Established 1541 Headmaster Mr Darren Ayling Phone +44 1733 751541 Founded 1541 Gender Mixed-sex education | Religion Church of England DfE number 874/5404 Founder Henry VIII of England Number of students 1,200 | |
Type Academy
(partially selective) Location Park Road
Peterborough
Cambridgeshire
PE1 2UE
England Address Park Rd, Peterborough PE1 2UE, UK Motto A Family Achieving Excellence Similar The Peterboro School, Arthur Mellows Village C, Hampton College, Jack Hunt School, Thomas Deacon Academy | ||
The King's (The Cathedral) School is a Church of England secondary school with academy status in Peterborough, England. It also offers a "Junior Department" which consists of Year Three to Year Six education, partially selective and with one-form entry. JD takes part in the building also used for Music, Madeley House. The school is one of seven established, re-endowed or renamed, by King Henry VIII in 1541 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries for the education of "twenty poor boys". The King's School was recognised in June 1999 with the award of Beacon status. As of 21 March 2013, the school holds the Ofsted rating of Outstanding.
Contents
Name
On 1 January 2011, the School became an academy and changed its name to "The King's (The Cathedral) School". Previously, it had been named "The King's School, Peterborough". It is still sometimes known as "KSP". Students commonly refer to it simply as 'Kings'.
Foundation
The King's School is a state-funded secondary school, with a large sixth form. It was founded by King Henry VIII in 1541 as the Cathedral School to educate 'twenty poor boys' and this close link with the Peterborough Cathedral is still valued and maintained today. Until 1976 the school was a Church of England grammar school for around 450 boys, also known as Peterborough Cathedral Grammar School. 1976 saw the school become both comprehensive and coeducational. Until 1997, however, there remained provision for boys to board. It is one of only three Anglican cathedral schools in the UK to be funded through the state system. The other two Anglican state-funded cathedral schools are Bristol Cathedral Choir School and The Minster School ( the choir school of the Cathedral Church of Southwell Diocese: Southwell Minster in Nottinghamshire.) There are also two state-funded Roman Catholic choir schools: St Edward's College in Liverpool and the London Oratory.
In the early sixties (under the headship of Dr C.M.Harrison),due to the construction of the new assembly hall/gym the entire school would traipse up Park Road for morning service at All Saint's C-of-E church. School Inspectors declared this practice illegal as it contravened the requirement of the Education Act 1948 to hold a daily assembly on-site. In the 1960s, teaching included Saturday morning classes; and boarders were obliged to attend Sunday Matins and/or Evensong at the Cathedral.
State School
Since 1976, The King's School has been a co-educational state school with around 650 boys and girls. Its success was recognised in June 1999 with the award of Beacon status. The school acquired Academy status on January 1, 2011 and thus became an Independent School while still providing state funded education for all of the pupils. On entry to King's in Year 7 students are placed in one of 6 tutor groups, which change upon entry into the fourth year.
The school Junior Department was opened in September 2011 "to provide high quality and inspiring education" for Key stage two pupils, including the Cathedral Choristers.
Admissions
As a state-funded academy the school is allowed a degree of selection. Each year some twelve places are allocated according to an entry examination and three are allocated according to ability in music; so 12.5% of the school's annual intake is by selection. Alongside this, there are up to nine places for Cathedral choristers, both boys and girls. As with all state schools, King's gives first priority to ensuring that all 'looked after children' wanting a place at the school receive one. The remaining places are allocated to students according to a list of entry criteria, including religion, siblings already attending the school, and geographical distance from the school.
Sixth Form
Almost 1200 pupils attend The King's School, of whom approximately 400 are in the Sixth Form, for which there is a minimum examination qualification for internal entry of seven A*-C grades at GCSE level, of which three must be at grade B or above. Given the school's high GCSE pass rate, the majority of pupils proceed into the sixth form. External applicants to the sixth form must meet a set of criteria. The school currently offers no vocational qualifications. The subjects available for study, at AS and A2 level, are:
A compulsory single lesson each week named 'Learning for Life' is designed to prepare the student for the A Level examinations and for the UCAS application system to universities.
Students must also take General Studies A-level exams, although Further Maths students are not required to take the lessons, due to timetable scheduling.
