| Motto | Pietas Parentum (Latin: "Filial Affection") |
|---|---|
| Established | 1863 |
| Type | Independent School |
| Religion | Anglican |
| Warden | Stephen Jones |
| Chairman of Governors | Mike Stanfield |
| Founder | Rev. Thomas Chamberlain |
| Location | Woodstock Road Oxford Oxfordshire England |
| Staff | c.100 |
| Students | 657 Boys:427, Girls:230 |
| Gender | Male and Female |
| Ages | 13–18 |
| Houses | 11 |
| Colours | Yellow and Blue |
| Publication | St. Edward's Chronicle |
| Old Pupils Network | OSE Society |
| Telephone | 01865 319 204 |
| Website | www.stedwards.oxon.sch.uk |
St. Edward's School (also colloquially known as "Teddies") is a co-educational independent boarding school (sometimes referred to as a public school) located in Oxford, England. The school is located on the Woodstock Road in the north of the city close to the suburb of Summertown. In 2007 it was voted by the Country Life Magazine as number one in the top ten schools in the UK. [1] The Good Schools Guide described the school as "a less grand place than its obvious competitors and less pressurising than some, but offering every kind of opportunity in a highly privileged and civilised setting." [2]
The school has 11 boarding houses which have an average of 60 members. The school is part of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and the Oxfordshire Independent and State School Partnership. At the start of the 2011-12 academic year the school had 657 pupils paying at least £22,929 per year for day fees.[3]
The school teaches the GCSE and A-Level syallbuses. Since 2008 the school has begun to teach the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme following the trend set by other public schools.
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The school was founded in 1863 by the Rev. Thomas Chamberlain, student of Christ Church, Vicar of St Thomas the Martyr. The original school building was Mackworth Hall, which then stood on New Inn Hall Street in central Oxford.
In 1873, after a storm had damaged the school buildings and in anticipation of growing numbers, the Rev. A. B. Simeon, first Warden, moved the school to Summertown. At the time, the site was on the boundary of Oxford and surrounded by farmland, and Rev. Simeon bought a large plot for the school. The school remains on the 100-acre (0.40 km2) site today, with the Quadrangle and playing fields on opposite sides of Woodstock Road.
Rev. Simeon created a public school with monastic-style buildings around a quadrangle.[4] St. Edward's is the second largest quadrangle in Oxford, second only to Tom Quad at Christ Church. The original buildings were designed by William Wilkinson. The north range was built in 1873 and 1886, the gatehouse in 1879, and the east range including Big School and the library in 1881. Wilkinson's most significant building at St.Edward's is the chapel, built in 1876.[5]
In the First World War more St. Edward's pupils, pro rata, went to serve their country than from any other independent school in the UK. In Chapel the names of those former pupils who had lost their lives on the front line were announced. The walls of the chapel are lined with plaques remembering those former pupils who died in the First World War, Second World War and subsequent wars.
The school flourished under the guidance of Warden Kendall from 1925 to 1954. In the 1930s, a subway was built underneath the Woodstock Road following the death of a pupil who was run over by a car. The subway was the first to be built in Oxford and is still used today. Its walls are painted in the school colours.
In the Second World War air raid shelters were dug into the grass of the Quad. The School was presented with a stained glass window by the R.A.F. at the end of the War in recognition of “the superb contribution to the war effort made by former pupils of the School”. These included, among many others, Wing Commander Guy Gibson VC DSO DFC of 617 Squadron, who led 'The Dambusters' and Group Captain Sir Douglas Bader DSO DFC, the legendary (and legless) Battle of Britain fighter ace and strategic leader. Pacifist inclinations during the 1970s and 80s caused the window to be relocated, but it can now be found back on display in the Old Library.
In 1982, the school admitted its first girl, who joined in the Lower Sixth. The 11th Warden, David Christie, brought about an enormous change to the school when he fully developed the idea of allowing girls to join for the last two years of school (known as the Sixth Form). Following the success of a co-educational Sixth Form, the whole school became fully co-educational in 1997. In 1999 Dr Holly Branson, daughter of Sir Richard Branson, became the school's first ever female Head Prefect and Head of School.
There is currently a large mural in the school dining hall that depicts life at St. Edward's. Included in the painting are a number of the characters from The Wind in the Willows, written by former pupil Kenneth Grahame.
The turn of the millennium brought about a large change in the school's buildings and facilities. In quick succession, two brand new boarding houses were built, in September 1999 Kendall House opened its doors and the Kendall Quad was formed. At the same time, Corfe became the first girls' boarding house to be located on the playing fields side of the school. In 2000, the Esporta/St. Edward's Health and Raquets Club opened, this development saw major redesigning and landscaping take place as St. Edward's arguably obtained the best gym and sport centre facilities of any school in the UK. In 2001, the second new boarding house was opened, when Avenue House became the second girls' house to be on the field side of school. A 2nd all-weather astroturf pitch was opened in 2002.
