Katharine Lady Berkeley's School is an academy school near

Wotton-under-Edge Wotton-under-Edge is a market town within the Stroud district of Gloucestershire, England. Located near the southern fringe of the Cotswolds, the Cotswold Way long-distance footpath passes through the town. Standing on the B4058, Wotton is ab ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

, England, for ages 11 to 18.

History

The school was founded by

Katherine, Lady Berkeley Katherine Berkeley, Lady Berkeley (born Katherine de Clevedon; 1300s – 13 March 1385) was an English benefactor and school founder in Gloucestershire. In 1384 she obtained a royal licence for a chantry school that today is called the Kathari ...

for the use of six scholars in 1384 which makes it one of the oldest surviving schools in England. It is known that schools existed in the area before then, but Lady Berkeley formalised this school, gaining it a Royal license and it became a model for other schools. The first headteacher was John Stone M.A. The old school buildings in School Lane, Wotton-under-Edge, were erected in 1726 with additions later. Shortly after the school had become co-educational, Church Mill was bought in 1908. After the First World War, Carlton House was rented from the

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

New buildings

In January 1963, the school vacated the premises in Wotton and moved into a new building for 350 pupils in the Kingswood Road. The erection of the first phase of extensions to the Kingswood Road buildings began in March 1972. The extensions were completed for the start of the Autumn Term 1973, when Katharine Lady Berkeley's re-opened as a comprehensive school for 830 pupils. Wotton Secondary School closed at the end of August 1973. In 1984 the six hundredth anniversary of the foundation of the school was celebrated with a visit from

Princess Anne Anne, Princess Royal (Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise; born 15 August 1950), is a member of the British royal family. She is the second child and only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and the only sister of K ...

. In 1989,

the Duke of Gloucester Duke of Gloucester () is a British royal title (after Gloucester), often conferred on one of the sons of the reigning monarch. The first four creations were in the Peerage of England and the last in the Peerage of the United Kingdom; the curren ...

opened the Renishaw Centre, an IT room costing £60,000 and since then the School has installed three more computer rooms. The Renishaw Company renewed the equipment in the Renishaw Centre. In 1992, grant-maintained (GM) status was attained, with the object of providing for the structural improvement of the buildings and a wish to be able to make independent decisions to suit the school's future. In 1996, the school achieved designation as a

Language College Language Colleges were introduced in 1995 as part of the specialist schools programme (SSP) in the United Kingdom. The system enabled secondary schools to specialise in certain fields, in this case, modern foreign languages. Schools that succes ...

. This enabled the school to offer a languages curriculum covering seven

modern languages A modern language is any human language that is currently in use. The term is used in language education to distinguish between languages which are used for day-to-day communication (such as French and German) and dead classical languages such ...

and

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

. In 1994, accommodation was added to allow for the increase in numbers, from 1,010 in 1984 to 1,170 in 1994 and then to 1,340 in 1998. Further new buildings were completed in September 1997 to provide six more classrooms and the Language Centre costing £220,000 was opened in September 1996. In autumn 1999, work began on further new buildings to provide a new two storey teaching block which includes 11 classrooms, three ICT suites and a new library. In addition to this a three laboratory extension was added to the

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

Centre. In 2007, the school gained a second DfES specialism, that of training school. The school population has stabilized at around 1500 pupils. In September 2011, the school became an

academy An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...

. Since then the Science block has had 8 of its 11 rooms completely remade and several new classrooms have been added. In 2021 the school won a bid for an extensive rebuild with the designs finalised in early 2022.

Notable former pupils

William Tyndale William Tyndale (; sometimes spelled ''Tynsdale'', ''Tindall'', ''Tindill'', ''Tyndall''; – ) was an English biblical scholar and linguist who became a leading figure in the Protestant Reformation in the years leading up to his execu ...

, scholar *

Edward Jenner Edward Jenner, (17 May 1749 – 26 January 1823) was a British physician and scientist who pioneered the concept of vaccines, and created the smallpox vaccine, the world's first vaccine. The terms ''vaccine'' and ''vaccination'' are derived f ...

, physician and scientist *

Matthew Blagden Hale Mathew Blagden Hale (18 June 1811 – 3 April 1895), very frequently spelled "Matthew", was the first Anglican Bishop of Perth and then the Anglican Bishop of Brisbane. Hale is recognised for seeking to empower the South Australian Aborigin ...

, Anglican bishop *

Adjoa Andoh Adjoa Andoh Hon. FRSL (born 14 January 1963) is a British actress. On stage, she has played lead roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, the Royal Court Theatre and the Almeida Theatre. On television, she appeared in tw ...

, Actor * Catherine Johnson, playwright * Simon Mason, England hockey goalkeeper *

Sean Rigg Sean Michael Rigg (born 1 October 1988) is an English former professional footballer who played on the wing or as a striker. In a 13-year career in the English Football League and National League he scored 57 goals in 477 league and cup appear ...

, professional footballer *

Ben Morgan Benjamin John Morgan (born 18 February 1989) is an England international rugby union player currently plays at number eight for Gloucester. Morgan scored his first try for the Scarlets on 22 April 2011 against Glasgow Warriors. Morgan went t ...

, England rugby union player

References

External links

* {{authority control Educational institutions established in the 14th century 1384 establishments in England Secondary schools in Gloucestershire Academies in Gloucestershire Training schools in England Wotton-under-Edge