- This article is about St Paul's School in Barnes, South West London, which is not the Choir School of St Paul's Cathedral. For other schools see St Paul's School.
| St Paul's School | |
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| Motto | Fide Et Literis (Latin: By Faith and By Learning) |
| Established | 1509 |
| Type | Public School |
| High Master | Dr George Martin Stephen |
| Chairman of the Governors | Sir Alexander Graham GBE DCL |
| Founder | John Colet |
| Location | Lonsdale Road Barnes London SW13 9JT  England |
| Staff | c.110 |
| Students | c.800 |
| Gender | Boys |
| Ages | 13 to 18 |
| Houses | A – H |
| School colours | Black and White
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| Former pupils | Old Paulines |
| Website | www.stpaulsschool.org.uk |
St Paul's School is a boys' public school, founded in 1509 by John Colet. It was originally located in the City of London and is now located on a large site in the London suburb of Barnes. It is one of the original nine English public schools as defined by the Public Schools Act 1868. It is one of the top academic schools in the country, as measured by its position in the national league tables of GCSE and A level performance, and is also among the top schools with respect to the arts and sport.[1] Since 1881 St Paul's has had its own preparatory school, Colet Court.
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History
St Paul's School takes its name from St Paul's Cathedral in London. A cathedral school had existed since early times, and certainly from about 1103. By the sixteenth century, however, it had declined, and in 1509 a new St Paul's School was founded by John Colet, Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, on a plot of land to the north of the Cathedral. A cathedral school still exists for the education of the cathedral choristers, but it is a later refoundation and has no connection with the public school. The eldest son of Sir Henry Colet, who was a member of the Mercers' Company and twice Lord Mayor of London, he inherited a substantial fortune, the great part of which he used for the endowment of his School, having no family of his own (his 21 siblings all died in childhood and he was a celibate priest). He described himself in the statutes of the school as "desyring nothing more thanne Educacion and bringing upp chyldren in good Maners and litterature."[2] Originally, the school provided education for 153 children of "all nacions [sic] and countries indifferently", primarily in literature and etiquette. The number 153 has long been associated with the miracle of the draught of fishes recorded in St John's Gospel, and for several generations Foundation Scholars have been given the option of wearing an emblem of a silver fish. St Paul's was the largest school in England at its foundation, and its High Master had a salary of 13 shillings and sixpence weekly, which was double that of the contemporary Head Master of Eton College. The scholars were not required to make any payment, although they were required to be literate, and they had to pay for their own wax candles, at that time an expensive commodity.
Colet was the outspoken critic of the powerful and worldly Church of his day, and the friend of Erasmus and Sir Thomas More. Erasmus wrote textbooks for the school and St Paul's was the first English school to teach Greek, reflecting the humanist interests of the founder. Colet distrusted the Church as a managing body for his school, declaring that he "found the least corruption" in married laymen. For this reason, Colet assigned the management of the School and its revenues to the Mercers' Company, the premier livery company in the City of London, with which his father had been associated. The governing body of the school is still strongly associated with nominees of the Mercers' Company. In 1876 the Company were legally established as Trustees of the Colet estate and the management of the School was assigned to a Board of Governors consisting of the Master, Wardens and nine members of the Company, together with three representatives each of the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and London. The Company still forms the major part of the School's governing body, and it continues to administer Colet's trust. One of St Paul's early headmasters was Richard Mulcaster, famous for writing two influential treatises on education (Positions[3], 1581, and Elementarie, 1582). His description in Positions of "footeball" as a refereed team sport is the earliest reference to organised modern football. For this description and his enthusiasm for the sport he is considered the father of modern football. St Paul's has since its foundation been one of the leading British public schools. Between 1861 and 1864, the Clarendon Commission (a Royal Commission) investigated the public school system in England and its report formed the basis of the Public Schools Act 1868. St Paul's was one of only nine schools considered by the Clarendon Commission, and one of only two schools which was not predominantly attended by boarders (the other day school was Merchant Taylors'). Under the direction of F. W. Walker, who had become the High Master in 1887, the School rapidly expanded, and established itself as one of the foremost teaching schools in the country. Between 1886 and 1895, St Paul's boys won 173 entrance awards at Oxford and Cambridge, which was 26 more than any other school. Over many years its record of Open Awards at Oxford and Cambridge in all subjects has been equal, or superior, to that of any other school of comparable size. Since the introduction of league tables of public examination results at GCSE and A level, St Paul's has consistently been placed at or near the top of all boys' school results throughout the country.
