King's College School, Cambridge

King's College School is a coeducational independent preparatory school in Cambridge, England, situated on West Road off Grange Road, west of the city centre. It was founded to educate the choristers in the King's College Choir during the 15th century. Although no longer located on College grounds, it remains an integral part of the Chapel's musical tradition and is still governed by and receives some funding from the College. The school is part of the same historic foundation as Eton College. The most recent full integrated Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) inspection awarded the grade ‘excellent’ in all 9 categories.[2]

Not to be confused with King's College, Cambridge.
For the school in Wimbledon, London, see King's College School.
King's College School
Address
West Road

Cambridge
,
Cambridgeshire
,
CB3 9DN

England
Information
TypeIndependent preparatory day and boarding
Choral foundation school
Religious affiliation(s)Church of England
Established1441 (1441)
FounderHenry VI of England
Department for Education URN110911 Tables
Chair of GovernorsProf Robert Foley
HeadYvette Day
GenderCo-educational
Age4 to 13
Number of students420[1]
Houses Burrells
 Grange
 Queens
 West
Colour(s) Purple
PublicationThe Fleur De Lys (Annual)
The KCS Express (Termly)
Websitewww.kcs.cambs.sch.uk

History

King's College was founded in 1441 by King Henry VI. By 1447 the full complement of 16 choristers had been recruited to sing in the chapel. They were likely educated by a fellow until the appointment of the first Informator Chorustarum (Master over the Choristers) in 1456, Robert Brantham.[3] The existence of dedicated school rooms was recorded during a Marian visitation of the University in 1557 which inspected the "chorusters chamber and schole" and took away a number of books deemed to be unsuitable.[4]

The location of the demolished brick building that housed the choir school in the 18th century

The school has moved location several times since its inception. By 1693 it was located in a building to the south-east of the chapel, next to King's Parade.[4] In this year that building was demolished and replaced with what was known as the New Brick Building which continued to house the school through to the nineteenth century.[5][4][3] In the 1820s during the rebuilding by William Wilkins, the brick building and adjoining Provost's Lodge were demolished, opening up a view of the chapel from the street. The outline of the foundations of the brick building can be seen on the lawn during long periods of hot dry weather.[3]

In 1828 the Wilkins building on the south side of the court opposite the chapel was opened and the school was housed in rooms within it.[3] By the 1870s in response to improving musical standards in other English choirs, it was decided to open a boarding house to accommodate choristers from outside Cambridge in order to widen the field from which selection of choristers could take place. This was opened on the current site in West Road in 1878, and by 1880 all 16 choristers were boarders, and there were also 8 non-chorister day pupils, a number that would gradually increase over the coming decades.[3] From 1976 girls were admitted, and as the school expanded, it opened a pre-preparatory department.[6]

Boarding

The boarding programme is open only to boys. Choristers are full boarders while other boys return home for the weekend.[7]

Houses

Like many British schools, King's uses a house system. This is not a system related to boarding houses, of which there is only one at King's, but one of which pupils are placed into one of four houses, each named after a surrounding road or path. There are many inter-house competitions throughout the year in sports and academics, in the form of merits, awarded for good work, which are totalled and averaged each term, with the house with the highest average merits winning a house party. In recent years, a new competition, called "It's A Knockout" (after the British TV show of the same name), in which many wacky games are played and money is also raised, has been added to the competitions.

The school began a link project with Sri Siddharta Dikkumbura school in Sri Lanka in 2007 initially as a response to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, after a visit there by the then headmaster, Nicholas Robinson, but the link quickly went beyond aid and became more of an academic link, with three yearly teacher exchanges and many more exchanges of work between the schools to learn more about each culture. King's often raises funds to help the school, and has sent musical instruments and sports equipment to the school in Sri Lanka as well.[8]

Alumni
Kings College Choristers 1882

Heads

The following headteachers have served since 1878 when the school relocated to its present site in West Road:[11]

  • Vincent Charles Reynell 1878–1887
  • Benjamin Benham 1887–1905
  • Trenham Candy Weatherhead 1905–1912
  • Charles Richard Jelf 1912–1927
  • Cedric Moulton Fiddian 1927–1950
  • Donald George Butters 1950–1958
  • Adam Sebastian Arnold-Brown 1958–1959 (interim)
  • David Briggs 1959–1977
  • Gerald Peacocke 1977–1993
  • Andrew Corbett 1993–1998
  • Nicholas Robinson 1998–2017
  • Tom Hales (acting) 2017
  • Yvette Day 2018–[12]

See also

References
  1. "About King's". King's College School. Archived from the original on 5 October 2020. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
  2. "Integrated Inspection King's College School Cambridge" (PDF). Independent Schools Inspectorate. 2014. Archived from the original on 5 October 2020. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
  3. Henderson, RJ (1981). A History of King's College Choir School Cambridge. ISBN 978-0950752808.
  4. John Gray (1964). "King's College School in 1564" (PDF). Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society. LVI–LVII: 88–102.
  5. Robert Willis & John Willis Clark (1886). The architectural history of the University of Cambridge and of the colleges of Cambridge and Eton: Volume 3. Cambridge University Press. p. 541.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  6. "History of King's College School". King's College School. Archived from the original on 18 January 2012. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
  7. "Boarding". King's College School. Archived from the original on 5 October 2020. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
  8. "Sri Lanka Twin Project". King's College School. Archived from the original on 5 October 2020. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
  9. Rothman, Philip (23 June 2015). "An interview with Ben Finn, co-founder of Sibelius [Part 1 of 2]". Scoring Notes. Archived from the original on 5 October 2020. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
  10. Burton, Andrew (15 May 2014). "Cellist Guy Johnston: "When music works it's magic and speaks to the soul"". Cambridge News. Archived from the original on 8 August 2014. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
  11. Page, Anne. "Cambridge, King's College School". Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
  12. "King's School announces new Head". King's College, Cambridge. 10 March 2017. Archived from the original on 5 October 2020. Retrieved 5 October 2020.

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