St Paul's Juniors (formerly Colet Court) is an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

preparatory school for boys aged 7 to 13 in

Barnes, London Barnes () is a district in south London, part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England. It takes up the extreme north-east of the borough, and as such is the closest part of the borough to central London. It is centred west sou ...

. It forms the preparatory department of St Paul's School, to which most Juniors pupils progress at the age of 13. The School was founded in 1881, named Colet Court in 1892, and 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 St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grad ...

to new buildings in

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. ...

Colet Court

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. Originally called Colet House, it was opposite the then St Paul's School. It had more than 300 pupils, and further new buildings to accommodate them were completed in 1890. In 1892 it changed its name from Colet House to Colet Court. The name honours

John Colet John Colet (January 1467 – 16 September 1519) was an English Catholic priest and educational pioneer. John Colet was an English scholar, Renaissance humanist, theologian, member of the Worshipful Company of Mercers, and Dean of St Paul's Cat ...

, the founder of St Paul's School. In the 1970s, the old buildings became the production base of the

Euston Films Euston Films is a British film and television production company. It was originally a subsidiary company of Thames Television, and operated from 1971 to 1994, producing various series for Thames, which were screened nationally on the ITV network. ...

subsidiary of

Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a Broadcast license, franchise holder for a region of the British ITV (TV network), ITV television network serving Greater London, London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until th ...

, with standing sets for shows like ''

The Sweeney ''The Sweeney'' is a 1970s British television police drama focusing on two members of the Flying Squad, a branch of the Metropolitan Police specialising in tackling armed robbery and violent crime in London. It stars John Thaw as Detective Ins ...

'' constructed in the old gymnasium. The main building survives, and is

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. It is now occupied as offices.

Barnes

In 1968 St Paul's School moved to its present site in bend of the river Thames at

Barnes Barnes may refer to: People * Barnes (name), a family name and a given name (includes lists of people with that name) Places United Kingdom *Barnes, London, England **Barnes railway station ** Barnes Bridge railway station ** Barnes Railway Bri ...

. The current school buildings in Barnes are set to be redeveloped alongside the renovation of the main St Paul's School. In September 2016 the name changed once more, to St Paul's Juniors.

Operation Winthorpe

Colet Court was investigated by the Metropolitan Police for historic crimes of paedophilia, under the operational name Operation Winthorpe. The school has entirely reviewed and majorly revised its safeguarding procedures since. A major independent report published in January 2020 revealed 80 complaints against 32 members of staff over a period of six decades, mainly from the 1960s to the 1990s. There were 28 recommendations on how current practice could be improved.

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 Oliver Snowball, formerly the headmaster of Eaton House the Manor Girls' School. ''The Tatler Schools Guide'' says of 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 ''Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'' (often colloquially known as ''Joseph'') is a sung-through musical with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the character of Joseph from the Bible's Book of Genesis. Thi ...

'', by

Andrew Lloyd Webber Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948), is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 21 musicals, ...

and

Tim Rice Sir Timothy Miles Bindon Rice (born 10 November 1944) is an English lyricist and author. He is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote, among other shows, ''Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'', ' ...

, 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

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 Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

''. The third performance, of a now expanded version, was at

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.

Headmasters

Notable alumni

* Philip "Tubby" Clayton *

David W. Doyle David W. Doyle (7 May 1924 – 19 February 2014) was a British-born American author, United States Army Veteran, and former Central Intelligence Agency officer. Born at Harrow, in Greater London, Doyle was the son of Donald and Joyce Doyle ...

Dominic Grieve Dominic Charles Roberts Grieve (born 24 May 1956) is a British barrister and former politician who served as Shadow Home Secretary from 2008 to 2009 and Attorney General for England and Wales from 2010 to 2014. He served as the Member of Parl ...

Kwasi Kwarteng Akwasi Addo Alfred Kwarteng (born 26 May 1975) is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Spelthorne in northern Surrey since May 2010. He was Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industria ...

Compton Mackenzie Sir Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie, (17 January 1883 – 30 November 1972) was a Scottish writer of fiction, biography, histories and a memoir, as well as a cultural commentator, raconteur and lifelong Scottish independence, Scottish nation ...

George Osborne George Gideon Oliver Osborne (born Gideon Oliver Osborne; 23 May 1971) is a former British politician and newspaper editor who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2016 and as First Secretary of State from 2015 to 2016 in the ...

Nicholas Parsons Christopher Nicholas Parsons (10 October 1923 – 28 January 2020) was an English actor, straight man and radio and television presenter. He was the long-running presenter of the comedy radio show '' Just a Minute'' and hosted the game show '' ...

Eddie Redmayne Edward John David Redmayne (; born 6 January 1982) is an English actor. Known for his roles in biopics and blockbusters, he has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Tony Award, a BAFTA Award, and two Olivier Awards. He ...

Nathaniel Philip Rothschild , nickname = {{Plainlist, * Nat * Nate , footnotes = Nathaniel is an English variant of the biblical Greek name Nathanael. People with the name Nathaniel * Nathaniel Archibald (1952–2018), American basketball player * Nate A ...

Ernest Shepard Ernest Howard Shepard OBE Military Cross, MC (10 December 1879 – 24 March 1976) was an English artist and book illustrator. He is known especially for illustrations of the Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic animal and soft toy characters in ''Th ...

Lister Sinclair Lister Sheddon Sinclair, OC (January 9, 1921 – October 16, 2006) was a Canadian broadcaster, playwright and polymath. Early life Sinclair was born in Bombay, India, to Scottish parents. His father, William Sheddon Sinclair, was a chemical eng ...

* William Temple *

Ed Vaizey Edward Henry Butler Vaizey, Baron Vaizey of Didcot, (born 5 June 1968) is a British politician, media columnist, political commentator and barrister who was Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries from 2010 to 2016. A memb ...

Brian Widlake Nigel Brian Windsor Widlake (13 April 1931 – 2 January 2017) was a British journalist, broadcaster and presenter. Early life Widlake was born in Fiji on 13 April 1931. Education Widlake was educated at two independent schools for boys, at t ...

* Francis Wright

References

External links

*
The Story of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Pauls Juniors Barnes, London Educational institutions established in 1881 Independent boys' schools in London Independent schools in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames Preparatory schools in London 1881 establishments in England