Established 1881 DfE number 318/6066 Phone +44 20 8748 3461 Number of students 445 | Headmistress Mrs Maxine Shaw Gender Boys Founded 1881 Staff 40 | |
Type Independent preparatory day school Location Barnes
London
SW13 9JT
England Address Lonsdale Rd, Barnes, London SW13 9JT, UK | ||
St Paul's Juniors (formerly Colet Court) is an independent school and preparatory school for boys aged 7 to 13 in Barnes, London. It forms the preparatory department of St Paul's School, to which most Juniors pupils progress on to at the age of 13.
Contents
Colet Court was renamed St Paul's Juniors from 1 September 2016.
History
The School was founded in 1881 (as "Bewsher's") by Samuel Bewsher, an Assistant Master of St Paul's School and secretary to the High Master. It started with 6 pupils at a house in Edith Road, West Kensington. At about this time, St Paul's School was relocated from the vicinity of St Paul's Cathedral to new buildings in Hammersmith. In 1883, Bewsher's preparatory school was incorporated into the St Paul's School foundation, and moved into a new building (which still stands at 100 Hammersmith Road, W6 7JP) called Colet House opposite the then St Paul's School had more than 300 pupils and had more new buildings to accommodate them completed in 1890. In 1892 it changed its name from Colet House to Colet Court. The name derives from John Colet, the original founder of St Paul's School. In September 2016 the name changed once more, to St Paul's Juniors, which reflects one school unified by a common culture and Colet's vision.
When in 1968 St Paul's School moved again, to its present 45-acre (180,000 m2) site in bend of the river Thames at Barnes, Colet Court moved with it. In the 1970s the old buildings became the production base of Thames Television's Euston Films subsidiary, with standing sets for shows like The Sweeney constructed in the old gymnasium. The main building is an extended office building behind the façade that is a grade II listed building. The replacement school buildings in Barnes are soon to be seriously redeveloped in accordance with the St Paul's School building project.
The present school
St Paul's Juniors now forms part of a single school campus on the Barnes site. St Paul's Juniors and St Paul's School, whilst housed separately, share many facilities, such as the lunch hall, sports centre, swimming pool and some sports fields.
St Paul's Juniors is an all-boys school and teaches pupils from age 7 to age 13. Entry is by examination at age 7, age 8 and age 11. Providing that a pupil is progressing normally academically, it is expected that all boys will go on to St. Paul's at age 13. There are currently about 445 pupils, who are all day boys. The current head is Mrs Maxine Shaw former headmistress of Hazelwood School
The Tatler Schools Guide says about St Paul's Juniors:
"These may well be the cleverest boys in the capital, on track for St Paul’s (20 SPS scholarships last year, as well as two to Westminster and one apiece to Eton and Marlborough), but they wear it lightly.."Joseph
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, was originally commissioned for and performed by the boys (both orchestra and singers) of Colet Court. The first performance in its original form as a 15-minute "pop cantata" took place in the Old Assembly Hall of Colet Court in Hammersmith on 1 March 1968. The second performance, also involving Colet Court boys, was on 12 May 1968 at Central Hall, Westminster. This was picked up by a reviewer for the Sunday Times. The third performance, of a now expanded version, was at St Paul's Cathedral on 9 November 1968. The first recording was released in 1969, and remained in the US charts for three months, since when the piece has been performed commercially all over the world and re-recorded on disc and on video. It has been performed again at Colet Court as the annual school play several times, most recently in 2004.