| Motto | Rex dedit, benedicat Deus (The King gave it, may God bless it) |
|---|---|
| Established | 1541 |
| Type | Independent |
| Religion | Church of England |
| Headmaster | C Ramsey MA |
| Chairman of the Governors | D S Hempsall MA PhD FRSA |
| Founder | King Henry VIII |
| Location | Chester Cheshire England |
| Students | 900 (approx.) |
| Gender | Co-educational |
| Ages | 7–18 |
| Houses | 4 |
| Colours |
Green, blue and white |
| Former pupils | Old King's Scholars |
| Affiliation | HMC |
| Website | www.kingschester.co.uk |
The King's School, Chester is a co-educational independent school for children aged between 7 and 18 years of age. It is situated just outside of the city of Chester, England. The School is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.
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The School was founded in 1541 by King Henry VIII, following the dissolution of St.Weburgh’s Abbey, which later became the Chester Cathedral. The statues provided that there should “24 poor and friendless boys between the ages of 9 and 15”. The School was housed in the former Monastic Refectory until 1869. It was not known as The King’s School until the mid 19th Century, when it was referred to as the ‘Grammar School of King Henry VIII’, where it was ascribed to being ‘The Free School’ and ‘The Grammar School’.
Dedicated school buildings were opened by Gladstone in 1876, which adjoined the North West corner of the Cathedral. The School celebrates this part of their history annually by holding a cathedral service every term, which nurtures the ongoing relationship between the School and Chester Cathedral. Little is known about the school during the Civil War, however King's pupils were known as 'Roundhead Scholars'.
From the late 19th Century to the early 20th Century, the school ran a Boarding House under the charge of one of the masters. In 1885, this was located at 98 Watergate Flags, but later moved to Eaton Road. By 1911, the governors had acquired new premises at Arnold House, Walpole Street, which became the Junior School and school boarding house. The latter was closed in 1931 due to the lack of pupils wishing to board.
During the Great War, game sessions were replaced by military training. A Cadet Corps were founded in 1916 whilst shooting took place every day of the week. Rough grass land at Arnold House was dug-up and planted with potatoes, and senior boys assisted with the hay harvests and with the national re-forestation programme.
The inter-war years saw the arrival of typewriters, the installation of electricity, a telephone exchange and a new tuck shop. Parts of the Cathedral were transformed into air raid shelters and a number of the playing fields were ploughed up and used to produce crops. Pupils contributed towards the war effort in many ways, many pupils helped out on local farms, collected scraps of metal, and trained as First Aid workers.
Due to the numbers of pupils rapidly increasing during the 1940s, The King’s School assumed control over part of the former Bluecoat School buildings on Upper Northgate Street. By the early 1950s, a 999 year lease had been secured with the Eaton Estate for the current 32 acre site on Wrexham Road on the outskirts of the city.
The designing of the new buildings started in 1956, and in 1960 the whole school moved to the new site, and the royal connection continued when the school was opened by Her Majesty The Queen Mother. Further building extensions, including a sixth form centre and sports hall, were subsequently opened by HRH Princess Margaret in 1989.
In recent years, the school has developed even further, by becoming co-educational in 2003, welcoming girls from 7 to 18 years of age. Also, In June 2011 the Vanbrugh Theatre opened its doors for the first time after a £1.3m renovation of the original school hall to a modern well-equipped theatre. The school celebrated 50 years at its Wrexham Road site in 2010 with a weekend of events and the unveiling of a copper sculpture.
The School archives can be accessed by following the link below: The King's School Archives
The School Moto is (The King gave it, may God bless it) which was given by John Saul Howson , D.D. Dean of Chester. John Saul Howson was the chief instrument in the building and endowing of the King's School, and in its reorganisation on a broader basis.[1] The School uses the arms of King Henry VIII.
The school follows the standard curriculum of GCSE and A-Levels in the senior school, in the fifth and sixth forms.
Most recently, King's celebrated its best ever A-Level results with over 28% of the results at the coveted A* grade, with 67.2% at A*/A grade. Just over half of King's pupils gained A*/A grades in every subject. In addition to this, 94.9% of the GCSE grades were A*/B Grades and a third of all the King’s pupils gained all A/A* grades. This year, King’s had 11 pupils who accepted places at Cambridge and Oxford and the vast majority of others accepted places at some of the top universities in the country.
In September 2011, King’s saw the introduction of a new curriculum which had been further developed to enhance its pupil’s educational experience. The major innovation came with enrichment lessons being added to their curriculum.
Shortly after The King’s Schools A-Level and GCSE results were released, it was found that The Telegraph had published the A level and GCSE Independent school league tables which placed King's firmly as the top performing school in Cheshire and the second highest in the North West for A level results and third for GCSE results.
The Telegraph A-Level Results League Table 2011
The Telegraph GCSE League Table 2011
The school's pupils engage in a wide range of extra-curricular activities, including music and drama, as well as educational trips abroad, the Duke of Edinburgh's Award scheme, and a Combined Cadet Force contingent. The school's sporting activities are described in a separate section. Academically, extra-curriculum subjects such as lunchtime ancient Greek and ECDL are popular among students.
The school has a state-of-the-art Music School, equipped with a recording studio, a large recital room, and a music technology room. It has a successful Schola Cantorum which recently toured Paris and sang at Notre Dame.
Annual productions of musical theatre at King's have occurred for much of the past half-century in the latter half of the Lent (Spring) term. Under the headmastership of Roger Wickson, there were biennial productions of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, often performed in collaboration with The Queen's School, Chester, in which he played a starring role in addition to producing and directing. Notable shows in the past 5 years include West Side Story, Assassins, Into The Woods, Timberlake Wertenbaker's Our Country's Good, and Les Misérables. Recent Sixth Form drama productions have included Jonson's 'The Alchemist' and Bertolt Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.