The school has a hierarchical prefect system, comprising (in order of seniority): the Head Boy and Girl, House Captains and Vice House Captains, Senior Prefects, and Prefects.
Houses
The school has four houses: St. Chad's House (house colour red), St. Oswald's House (house colour yellow), St. Peter's House (house colour blue) and School House (house colour green). Two others, Tudor House and Thomson's House, were abolished in 1976. Pupil allocation to houses is random, but siblings generally follow through the same House; and when there was a boarding house, all boarders were members of School House. Each house has two House Captains and four House Vice Captains, as well as a House Master and/or House Mistress. Permanent teachers are also allocated to houses as "House Staff", although PE teachers, Music Teachers, Deputy Headmaster and the Headmaster are not allotted houses for fear of bias in inter-house sporting and music competitions.
King's was unusual in once being a grammar school that took boarders, all in School House. Many boarders had parents in the Forces and or the Colonial Services; the very low fees being more affordable than at public schools. The accommodation at 201/203 Park Road (which is now the Music School) was affectionately known as "The Pig", as the building was alleged to have once been a pub called the "Pig & Whistle". The building was originally called, and is once more known by those at the school as Madeley House, after Madeley Manor in Shropshire, the family home of Reverend Charles Richard Ball, the original owner of the building.
House Music
"House Music" is an annual competitive event in which each houses presents four pieces of modern or traditional music, as follows:
The winning house receives a trophy. House Music was originally held in the school hall but growing numbers caused the event to held at The Broadway Theatre. Owing to growing numbers, in 2007 it moved again to KingsGate Community Church's building in Parnwell.
Histories of the School
An early history of The King's School was published in 1905 by A.F. Leach, a noted historian This history ends in 1904 when E.S.T Badger was Headmaster.
In 1966, W.D. Larrett, a former deputy-headmaster, published 'A History of The King's School Peterborough'. The account tells of the pre-reformation school, the foundation of King's by Henry VIII, and of the times when the school was close to bankruptcy and when some Headmasters felt obliged to resign. In 2005, the 1966 edition was restored and updated.
Academic performance
From 2006 to the present, The King's School has been the top-performing state school in the Peterborough local authority area for GCSE and A-Level results, with 91%+ of students achieving 5 or more passes at GCSE grades A*-C, and an average of 1066.3 As/A-level points per pupil.
Notable alumni
Former pupils are known as Old Petriburgians.
Miscellaneous
There has been a historic rivalry between King's students and the nearby Thomas Deacon Academy (formerly Deacon's School), the other old-established Peterborough school.
Peter Walker who became the Bishop of Ely in later life started his career as a teacher of classics at King′s in 1947.
A plaque commemorating the King's School students who died in action during World War I was placed in Flanders during an annual GCSE class trip to the Flanders battlefields in 2005.
The school retains an archive of documents charting the school's history and the lives of former King's School pupils who served in the World Wars. Also, there is a rare first-edition copy of Alice in Wonderland held in the school archives.
In 2003, Timothy Coldwell, a one-time Head of Physics, was convicted of making indecent images of children.
In 2005, Gavin Lister, a P.E. teacher, was convicted of engaging in sexual activity with a girl between the ages of 13 and 15.
In 2013, headmaster, Gary Longman, announced at the annual Speech Day service held in Peterborough Cathedral, that he would be retiring at the end of the academic year 2013/2014, after 20 years in the position. In February 2014, his successor was announced as Darren Ayling: the current Senior Deputy Head (Academic) at the Ipswich School in Suffolk.
At the end of the 2013/2014 academic year Director of Music Nick Kerrison left the King's School, to become an organist at the Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. After 26 years in the role, Nick's successor is Dr Martin Ratcliffe.
The school has had links with the Werner-Jaeger-Gymnasium Nettetal since 1976.
At the end of the 2015/16 academic year, deputy headteacher, Trevor Elliot retired after a career-long 40 years at the school including 30 as deputy. The new deputy headteacher (pastoral) was Helen Birch who had been assistant headteacher at the school and the new deputy headteacher (academic) was Duncan Rhodes who is originally from Portsmouth but had previously lived in Plymouth.