In September 2004 Andrew Trotman became the 12th Warden of the school and Seagars moved out of the building it shared with Cowell's into a brand new boarding house, located on the site of the old Oakthorpe Road entrance.
In 2005 St Edward's School was one of fifty independent schools which were found guilty of running an illegal price-fixing cartel which enabled the schools to inflate fees artificially.[6] 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.[7]
July 2007 marked the official opening of the North Wall Arts Centre. The centre has been built on the site of the old school swimming pool, which was the oldest swimming pool in the country. The North Wall Arts Centre is run by Nick Quartley and hosts events by the school and by public organisations. The North Wall is central to the school, strengthening its links with the local community, which has been seen by many as vital given the current political debate on the charitable status of public schools.[8]
The North Wall Arts Centre won several major architectural awards for its design,[8] including a RIBA award.[9]
In August 2008 The £4m Life Sciences block was opened. Architecturally, it fits in well with the adjacent Tilly's and Macnamara's houses, and its glass green house can be seen from the Quad. Also in 2008 the school's inventory of computers exceeded 1,000; the majority of which are pupil-facing. The school has advised parents that it is not educationally necessary to purchase laptops as there are enough school computers for the pupils to use.
In 2009 the pupil accommodation was enhanced and Field House and Sing's House were extended to provide six new bedrooms and a new staff flat. The new Martyrs' cricket pavilion, designed by architect John Pawson, was opened in September by Lord Sandberg of Passfield (OSE).
The newly-built Martyrs' Pavilion won the 2010 Oxford Preservation Trust award in the New Buildings category.[10]
The school has five year groups. Pupils typically arrive at the school at 13 years old, having taken their Common Entrance Examination to gain a place at the school, or they can take the School's Scholarship entrance examination. Pupils at the school are aged between 13 and 18 years old. The year groups are as follows:
There are 11 Boarding Houses which are home to approximately 50-60 boys or girls. Each house is run by Housemaster or Housemistress who is a member of the teaching staff at the school and lives in the boarding house with their family. Each house also has a set of House Tutors who supervise Prep (homework) during the week and also tutor members of the house. A pastoral house matron also lives in each boarding house looking after pupils' medical (and often social) needs.
The school does have a very small number of day pupils around 120. Teddy's does not differentiate between day pupils and borders. Day pupils are expected to be in school from 8.30am until 9.00pm every week day and from 8.30am until the end of afternoon commitments on a Saturday. Day pupils are treated exactly the same as boarders. The school does not have day houses, all day pupils have a room within a boarding house and in most cases have their own bed and wardrobe. This policy means that the school does not have a day/boarder divide. So unclear is the day/boarder divide that often teachers do not know who is a day pupil and who is not.
When only the Sixth Form was fully co-educational, girls were members of boys houses but slept in what is now Oakthorpe. Houses are identified internally by a lettering system which is based on when the house was established. So the first house, Cowell's is the letter "A", Sing's is "B", Field House is "C" and so on. Certain letter such as L and I have been left out.
Named after a former long serving teacher, Cowells is a quad based house. The building that Cowell's currently occupies was shared with Segar's up until 2004 when Segars moved into a brand new building next door. Upon Segars moving, the building was refurbished and Cowell's house was expanded to occupy the upper two floors of the building. The English Department occupies the ground floor.
Sing's was originally located in the same building as the current Apsley House up to 1965. It is now located on the playing fields of the school, and dominates the Sing's quad. It was built in the 1960s and first inhabited in 1965. It is attached at one end to Field House. Sing's House overlooks St. Edward's Avenue and the Avenue playing field. Until September 2003, Field House and Sings had a joint house matron.
In 2009 a new extension was completed which improves the size and atmosphere of the house. This was part of a project to re-decorate all rooms and re-furb them.
Sing's is also a good all rounder house, coming in the top three houses for some of the school events including "House Shout" and others.
Sing's currently holds the junior house steeple chase trophy (2009). Sings have also retained the junior house steeple chase trophy (2010). Sing's also holds the Overall Inter House Rugby prize (2009).