Trips abroad are arranged by several departments fairly regularly. In addition to annual foreign language exchange visits, these include the art, history, physics and physical education departments. An international expedition is also undertaken from time to time, with recent destinations including India, Morocco and Tanzania.[2] The importance of such trips has recently led to the appointment of an "Educational Visits Co-ordinator".
The school encourages the Duke of Edinburgh's award scheme, and students regularly gain their Bronze, Silver and Gold awards during their time at the school, or shortly afterwards.[3]
The King's School's Combined Cadet Force (CCF) is a voluntary contingent within the CCF of the Ministry of Defence, originally formed during the First World War. It consists of the mandatory Army Section, with an additional RAF Section. Its nominal roll currently includes approximately 133 cadets. Notable achievement of the contingent include the Award of International Air Cadet Exchange[4] in 2005. Numerous Gliding scholarships, Leadership and Personal achievements have been gained including two Geoffrey de Havilland Flying Foundation Medals in recent years. For example, in 2005, individual cadets were awarded a RN Special Flying Award (Powered)[5] and an RAF Flying Scholarship[6]. In 2009 and 2010 three more RAF Flying Scholarships were awarded to cadets from the contingent. The contingent participate annually in the Welbeck Pentathlon Competition, and has had outstanding achievements in 2005 (Jnr Team 1st Place, Snr Team 2nd Place[7]), 2003 (Snr Team 1st Place, Jnr Team 2nd Place) and 2002 (Jnr Team 1st Place). The contingent has also won The King's and Cheshire Cups[8] several times.
The Herald is the school magazine that is published on a term. Its articles within the publication are about current pupils, teachers and former pupils. The magazine is also published online for pupils to view and is sent to parents on a regular basis.
The King's School has an inclusive, democratic Prefect system that enables as many students as possible to gain access to positions of both leadership and responsibility.
| King's School Chester Rowing Club | |
|---|---|
| Location | The Groves, Chester |
| Founded | 1887 |
| Home Water | River Dee |
| Website | sites.kingschester.co.uk/rowing |
| Affiliations | Amateur Rowing Association |
| Notable Members | |
| Tom James, Chris Bartley, Olivia Whitlam | |
The football team added the Chester and District Cup to their trophy cabinet in the 2007-2008 season with a 2-0 victory over Chester Catholic High School[9].
The school's boat house is situated on the River Dee in the centre of Chester, and stores over 100 boats. A dozen former pupils have rowed for Oxbridge and there has been more than one Olympic rower. Chris Bartley, Peter Rudge, and Olivia Whitlam are all ex-King's rowers, though the school's most notable former pupil to continue rowing is 2008 Olympic gold medallist Tom James, who also won the 2007 Boat Race whist President of the Cambridge University Boat Club. The five times British Indoor Rowing Champion and 2006 World Indoor Rowing Champion, Graham Benton, was also a pupil at the school though he never rowed during his time there.
Founded in 1887, The King's School Rowing Club has an enviable reputation as one of the country's top school clubs. Rowing is offered as part of the sports curriculum in the third year, and forms part of the curriculum from then on for those who wish to participate. The school competes nationally at a high level and the 1st VIII has won the International Belgian Junior Championships for the past two years while on training camps to Ghent, Belgium.
The 2006/2007 hockey season saw the appointment of former England captain Russell Hornby. The School has also recently employed Pakistani Captain Ali Ghanzafar as coach for the 1st XI, thanks largely to Russell Hornby, an ex team mate of Ghanzafar's from Bowdon Hockey Club. Another of the hockey coaches, Simon Egerton, is a member of the England hockey team.[10]
Since 1950, The King’s School has been based on a purpose built site at Wrexham Road, Chester. Pupils have access to a Sixth Form Centre, a fully equipped Library (Wickson Library), a Swimming Pool, all weather sports pitches; grass sports pitches, a cricket pavilion, a standalone Music School (Tim Turvey Music School) and a Boat House on the River Dee. During the summer of 2011, a new £1.2 million state of the art theatre development was opened at the school
With the advent of co-education, the school experienced a significant degree of redevelopment and enlargement. Many new facilities were built. Amongst the completed developments are the all-weather outdoor sports pitch and the expansion to the Art and Design Technology departments. Four new general purpose classrooms for the Junior School were built and there are two specialist classrooms for the Junior School.
Other new facilities are the tennis/netball courts, teaching classrooms and laboratories for the Senior School, and a new music school ( named as the Tim Turvey Music School[2]). Adjacent farmland has also been acquired for use as football pitches. The state of the art Vanbrugh Theatre opened in June 2011, named after former pupil, Sir John Vanbrugh, celebrated theatre architect and dramatist.
The school's current headmaster (since 2007) is Chris Ramsey, a graduate of Modern and Medieval Languages from Cambridge University. Ramsey previously served as Head of Modern Languages at Wellington College, Berkshire and Headmaster of King's College, Taunton.
The school boasts a number of staff who are themselves notable:
Alumni of the school, known as Old King's Scholars, include:
The King’s School has a proud history of producing successful individuals. Former pupils include actors, sportsmen and women, Members of parliament, broadcasters and judges.
The Chester Association of Old King's Scholars (CAOKS), founded in 1866, exists to maintain links between former students. It is one of the longest established and most successful alumni associations in the country.[19]. Former pupils may additionally register with the Organisation for the Alumni of the King's School Chester (OAKS) to receive exclusive membership benefits such as special offers and deals.[20]