| Truro School | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| Truro, Cornwall | |
| Information | |
| Type | Co-educational Independent |
| Established | 1880 |
| Headmaster | Mr Paul Smith |
| Staff | 65 |
| Number of students | 819 |
| Website | www.truroschool.com |
Truro School is a mixed independent school located in the city of Truro, Cornwall, UK. The current Headmaster is Paul Smith. Deputy Headteachers are Nick Fisher (academic) and Anita Firth (pastoral). Phil Brewer is Assistant Head (Co-curricular) and Head of Sixth Form.[1] There were 819 pupils (526 boys, 293 girls) in the 2008–2009 academic year and 25% (209) were enrolled as sixth form students.
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"Truro Wesleyan Middle Class College" (referred to as Truro College) was founded by Wesleyan Methodists in November 1879, and on 20 January 1880 lessons commenced using sites in River Street and Strangways Terrace, Truro.[2] The present site was completed in 1882. The name Truro College was changed to Truro School in 1931 when it was considered that it was "pretentious...to claim the style of "College" if its pupils are for the most part below the age of 18".[3] Girls were admitted into the sixth form in 1976,[4] and it became fully co-educational in 1990.[5] In 2005, a history of the school entitled High on the Hill was produced by Joanna Wood to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the school.
There have been only 9 Headmasters in the 130 years since the foundation of the school: George Turner (1880–1887), Thomas Jackson (1887–1890), Herbert Vinter (1890–1921), Egbert H. Magson[6](1921–1946), A Lowry Creed (1946–1959), Derek Burrell (1959–1986), Barry Hobbs (1986–1991), (Brian Jackson, Acting Headmaster 1991-1992), Guy Dodd (1992–2001) and Paul Smith (since 2001).
Pupils must sit an entrance exam, the equivalent of an 11+ exam, although some pupils take the equivalent 13+ exam as certain local schools still teach up to year 9 (year 3). Academic, and occasionally music, artistic or sports scholarships, are also awarded as are means-tested bursaries as part of an established assisted place scheme. Current fees range from £5,360 per term for day pupils to £7,460 per term for boarders.[7]
In November 2005 the school was one of 50 private schools found guilty of running an illegal price-fixing cartel, exposed by The Times, which had resulted in them increasing fees for thousands of parents.[8] Each school was required to pay a nominal penalty of £10,000 and all agreed to make an ex-gratia payment, collectively totalling £3 million, into a trust designed to benefit pupils who attended the schools during the period where the fee information was shared.[9] Headmaster Paul Smith said that the school had acted "unwittingly".[10] "This ... systematic exchange of confidential information as to intended fee increases was anti-competitive and resulted in parents being charged higher fees than would otherwise be the case," the OFT stated.[11]
Built on a hilltop overlooking the city of Truro and its nineteenth century Cathedral, its facilities include the school chapel, Burrell Theatre (named after Derek Burrell, headmaster from 1959–1986), a covered and heated swimming pool, two gymnasiums, 40 acres (160,000 m2) of sports fields, a running track, tennis and squash facilities, and an astro-turf pitch. The school is almost entirely situated on a hill and therefore has limited disabled facilities with only two of the buildings having disabled access lifts.
The school uses the traditional numbering system for year groups: the lower school - years 1 to 5, and the sixth form - lower- and upper-sixth years. This is equivalent to years 7 to 13 in modern state schools. Years 1 to 3 are split into forms for most lessons although Maths and Foreign languages are structured into sets according to ability. For the GCSE (years 4 and 5) forms are sub-divided into smaller sets for most subjects. This continues into the sixth form.
Each pupil is placed into a school 'house' used for intra-school competitions and sports matches:
The four houses compete for the Opie Shield over many varied sporting events for boys, girls and mixed teams across all year groups. Deputy Head Anita Firth recently introduced non-sporting events such as the "Top House" competition, an inter-house quiz along the lines of University Challenge. The shield is presented annually on Speech Day by the Headmaster to the captains of the house accruing the most number of points across the disciplines. The Opie Shield has been won by Smith House for six consecutive years but in the academic year 2008-09 by the smallest margin for some time.
Though the majority of students are day-pupils, there are also about 45 boarders, of whom a quarter are from overseas, including a dozen German temporary students who spend up to three terms in the Lower Sixth.
The school has three boarding houses - one for boys and two for girls:
Trennick is the only boarding house situated in the school's original main building, although the other two are still on the campus. They are family-run communities with married house staff and other teachers who live on site. Temporary and 'Flexi-boarding' is also available.
Truro School has its own feeder school for the age group 3 - 11. Treliske School was founded in 1936 and is situated within the grounds of Truro Golf Course, near Treliske Hospital. It has recently been renamed Truro School Preparatory School, or TruroPrep. Originally a boys school, it became co-educational in 1989. There have been just 4 headmasters since inception: Tommy Stratton (1936–1960), Alan Ayres (1960–1989), Russell Hollins (1989–2004) and Matthew Lovett since 2004. The building to accommodate Willday House, the Pre-Preparatory School originally located in Trennick Lane, was added in 1991. There were 240 pupils (135 boys, 105 girls) in the 2008 - 2009 academic year. Current fees range from £2150 - £3045 per term.
The school uniform for the lower years consists of a blue with brown and white diagonal striped tie and navy blazer with the white school crest on the breast pocket. Until recently, ties were awarded for performance in activities which could either be full or half colours; these featured a plain blue tie with a crest on it (previously a full colour pattern of the schools crest). Also, clubs and societies within the school offered similar ties, however this was mainly through sporting activities and the School's Christian Union. This system has been changed to one of 'badges', worn on the blazer (lower school) or jacket (sixth form), awarded for music, drama and sports. The rest of the uniform consists of a white shirt/blouse with black trousers or a school kilt for girls. In 2004, the sixth form moved away from traditional dress to a more smart casual style. Jackets must still be worn, with a formal shirt and tie for boys and plain blouse for girls.
The school teaches the full range of arts, science and social science subjects to GCSE and A-Level. The sciences are taught as three separate subjects as it is considered that this allows students a greater choice of options at A-Level and beyond. For the school year 2007/2008 the three separate sciences became compulsory subjects for GCSE in place of the previous option to take up a combined science course in the 4th year. Geology has also been introduced as a GCSE option - previously pupils had to have extracurricular lessons for Geology at GCSE level. French and German are both taught in the 1st and 2nd year and students also have the further option to take up Spanish in year 3.
The students produce three magazines: Apparatus Criticus (English), Rigor Mortis (History) and Spark (Current Affairs), the latter being established by Upper Sixth pupils in September 2008. All students receive a copy of Terraces, a magazine highlighting events from the previous year, at the beginning of September. This magazine is produced within the school by a member of staff. A twice yearly newsletter is also sent to the homes of pupils.
There are several notable alumni of Truro School. Some of the more notable are: Jaws actor Robert Shaw, Queen drummer Roger Taylor, the actor John Rhys-Davies; automobile designer Geoffrey Healey; international opera singers Benjamin Luxon and Alan Opie; several Members of Parliament (including current MPs George Eustice and Mark Prisk); Olympic Gold medallist Ben Ainslie; and England international rugby union captain John Kendall-Carpenter.[12]
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