Colston's School

Motto

The school motto Go and do thou likewise, was the motto for the Colston family. It is also one of the mottos for Colston's Girls' School. Its origin is Luke 15:37, the conclusion of the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Beginnings

Colston made a donation to Queen Elizabeth's Hospital in 1702 and proposed endowing places for a further 50 boys. This came to nothing, probably because of Colston's insistence that the children of Dissenters should be excluded. Instead, he persuaded the Society of Merchant Venturers to manage a school he established for 50 boys on Saint Augustine's Back, where the Colston Hall now stands. It cost him £11,000 on capital cost and an endowment income of over £1,300. The boys (soon increased to 100) were admitted between the ages of seven and ten years and stayed for seven years. The curriculum covered reading, writing and arithmetic, and the church catechism. On leaving they were to be apprenticed to a trade. Colston was opposed to Dissent and proposed that any boy who attended a service of worship in any place other than an Anglican church should be expelled. He also told the Merchant Venturers that if they apprenticed a boy to a Dissenter they would be in breach of their Trust.

In 1794 its master was James Gadd, of Temple Street. The school moved in 1861 to the old Bishops' Palace at Stapleton, which is a grade II listed building, and ceased to be a charity institution with a limited curriculum. It also accepted fee-paying boys as well as the 100 boys on the charity foundation. By 1955 the school had 35 foundation scholars, selected by open competition, among its 200 boarders and 100 day boys.

Houses

Before the advent of the day-boys there were four boarding houses, North, South, East and West. These were renamed Aldington, Mortlake, Roundway and Beaufort, with Dolphin being the day-boys house. Later, King's was added as an additional day-boys house. Now there are four day houses, one of which each pupil is allocated at the start of their Colston's career. The school's boarding house Mortlake was closed in 2010 when Colston's School ended a long tradition as a boarding institution.

The House Cup is contested by the four day houses using a points system over the course of each academic year. The house with the greatest number of points at the end of that academic year will be awarded the Cup. Points are gained by either the collection of commendations, awarded by teachers for outstanding pieces of work, or through performance in house competitions. Points are deducted for receiving detentions. Sports competitions are played on a round robin basis and divided into three school blocks; Years 7 and 8, Years 9 and 10 and Year 11 and 6th Form. Sports competitions include:

The biggest house competition in the school calendar is the House Music. Any individual or group of pupils may enter the preliminary round, displaying any kind of musical performance, and all are awarded points for entering. The best performers will advance to the semi-finals, where they perform in front of their entire year, and the winners from this round will advance to the final where they perform in front of the whole school on the final day of the spring term. In addition to this, each of the four houses pick a song one week in advance of the final to rehearse and perform as a house. An independent adjudicator is brought in by the school to judge the four house songs and select a winner of the House Song, and to determine the overall winner of the House Music, which is between the four day houses. Victories in either of these competitions have a significant impact on the destination of the House Cup for that year.

Uniform

Colston modelled his school on Christ's Hospital and the 18th century uniform reflected this – a long blue coat, knee britches and yellow stockings. By the middle of the 20th century this was mirrored by the yellow tops of the knee stockings worn by all boys until they graduated to long trousers at the age of 13. At that time caps were worn whenever a boy left the premises of the school. They were the typical peaked cap with a coloured band round the rim and an embroidered dolphin at the front, the colour reflecting the house the boy belonged to – Dolphin's was maroon, for example.

Drama

The school is known for its drama studies, having a well-equipped theatre, with cutting edge technology and equipment that public theatres would be jealous of. It is the only school in Bristol that can offer all 14 GCSE theatre options. There are a number of shows throughout the year across the age range, including GCSE A-Level and Drama Club productions. In May 2010 Year 9 students devised and produced their own version of Cinderella which raised just short of £1000 for the charity Barnados.

Cadet Force

The school's Combined Cadet Force (CCF) of 256 cadet, the largest since its formation in 1915, and the biggest in Bristol. The CCF has Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy sections and is compulsory for Year 9 and Cadets above Year 9 are trained in teaching all sections of the CCF syllabus to aid with the 3 Permanent CCF Staff. The CCF normally parades every week and carries out activities, including rifle shooting on the school's 15m pipe range, command tasks, climbing, camouflage and concealment, flying, sailing and walking with regular camps. The Royal Navy section has access to sailing boats which are owned by The Royal Navy these include Laser Pico's, Toppers and an RS200 racing boat.

Rugby

The school plays rugby union. It won the NatWest Schools Cup (previously the Daily Mail Cup) at U18 level seven times, including six years in a row between 1995 and 2000. In 1999 there was a change in regulations which restricted the number of newcomers into a Sixth Form who could play in the competition. The school went on to win the competition on a further two occasions in 2000 and 2004 under these new regulations before withdrawing to seek bigger challenges

Over 50 old boys have played in the top tier of professional rugby with 11 players representing their countries during the professional era.

Location

Colston's is located at the top of Bell Hill, a road running close to the M32 motorway. The school is approximately 2.5 miles (4.0 km) from the city centre.

Notable former pupils

Former students, known as Old Colstonians, include: