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Woodbridge School

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Coordinates: 52°5′43″N 1°18′23″E / 52.09528°N 1.30639°E / 52.09528; 1.30639
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52°5′43″N 1°18′23″E / 52.09528°N 1.30639°E / 52.09528; 1.30639

Woodbridge School
Address
Map
Burkitt Road

Woodbridge
,
Suffolk
,
IP12 4JH

England
Information
TypePrivate day and boarding school
MottoPro Deo Rege Patria
("For God, king and country")
Religious affiliation(s)Church of England
Established1577; 447 years ago (1577)
Local authoritySuffolk
Department for Education URN124887 Tables
ChairClive Schlee
HeadShona Norman
GenderCoeducational
Age4 to 18
Enrolment745
HousesDay: Annott, Burwell, Seckford, Willard
Boarding: School
Colour(s)Red, Blue   
Former pupilsOld Woodbridgians
Websitehttps://www.woodbridgeschool.org.uk

Woodbridge School is a private school in Woodbridge, Suffolk, England, founded in 1577, for the poor of Woodbridge. It was later supported by the Seckford Foundation. Woodbridge School has been co-educational since September 1974.[citation needed]

History

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The school was founded in 1577; however, like so many others, it lapsed during the Civil War. In 1662 Robert Marryott, known as ‘the great eater’, hosted a feast for local worthies in Woodbridge which started at the Crown Hotel and finished at the King’s Head in Woodbridge. From this feast came the reincarnation of the school which today enjoys the curious claim of being the only independent school in the country to have been founded in two public houses.[citation needed]

The Free School, Woodbridge, was an expression of the new confidence in England following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. Local citizens contributed to the founding of the school in 1662, appointing a schoolmaster on an annual salary of £25 to teach, without charge, ten ‘sons of the meaner sort of the inhabitants of the town’.[1] Additional pupils paid an annual fee of £1.

After a difficult start, including the ravages of the plague in 1666, the School flourished and enjoyed a glorious era in the eighteenth century when the East Anglian gentry enrolled their sons in great numbers. By the mid-nineteenth century, the cramped School building was proving inadequate and in 1861 the school integrated with the Seckford Trust, an almshouse charity, becoming a part beneficiary of an endowment left to the town of Woodbridge in 1587 by Thomas Seckford, Master of the Court of Requests to Queen Elizabeth I.

In 1864 the school moved from the centre of town on the site of the former Augustinian house of Woodbridge Priory to its present site with 45 acres (180,000 m2) of wooded grounds overlooking Woodbridge.[2]

In 1974 the school became fully co-educational and today has 725 pupils.

The school

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The school is a co-educational day school with a boarding component. It offers GCSE, IGCSE and AS/A Level examinations. The day pupil body is divided into four houses, Annott, Burwell, Seckford and Willard. There is a boarding house known as School House for pupils in Year 7 to 13. The school's music activities include[3] a symphony orchestra, chamber orchestra and choral society as well as smaller ensembles. Student musicians have been members of regional and national ensembles including the National Youth Choir of Great Britain. There is a professional theatre, the Seckford Theatre.[4]

Sport

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The school has playing fields including cricket squares, a heated sports dome with gym facilities, Astro turf for either tennis or hockey, an athletics track, rugby and hockey pitches.

Other sports include sailing (which takes place at Alton Water), riding, basketball, fencing, badminton, football, golf, netball, rowing, swimming, tennis, shooting, and windsurfing.

Friday afternoons

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From Year 9 onwards, on a Friday afternoon, students have a choice of joining the Combined Cadet Force (CCF), (Army, Royal Navy or Royal Air Force sections), the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme (or both) or honing their skills in the many different sports, arts, music, and other activities available at Woodbridge. Notably, Woodbridge is the leading school in the East of England for chess, being officially recognised as an English Chess Federation (ECF) centre of excellence and employs an International Master, Adam Hunt, as a full-time chess teacher.[5][6]

Notable Old Woodbridgians

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See also: Category:People educated at Woodbridge School

Notable staff

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Heads

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  • Revd. Robert Stephenson (1662)
  • Revd. Thomas Dockinge (1663–1665)
  • Revd. Edmund Brome (1665–1667)
  • Revd. Simon Wells (1666–1667)
  • Revd. Edward Beeston (1667–1669)
  • Revd. Frederick Woodall (1669–1670)
  • Revd. Philip Candler (1670–1689)
  • Revd. Philip Candler (1689–1703)
  • Revd. William Cayte (1703–1709)
  • Revd. Samuel Leedes (1709–1727)
  • Revd. John Blyth (1727–1736)
  • Revd. Thomas Ray (1736–1774)
  • Revd. Robert Dyer (1774–1800)
  • Revd. John Black (1800–1806)
  • Revd. William Barker (1806–1813)
  • Revd. John Clarryvince (1813–1822)
  • Revd. William Fletcher (1822–1832)
  • Revd. Christopher Crofts (1832–1836)
  • Revd. Woodthorpe Collet (1836–1841)
  • Revd. Thomas Hughes (1841–1847)
  • Revd. Postle Jackson (1847–1865)
  • Revd. William Tate (1865–1874)
  • Revd. James Russell Wood (1874–1894)
  • Revd. Philip Tuckwell (1894–1900)
  • Walter Madeley (1900–1913)
  • R. Kennard-Davis (1913–1921)
  • Canon Dudley Symon (1921–1947)
  • Eric Ayres (1947–1965)
  • John Rolland (1965–1979)
  • Frederick Vyvyan-Robinson (1979–1986)
  • Dr. David Younger (1986–1994)
  • Stephen Cole (1994–2014)
  • Neil Tetley (2014-2018)
  • Dr. Richard Robson (2018-2019)
  • Shona Norman (2019 onwards)

References

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  1. ^ [1] History
  2. ^ The Abbey (now Woodbridge School Prep), Woodbridge, British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 2011-05-01.
  3. ^ "Private School Music".
  4. ^ [2] Seckford Theatre website
  5. ^ "Chess". Independent School in Suffolk - Woodbridge School. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  6. ^ Rimmer, Judy (5 January 2021). "Chess teacher helps top juniors as Queen's Gambit spurs interest". East Anglian Daily Times. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  7. ^ Weaver Michael (1999 The Newsletter of the Sutton Hoo Society vol30 pp1–2|url=http://suttonhoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Saxon30.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/people/victoria-busby

Literature

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  • Weaver M & C (1987) The Seckford Foundation : Four Hundred Years of a Tudor Foundation The Seckford Foundation, Woodbridge. ISBN 0951220306
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