Buildings
The original school, which stood in St Paul's Churchyard, was destroyed with the Cathedral in the Great Fire of London in 1666. The school was twice rebuilt, first in 1670, and again in Cheapside in 1822; but towards the end of the 19th century, as London expanded and residents moved away from the City of London and its environs, it was decided that the school should move to larger premises.
In 1884 a new building designed by the architect Alfred Waterhouse rose to dominate the countryside of Hammersmith. The terracotta for the Hammersmith school was made by the famous Gibbs and Canning Limited of Tamworth. At this time the street numbering was changed locally and so the school address, whether by accident or design, became 153 Hammersmith Road. The preparatory school, Colet Court, was soon afterwards housed in new premises in a similar style on the opposite side of the road. In September 1939, the School was evacuated to Easthampstead Park, near Crowthorne in Berkshire, where, under the then High Master, W. F. Oakeshott, it became solely a boarding school for the period of the war. Playing fields and some other facilities were borrowed from nearby Wellington College, but the boys and the teachers from the two schools were kept entirely separate. In the meantime, the London buildings became the H.Q. of XXI Army Group under the command of General, later Field-Marshal, Bernard Montgomery, himself an Old Pauline. There the military side of the invasion of Europe was planned, including the D-Day landings. The map that he used is still present in the modern day site of the school in the Montgomery Room. The School recovered its buildings in September 1945, and resumed life essentially as a day school,although it retains a small number of boarders to this day. By 1961 it had become evident that the old school buildings were unsuited to modern educational needs. By good fortune, the opportunity then came to rebuild the School on a 45 acre (182,000 m²) riverside site at Barnes, adjacent to Hammersmith Bridge. This land had previously been the site of reservoirs which were filled in, reputedly with earth excavated during the construction of the Victoria Line. The sports pitches took a long time to settle, and competitive matches were not played regularly at the Barnes site until summer 1979. The present and fifth School buildings were opened here in September 1968. The new site also includes St Paul's Preparatory School, or Colet Court, whose pupils account for roughly one half of the senior school's intake each year. The Waterhouse building on Hammersmith Road was demolished amid protests – apart from the gates and the peripheral walls, the High Master's House, and a toolhut — and flats were built on the site. The Colet Court building also survives. The 1968 buildings include a 25m swimming pool and canteen shared with Colet Court. Extensive sports facilities notably included a fencing salle, five fives courts, two squash courts. The location next to the River Thames also meant that a rowing boathouse was included in the plans, which itself included both an indoor training tank and a flat to accommodate a boatman whose primary job was to build and maintain the boats. A striking and deliberate omission from the new buildings was any provision for a school hall capable of holding all masters and boys simultaneously. There were originally two boarding houses in the 1968 buildings (School House and High House) accommodating up to 120 boarders, but the number of boarders has steadily declined and is now only 20. One of the boarding houses has been demolished to make way for a new music building, which houses the Wathen Hall. The only building which remained from the previous Water Board landowners became the music department for Colet Court. The original buildings were built using a modular system of interlocking concrete slabs. This allowed for relatively quick and cheap construction, and allowed for the fact that much of the site was formed from reservoir land which was still settling. The whole complex is now in need of replacement; the only existing buildings likely to remain are the Music school, incorporating the Wathen Hall, opened in 1999, and the Rackets Court.
Associated schools
By the end of the nineteenth century the funds of the Dean Colet Foundation had increased to such an extent that the Trustees decided to build a school for girls, and in 1904, St Paul's Girls' School was opened in Brook Green, Hammersmith, just around the corner from the then site of the boys school in Hammersmith Road. Unlike the boys, the girls' school remains in its original position, although it has expanded and constructed new buildings and facilities alongside the old. During the past 100 years the School has earned a reputation which today places it foremost among girls' schools in the country. In 1881, a boys' preparatory school was founded which later became Colet Court. Colet Court is now on the same site as the main school and most of its pupils are expected to pass into St Paul's School when they reach the age of 13. It thus serves as a junior school for the main establishment.
Present day
The Boys' School numbered 846 boys in 2005, the 496th year of its foundation. Approaching its 500th anniversary an ambitious total rebuilding of the School at its present site is planned, to be completed over a 25-year period. The current High Master, George Martin Stephen, recently announced an aspiration for the school to be needs-blind within 25 years – £250 million will need to be raised to accomplish this. The school day lasts from 8.35a.m. to 4.15p.m. and consists of 8 periods, including a one and three-quarter hour lunch break during which pupils usually participate in sporting or extracurricular activities, such as music, debating or computing. Pupils of all ages are not allowed to leave the school premises without permission at any time during the school day. The school still maintains a limited boarding facility for the use of some twenty boys. There are strong boarding house traditions including the annual bonfire and two hours of compulsory study known as "prep" every evening. Newer traditions include the sponsored all night five-a-side football tournament, a "charity sponging" event and the 4-2-1 football league tournament. Music, the arts and drama are well provided for at St Paul's and are seen as an integral part of the educational opportunities provided by the school. A large number of concerts, art exhibitions and plays take place each year, and pupils regularly receive national recognition for their achievements. The school has a strong sports department. Richard Mulcaster, who was High Master from 1596, is considered the father of early modern football in England. St Paul's was also a founding member of the Rugby Football Union in 1871. It was pre-eminent in public school boxing, its first team failing to win only two boxing matches against first team boxers from other schools over a period of 25 years; however, boxing was discontinued as a school sport in the 1960s. More recently, the school teams were runners-up in the rugby U15 Daily Mail Cup in 2005 and in 2007, the Boat Club has twice won the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta and the Athletics team has seen success at the Achilles Relays competition over the last two years in the 4 x 800 metres event. Many former pupils keep in touch with each other through the Old Pauline Club. Various sporting clubs are affiliated to the Old Pauline Club, such as the Old Pauline Football Club (OPFC), the Old Pauline Association Football Club (OPAFC), the Old Pauline Cricket Club (OPCC), the Old Pauline Association Club (OPAC) and the Old Pauline Harvey Chess Society (OPHCS), who participate in many national tournaments with moderate success.
Examination results
St Paul's has for most of its recent history since the nineteenth century been amongst the most successful schools in the country from the point of view of academic achievement, even at a time when other public schools placed greater emphasis on sporting achievement or social formation. Since the introduction of official league tables of national examination performance, St Paul's has invariably been at or near the top of the league of boys schools. In 2005, St Paul's obtained (for the second year running) the best overall placing in the GCSE exam league tables published nationally, and was also the leading boys school in the A level results tables. 60% of its leavers went to Oxford or Cambridge, which was also the highest proportion achieved by any boys' school in the country. In 2007, the 2005 record was matched again, with 62 leavers receiving offers from Oxford and Cambridge[4]. In 2007, at A level, 97.8% of the grades were A or B, and, out of a year group of 163 A level candidates, 116 achieved straight A's in between 3 and 6 A level subjects. Also in 2007, at GCSE level, 79.3% of grades were A*, and 96.6% were A* or A. No grade in any GCSE subject was lower than B. Out of a GCSE year group of 177, 45 achieved A* grades in all their GCSE subjects and a further 29 achieved A* grades in all but one subject. (Source: The Bridge (School Magazine) Issue 31 Spring 2008 p 3 "Academic News"). In 2008, for the fist time, its students will be sitting the IGCSE exam instead of GCSE in Science and Mathematics. The school does not currently offer the International Baccalaureate as an alternative to A level, and has suffered on many league tables as a result.
Masterplan
The masterplan is the plan to rebuild the entire site of the school, to be started within the next few years (as of 2007). The school has stated that the rebuild should not change the nature of the school (for example by not dramatically changing the number of students attending), just to improve the current available facilities. The majority of the current buildings date from the 1960s; this may not seem old, though they were built with a construction technology (CLASP) that has a finite lifespan. Even though over the last few years various buildings (such as the new music school) have been added on the campus wherever space was available, the dated buildings currently represent 77% of the school. Local planning restrictions combined with a lack of available surplus land mean that St Paul's is faced with progressively replacing obsolete buildings with new ones located in the same general area. The plan should eventually result in a large building footprint area increase as well as increasing the amount of staff housing. The number of car parking spaces will be reduced, but there will be much more available room for bicycles. Plans to redevelop the site are now well advanced; Nicholas Hare Architects LLP have been appointed to produce detailed designs for the first set of new buildings.
School coat of arms
Like many ancient educational foundations, St Paul's School traditionally used the arms of its founder, John Colet. His arms were Sable on a chevron Argent between three Hinds trippant Argent three Annulets Sable, and they were originally used by his great-grandfather, Richard Colet. As Dean of St Paul's, he was entitled to impale them with the arms of the Deanery, and the school has often used them in this form also. In 2002, the school obtained its own grant of arms from the College of Arms consisting of the arms of Dean Colet surrounded by a gold bordure, upon which the crossed swords of the Dean of St Paul's are repeated.
High Masters of St Paul's School
The headmaster of St Paul's is known as the High Master and his deputy is known as the Surmaster, which is also the title given to him in the statutes. The following have been High Masters of St Paul's School:
- William Lily 1509-1522
- John Ritwise 1522-1532
- Richard Jones 1532-1549
- Thomas Freeman 1549-1559
- John Cook 1559-1573
- William Malym 1573-1581
- John Harrison 1581-1596
- Richard Mulcaster 1596-1608
- Alexander Gill Senior 1608-1635
- Alexander Gill Junior 1635-1640
- John Langley 1640-1657
- Samuel Cromleholme 1657-1672
- Thomas Gale 1672-1697
- John Postlethwayt 1697-1713
- Philip Ayscough 1713-1721
- Benjamin Morland 1721-1733
- Timothy Crumpe 1733-1737
- George Charles 1737-1748
- George Thicknesse 1748-1769
- Richard Roberts 1769-1814
- John Sleath 1814-1837
- Herbert Kynaston 1838-1876
- Frederick William Walker 1877-1905
- Albert Ernest Hillard 1905-1927
- John Bell 1927-1938
- Walter Fraser Oakeshott 1938-1946
- Robert Leoline James 1946-1953
- Antony Newcombe Gilkes 1953-1962
- Thomas Edward Brodie Howarth 1962-1973
- James Warwick Hele 1973-1986
- Lord Pilkington of Oxenford 1986-1992
- Richard Stephen Baldock 1992-2004
- George Martin Stephen 2004-
Notable old boys
Old Pauline Club
The Old Pauline Club, to which the majority of students attending the school become members, is based in Thames Ditton. The club owns a number of sports pitches here, as well as the successful Colets' Health and Fitness Club.
Southern Railway School's Class
The School lent its name to the tenth steam locomotive (Engine 909) in the Southern Railway's Class V of which there were in total 40. This group of locomotives was also known as the School's Class because all 40 were named after prominent English public schools. St Paul's, as the locomotive was called, was built in 1930 along with the rest of the initial ten locomotives in the class, and was withdrawn in the early 1960s.
See also
References
- ^ St Paul's School OFSTED Inspection Report, Educational Standards Achieved by Pupils at the School (originally published October 2001)
- ^ STATUTA PAULINÆ SCHOLÆ
- ^ Positions wherin those primitive circumstances be examined...[dead link – history]
- ^ Oxbridge Successes for 2007 entry
External links
- St Paul's School official website
- Colets Health and Fitness Club
- St Paul's School on Placeopedia.com
- A History of St Paul's School (1909) Sir Michael McDonnell's classic history of the school, scanned onto the internet