One of the few houses in the school whose official name includes the word House in it. Field House was originally located off the school grounds further up the Woodstock Road off Squitchey Lane on what was then the former fields surrounding Oxford. Pupils in Field House used to have to walk the mile down the Woodstock Road to school. In the mid 1960's the school sold the original Field House and moved the boys into a new purpose built building on the school playing fields. Presumably due to its situation, Field House has always had a particularly strong sporting tradition, maintained to this day, with the steeplechase team of 2006/7 winning the event by a record 275 points over the nearest house (Kendall), and again overall winners of 2011 with the Junior school race first in the whole school. However, Field House has demonstrated acumen in all areas of school, winning the "House Challenge" General Knowledge competition in 2006, and being placed in both classifications of the house singing competition in 2007. The original Field House today is a block of flats but is marked on the Woodstock Road by Field House Drive. Until September 2003, Field House and Sings had a joint house matron. Former housemasters include Robert Aldred, Geoffery Boult (OSE and current headmaster of Giggleswick School). James Quick (current headmaster of the preparatory school of Gresham's School) became the first person to have been housemaster of two St. Edward's houses, having been Apsley housemaster from 1994-2000. In his first speech to the Field House boys in September 2001 he stated his pride at being housemaster of the best house in the school which of course won great cheers from the boys. Since Richard Murray came to housemaster Field House has gone from strength to strength in sport, music and academics. In the junior house hockey in 2010 and 2011 the team did not lose a goal against them and won both tournaments. In 2009 they won the House Rugby and senior house hockey, they beat Kendall House by 100 goals in a 24 hour football match. In 2011 Field won the house singing competition. A Field House OSE, Tom Pellereau won the British reality show The Apprentice.
Macnamara's (or Mac's as it is affectionately known) was originally a boys house. It is connected to Tilly's and is located in the Quad. In 1997 the house was changed into a girls' house upon the school becoming full co-educational.
Apsley was originally located up the Banbury Road. Today a block of flats called Apsley House occupies the original site. The house now sits in the quad opposite Tilly's and Mac's above the school dining hall and Warden's offices. In 1997 the Warden's residence was moved to a property on the Woodstock Road and as a result Apsley was extended. Apsley has had many prefects, several in recent years. Richard Plemming has recently left and Ollie Richards has taken over the position of Housemaster.
Tilly's is named after Warden Tilly. It is located in the Quad and is attached to Mac's. It has recently been refurbished. Tilly's traditionally has a very strong rivalry with the boys of Field House due to them both being extremely strong in sports competitions and due to the quad houses/field houses rivalry which is often applied in everyday life. There is also a history of a rivalry with Apsley as to see who "owns" the Quad.
Segar's was originally located in the same building as Cowell's but in 2004 the house moved into a brand new building next to the Cowell's/Segar building. The new Segar's Building was built on the site of the old Oakthorpe Road back entrance to the school. David Gibbon took over as Housemaster from Andrew Wright in September 2007, he was previously Head of Mathematics at the school.
Segar's has a traditional a rivalry with Cowells — the house Segar's shared the a building with until 2004.
Corfe is named after Corfe Castle which has strong ties with Saint Edward the Martyr. It was extended in the 1990s. It was originally a boys' boarding house although in 1999 it closed it doors to boys. In a rather surprising move, the name Corfe stayed with the boarding house rather than the cohort of boys who had lived in it. So for a time between 1999 and 2004, some boys in the school had been members of both Corfe and Kendall House (the newly built house the boys moved into). To complicate matters, the letter "H", which was used to identify Corfe in short hand became the short hand for Kendall House. Thus the shorthand letter followed the boys but the name of the house didn't. Today Corfe is one of two girls houses located on the playing fields and is identified by the letter "K".
Oakthorpe was the first purpose built girls' house at the school. It was opened in 1997 prior to the first year of full co-education and takes its name from its situation on Oakthorpe Road. In 1999 Judy Young took over from Anne Brookes. Housemistress: Judy Young joined Oakthorpe as Housemistress in 1999. Judy has taught at St. Helen’s and St Katharine’s, Wycombe Abbey, Lancing College, and at Westfield School, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. She teaches Physics as well as running the House. She is also in charge of girls’ squash, helps with the RAF section of the CCF and is learning the trumpet.
Kendall House was opened in 1999 to accommodate the boys of Corfe who had moved out to make way for the girls to move into Corfe. Upon its completion it formed the Kendall Quad on the playing field side of the school, with Field House and Sing's forming the other sides of the quad. Kendall overlooks Upper One, the school's premier rugby pitch. Kendall is identified by the letter "H". It is the most modern boys house in the school (1999) therefore the house is very modern and generally viewed by pupils as one of the best houses.It has a great rivalry with Field House due to their proximity. James Cope, affectionately known as the "The Pope" or the "BM" internally by the boys of Kendall, became housemaster in 2007, having previously been the school's Head of Geography. This year Kendall won the senior boys steeplechase with a record number of points (168) beating Field's 2007 record.
Avenue House was opened in 2001. It was originally built in two phases with the second phase opening in 2004. It is situated on St. Edward's Avenue hence its name. It is a girls' house and is situated on the school playing fields. It is connected to Corfe. For a time, prior to the opening of the second phase, some girls were housed in the former school medical centre, Cooper Lodge. Cooper Lodge has, since the opening of the full house, been turned into the Junior Common Room (JCR) and staff accommodation.
The school has an excellent reputation as one of the country's leading public schools at sport. The main school sports are athletics, cricket, hockey, netball, rowing, rugby and tennis. The school has over 90 acres (360,000 m2) of playing fields in the heart of North Oxford on land that is considered to be prime real estate.
The school only has two "real" inter house events, the School Steeplechase and School Sports Day. The Steeplechase is the school's annual cross country race, it is held once a year and the whole school is expected to take part. The Sixth Form race in the Senior Steeplechase which is a 4-mile (6.4 km) race across Port Meadow the floodplain of the River Thames, accessed from the school grounds via the Oxford Canal towpath. The Junior Steeplechase, meanwhile, confines itself to within the school grounds. School Sports Day is held in June, and is a much less significant affair, with many events having been removed from the programme on grounds of 'Health and Safety'. Sports day is usually cancelled due to the track being flooded and so has not run for the last four years.
The school has a regular fixture list against other major UK public schools. Some of the fixtures on the fixture list have been played on the same weekend each year for decades. In boys' sports the schools main rivals are Radley College and Marlborough College.
In rowing the school has won The Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta as well as having had a number of rowers row for Great Britain at junior level before going on to compete in the annual Oxbridge boat race or at Ivy League Universities.
Recent successes in hockey have included making the National Finals for both boys(and an unbeaten season in 2010)' and girls' hockey.
St. Edward's is regarded as a very strong rugby school. The 1st XV of 2007 were only beaten in one game, becoming the first team to do so since 1998 and there are some 6 former or present pupils in their respective age group's England development squads/teams including James Forrester. The school has in recent years had an 82% success rate in Rugby Sevens.
St. Edward's has a strong rivalry with Radley particularly in rugby. The school also has a somewhat informal local rivalry with Cherwell the local state school, however the school do not play them in sport.
A book about sport at the school, "Come on Teddy's" has recently been published.
Sports facilities include:
The school is home to an Esporta Health Club. This was built on the site of the school's former sports centre (The Douglas Bader Sports Centre) and outdoor swimming pool in 1999 and opened in 2000. Within the club the school has its own sports hall, named the Douglas Bader Sports Hall. As part of the agreement between St. Edward's and Esporta, pupils have free access to the club's gym.
The school also go on an overseas tour once a year. Tours have operated since 1996. Recent tours have included:
Teddy's also host touring schools. The most notable of these is The King's School, Sydney who come to St. Edward's to play rugby once every two years when on their UK tour.
The school has very strong links with the armed forces, in particular The Royal Air Force. A large number of former pupils have gone on to serve in the forces, most notably Second World War heroes Arthur Banks, Douglas Bader, Guy Gibson and Adrian Warburton. In the Old Library the school has on display a stained glass window presented to them by the Royal Air Force to thank them for their role in the education of Second World War heroes. To this day the school maintain a strong Combined Cadet Force. The school also has a scholarship fund to assist those who are in the armed forces.
Yellow paper involves being told by your teacher to re-do your prep on yellow paper if it is sub standard in any way (incomplete, poorly presented, obviously rushed etc). The yellow paper will be given to you when your work is returned. You must hand the completed yellow paper back to your teacher as directed. Before handing it back to your teacher, you must ask your HM or Tutor to sign it. Failure to comply will result in Saturday evening detention. Yellow paper can be issued to any pupil in the school, including Sixth Formers.
Former pupils of St. Edward's are known as OSE. The St. Edward's Society exists to maintain traditions and to promote the interests of the School, and to encourage mutual help between those who are and those who have been its members. It consists of past and present Wardens and members of the Masters' Common Room and all former pupils.
The society is run by a President and Secretary. Each year a new OSE President is elected. The OSE Society organise Special Gaudies for former pupils. Special Gaudies are held twice a year and are used as a means for former pupils to visit the school and see what has changed. The OSE Society also runs the very successful "OSE Undergraduate Evenings"; these evenings take place in notable university cities throughout the year, hosted by the Hon. Secretary.
All members of the society may wear the society tie which is blue, with a gold cup and dagger on it. Former pupils are entitled to wear the Rhubarb Tie.
Notable OSE include:[11]
Notable masters of the school include:
The school has built up links with a number of schools around the world, which include: