Ipswich School

Ipswich School

Motto	Semper Eadem (Latin for Always The Same)
Established	1299 (founded in its current form in 1528)
Type	Public day and boarding school
Headmaster	Nicholas Weaver
Chairman of Governors	Mr. Karl Daniels
Location	Suffolk IP1 3SG England
DfE URN	124881
Students	c.500 pupils
Gender	Coeducational
Ages	2–18
Houses	6 day houses and 1 large boarding house
Colours	Navy Blue, Blue and white
Publication	The Ipswichian, The Cardinal, The Ipswichian Occasional, The Friendly
Visitor	HM Queen Elizabeth II
Website	www.ipswich.suffolk.sch.uk

Ipswich School is a co-educational public school for girls and boys aged 3 to 18. Situated in Suffolk, England in the town of Ipswich, it was founded in its current form as The King's School, Ipswich by Thomas Wolsey in 1528.

Located north of the town centre, Ipswich School has four parts, located on three adjacent sites. The Pre-Prep and Nursery cater for pupils aged three to seven. It was established in 1883 with the aim of preparing children aged 7 to 11 for entry into the Senior School. The Senior School occupies the main school site. The school's main buildings are a distinctive example of Victorian architecture, with Tudor style brick. The main building and chapel are both Grade II listed. The school buildings surround a central playing field and cricket square along with the Cricket Pavilion. The remainder of the School's sport's fields are located at a nearby site on the edge of the town. Within the Senior School the students are divided into three, the Lower School (Years 7 and 8), the Middle School (Years 9-11) and the Sixth Form (Years 12 and 13).

The School continues to flourish under an independent, fee-charging basis, and does exceptionally well in league tables and with university entrances, sending between 6 and 12 students to Oxford and Cambridge every year. The School was designated as having a "Church of England" Religious Character. The school has, however, not chosen to register as having a Religious Charter under the 2009 order.

History

A view of Ipswich School from Christchurch Park, as seen in an old postcard

The oldest record of Ipswich School goes back to 1299 but the school was founded in its current form in 1528 by Thomas Wolsey, later Cardinal Archbishop of York and Lord Chancellor of England, who was a pupil of the school. A merchant and Portman (Alderman) of Ipswich called Richard Felaw (a school house is named in his honour) bequeathed his house in what is now Foundation Street to the School, endowing it with lands so that children of needy parents could attend without paying fees. One of the first pupils to benefit from Felaw's endowment was Thomas Wolsey who never forgot that it was largely thanks to Felaw that he became what he became. In part to thank the school, Wolsey wanted to transform it into an institution that would compete with likes of Eton College, recently founded by King Henry VI, and would become one of England's greatest educational institutions. Wolsey created his new college, funded by the suppression of religious houses such as Rumburgh Priory, by absorbing into the former school some of the institutions in the town such as St. Mary's College, and named it (The King's School, Ipswich). Since the time of Wolsey the school has gone from strength to strength as he hoped it would.

After Wolsey's downfall in 1530 Thomas Cromwell ensured the survival of the School by securing for it a new endowment from King Henry VIII and the status of a royal foundation. This was confirmed by Queen Elizabeth I in the charter that she granted to the School in 1566. For part of the School's history it was known as Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Ipswich. The School's coat of arms and motto, Semper Eadem (Always the Same), are those of Elizabeth I. The Monarch of the United Kingdom, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is the School's Visitor.

During the reign of James I part of the Blackfriars Monastery was appropriated for use as a classroom, and the Blackfriars remained the School's home until 1842 when the building was deemed to be unsafe. For a few years teaching was carried on in temporary premises in Lower Brook Street. In 1851 Prince Albert laid the foundation stone for the School's first purpose-built premises in Henley Road, and by 1852 the new buildings were in use. The School has remained on the Henley Road site ever since.

More recently the School has moved away from the traditional full boarding ethos still held by similar schools such as Eton and Harrow. The number of boarding houses has reduced to one and the majority of students are day pupils. However, despite frowns from the full boarding traditionalists, the School has flourished under this new approach.

On 9 March 2009, Ian G. Galbraith announced his resignation which would be effective from July 2010. On 10 June 2009, Nicholas Weaver was announced as the new headmaster from September 2010.

Houses

The school now has six day houses - Holden, Rigaud, Sherrington, School, Broke and Felaw - into which all pupils are filtered from year 9/Upper 6th Form onwards, and a single large boarding house - Westwood. Those with relatives who attended the school are generally expected to be placed in the same house. There is a good deal of competition between the houses and every year, the houses compete for the Ganzoni Cup (house cup), which is won by gaining points from winning inter-house events. These include most sports as well as others such as debating and art. The final and most important event is Sports Day, in the Summer Term, on which the athletics competitions take place. Felaw has won more times than any other house, with Rigaud in second place; it is believed that School has not won since the days of the reign of Queen Victoria. However, School is the oldest house and dates from the days when the boys lived and were taught in one house (called School House). It later became the boarding house which occupied a part of the main building on Henley Road.

House	House Colours
Sherrington	Maroon/Yellow
Felaw	Brown/Blue
School	Navy/Yellow
Broke	Purple/Yellow
Holden	Scarlet/Yellow
Rigaud	Green/Yellow
Westwood	Grey/Black

The school's single large boarding house is called Westwood. Westwood is no longer a part of the school house system where students were organised into school houses depending on which boarding house they were in. For example Sherrington House occupied Highwood and, as previously mentioned, School House occupied part of the main Victorian building on Henley Road. A large percentage of the pupils who occupy Westwood today are overseas students, often Asian, nearly 80% are Chinese.

Sports and activities

The School does very well in sports often reaching National Finals in competitions. The School offers a wide selection of sports ranging from the traditional rugby, hockey and cricket, to others such as indoor hockey, sailing and Eton Fives, being one of a handful of schools in the country to have Fives Courts. The School also offers a wide range of activities for the pupils to partake in including the Torino Debating Society, a Sub Aqua Club, Duke of Edinburgh Award and a Combined Cadet Force of which the School has an Army and Royal Air Force section. The School has a flourishing music department. It provides several Orchestras, Ensembles and Choirs. Many plays are put on to a very high standard every year, in either Great School or Little School.

Cricket Ground

Ipswich School Ground

Ground information
Establishment	1859 (first recorded match)
Domestic team information
Suffolk (1935-1938, 1960-1976, 1986-2000 & 2007-present)
As of 13 August 2010 Source: Ground profile

The first recorded cricket match on the school ground was in 1859, when Suffolk played an All-England Eleven. The ground hosted its first Minor Counties Championship match in 1935 when Suffolk played Hertfordshire. To date the ground has hosted 33 Minor Counties Championship matches and 2 MCCA Knockout Trophy matches.

The ground has also hosted a single List A match between Suffolk and Kent in the 1966 Gillette Cup.

School Publications

The three main publications are The Ipswichian which is the annual School magazine, The Cardinal which is a publication for Old Ipswichians and The Occasional. The Occasional is the school newspaper published every Monday and written by pupils, and edited by the Press Officer. It contains articles of note and interest to the members of the school such as sports results and upcoming events. It has recently celebrated its 600th issue and is now in full colour as of the start of the school year 2008.

Literary and Media References

• Ipswich School is mentioned in Shakespeare's play, Henry VIII:

'Those twins of learning that he rais'd in you,
Ipswich and Oxford! One of which fell with him,
Unwilling to outlive the good that did it;
The other, though unfinish'd, yet so famous'

Headmasters

• 2010- Nicholas J. Weaver
• 1993-2010 Ian Galbraith
• 1972-1993 John Blatchly
• 1950-1972 Patrick Hassell Frederick Mermagen
• 1894- Philip Edwin Raynor
• 1883-1894 Frederick Herbert Browne
• 1858-1883 Hubert Ashton Holden
• 1850-1858 Stephen Jordan Rigaud

Notable Old Ipswichians

Old Ipswichians include:

• Lieutenant-General Sir Edwin Alderson (1859-1927), first commander Canadian Expeditionary Force in World War I.
• Edward Ardizzone (1900-1979), artist
• Professor Mark Bailey (born 1960), England national rugby player
• Nils Blythe (born 1956), journalist and presenter
• Rear Admiral Sir Philip Broke KCB (1776-1841), naval officer
• Peter Brunt (1917–2005), historian
• Richard Edgar-Wilson (born 1963), tenor
• Professor Sir Charles Frank FRS (1911-1998), physicist
• Peter Florence MBE (born 1964), festival director and founder of the Hay Festival
• Sir H. Rider Haggard (1856-1925), author of King Solomon's Mines, She and other works.
• Percy John Heawood, mathematician and Vice-Chancellor of Durham University
• Sir Robert Hitcham (c.1572-1636), judge and Member of Parliament
• Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk (1443-1524), soldier and statesman
• Charles Keene (1823-1891), artist for Punch
• James King, film critic and broadcaster
• William Kirby (1759-1850), entomologist
• Cecil Howard Lay (1885-1956), architect, artist and poet
• John Penrose (born 1964), Conservative Member of Parliament
• Sir Edward Poynter Bt (1836-1919), artist and President of the Royal Academy
• Geoffrey Rees-Jones, former Welsh rugby international.
• Alexander Roche, Baron Roche (1871-1956), barrister and law lord
• David Sawer, composer
• Sir Charles Scott Sherrington (1857-1952), Nobel laureate and physician
• Colin Simpson, England national rugby player
• Harold Smith (1916–2006), Director and Vice-President of Ipswich Town Football Club
• Sir John Gordon Sprigg (1830-1913), Prime Minister of the Cape Colony
• Henry Staunton (born 1948), businessman and media mogul
• Air Commodore Timothy Thorn, Royal Air Force pilot
• Right Reverend Peter Wheatley (born 1947), current Bishop of Edmonton
• Tom Withers, music producer and DJ better known as 'Klute'
• Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (c. 1473-1530), statesman under Henry VIII

References

Kevin Knights footballer Ipswich Spartans 1971-1981:honorary member of The Chev Club

Sources

• John M. Blatchly, A Famous Antient Seed-Plot of Learning - A History of Ipswich School (Ipswich 2003).
• G.R.W. Webb, The History of Ipswich School and Education in Ipswich (Ipswich 2005).

External links

• Ipswich School website
• Details from listed building database (275476) . Images of England. English Heritage.
• Ipswich School Ground on CricketArchive
• Ipswich School Ground on Cricinfo