick and flint with cream and pink terracotta dressings, 1883–87; flint with Clipsham stone dressings 1922–23). It now has a new building development which recently finished, in the form of a brand new £1.3M art centre to further its already renowned arts department. Included in this centre is the Confucius Language Lab.
The School recently completed a new cricket pavilion on the "Home Ground" which is the school's best cricket ground which is also used as a Rugby pitch in the Michaelmas Term. It is situated opposite the site of the old Pavilion and the Sports Hall.
A new Chaplaincy is planned to be created in part of the space which will be left by Durnford House, which is on the end of the Bristol wing, Dawson Building which currently contains both Durnford and Abraham Houses.
The school occupied a significant niche in the development of English secondary education during the nineteenth century. Notable accomplishments include:
The school's evolution also questions the "traditional" account of how the Victorian public schools developed. For example, the school initially had a ban on the use of corporal punishment — until 1851. The School Captain was elected by universal suffrage among the entire pupil body until 1878, when a prefectorial system was also introduced. Sporting games remained voluntary until 1902 (and team members had chosen their own captain and awarded colours to their outstanding players until 1878).
Brighton College led the legal fight to secure the charitable tax status currently enjoyed by all registered charities. A legal case between the school and Inland Revenue from 1916-26 produced a series of changes to tax law in the 1918 Income Tax Act, the 1921 and 1922 Finance Acts and, above all, section 24 of the 1927 Finance Act. The case (Brighton College v Marriott) went to the High Court (June 1924, 40 T.L.R. 763-5), the Court of Appeal (November 1924, 1 KB 312) and ultimately the House of Lords (November 1925, AC 192-204).
The first attempt to put pupils into uniform came during the French invasion scare of 1860 when the school set up a company of Rifle Volunteers, attached as the 4th Company to the 1st Sussex (Brighton) Rifles. This lasted only a few years. Thirty years later, a cadet corps was founded in 1900, rather late for a public school. The unit was attached to the 1st Volunteer Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment and became part of the OTC in 1908. Re-classified as a Junior Training Corps (JTC) in the War Office reorganisation of 1941, Brighton College's JTC was in the first group of schools to be allowed an Air Training Corps. When a naval section was established as well in 1949, it became a Combined Cadet Force.
In 1940, College boys and staff also formed an LDV section. From 1942 to 1945, this was classified as 30th Platoon, 10th Sussex Home Guard.[10]
The school's Combined Cadet Force (CCF) is among a tiny handful to carry both a regimental and a king's colour. The originals were presented by Sir Berry Cusack-Smith in the 1920s.
The army section is affiliated to the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment.[11] The School's CCF also stands out as it is a contingent with a dedicated Signals Troop which is entitled to wear the uniform of the Royal Corps of Signals.
Note: The Signals Troop is part of the Army section, so does not have its own commanding officer, although the Signals Officer attached to the school is Captain Dan Lehmann.
In the past, the Brighton College CCF has also had a Military Band and Drum Corps. Neither are currently operational, although the contingent still retains 8 Marching Snare Drums, a Marching Bass Drum, and 4 Bugles. The Contingent also maintains 6 old brass Snare Drums, 1 old tenor Drum, and an old wooden Bass Drum which are used in ceremonial events such as the Remembrance Day Parade, as an altar of drums on which the School CCF Colours will be laid.
The school is unique among English public schools in having a Greek motto: ΤΟ Δ’ΕΥ ΝΙΚΑΤΩ. From Aeschylus' Agamemnon, it means "Let Right Prevail".
The chapel is unusual amongst British school chapels because George Bell, Bishop of Chichester created the school grounds as an extra-parochial ecclesiastical district. Placed outside the parish of St. Matthew's, Brighton, the school chapel holds an episcopal licence to perform weddings for its residents, after banns; no archiepiscopal licence is required.
Current fees stand at circa £29,000 p.a for full time boarders and circa £17,000 p.a for day pupils in sixth form.
In September 2009, the school opened a new "Lower School" for children between the ages of 11 and 13. The site of this new part of the Senior School is on the old Art Block, with that now having moved to above the Woolton Quad. The Lower School means that Brighton College has been open to intake children at the age of 11 into the senior school for the first time in its history, as opposed to its traditional youngest intake of thirteen year-old boys and girls, since the academic year starting 2009.
The position of the Lower School's First head is taken by Miss Leah K Hamblett MA whose school title is technically Assistant Head - Lower School, but as with all female teachers at school will be addressed as "Miss".
The Lower School is expected to teach 80 pupils in total, with two classes in each year group.
Note: The Brighton College Prep School will still take 11 year old children into that school for the foreseeable future, as the Lower School does not replace years 7 and 8 at the Prep School.
Although the Lower School has its own head, it will be an integral part of the Senior School, where students will "encouraged to respect one another's differences in a climate that is warm and tolerant, and one which seeks to enthuse and challenge children to give of their very best."[12]
As With the rest of the Senior School, there are a small number of Bursaries and Scholarships available to new students at school.[13]
In 2010, Brighton College announced to parents that it is "helping to set up schools in Abu Dhabi".[14] This venture is a for-profit franchise operation through a company the school has set up, Brighton College International Schools Ltd, in a joint venture with a UAE property development company Bloom Properties.[2] Brendan Law, previously of Westbourne House School in Chichister, West Sussex, was named Headmaster of Brighton College Abu Dhabi in September 2010,[15] and the school opened in September 2011.[16]
One of the strongest performing co-ed sporting independent school in Sussex, Brighton College's major sports are rugby, cricket and netball with 1st teams in all three being some of the strongest in England.
The 1st XV rugby team play in the schools blue and maroon hoops, and most home games are played on the Home Ground a large expanse of ground located to the rear of the college and surrounded on all sides by housing and the college's sports hall.
The school also has a very successful old boys sporting network, particularly its rugby team who won back to back U21 National Old Boy titles in 2005 and 2006.
Other clubs such as Bible study and Strictly Come Dancing regularly take place in school, but do not occur every year, so have not been added to this list.
The title of Principal was changed to Headmaster in December 1885.[22] The requirement for the headmaster to be an ordained priest of the Church of England was removed in 1909.[23]
Note: Simon Smith returned to his position as Second Master after Richard Cairns took leadership in 2006.[24]