Lichfield Cathedral School 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 ...

day school in the city of

Lichfield Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west o ...

, Staffordshire,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It traces its lineage to the 14th century when

Lichfield Cathedral Lichfield Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Lichfield, Staffordshire, England, one of only three cathedrals in the United Kingdom with three spires (together with Truro Cathedral and St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh), and the only medie ...

made provisions to educate its choristers.History
The school in its current form now educates over 400 boys and girls from nursery to

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. While the school still serves its primary purpose of educating choristers of the cathedral, it is open to pupils of all faiths.

History

Since the earliest days of its choral foundation, which can be traced back as far as the early 14th century, the Cathedral has made provision for the appointment and education of boy choristers. Choristers were housed and educated at Dam Street, just outside the Cathedral Close. After the start of

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, the

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and chapter decided to formally establish a school. St Chad's Cathedral School, as this independent preparatory school for boys was known, was opened on 27 January 1942. During the first ten years, the school experienced much growth and was in need of larger facilities. In 1953, it moved to the Bishop's Palace, its current location. Girls were admitted to the school for the first time in 1974. In 1981, the School became a financially independent Charitable Trust and took on its new name, Lichfield Cathedral School. A pre-preparatory department was established in St Mary's School on the far side of Minster Pool in 1982. By 1988, the pre-prep had outgrown St Mary's and moved to its own premises. The School acquired St. John's Preparatory School in Longdon Greenin 2006, and the two schools amalgamated. The Pre-Prep (Junior School, aged 3 – 8) is now situated on the Longdon site, and the vacated space in the Close has been adapted for older year groups and specialist teaching. In September 2010, the school accepted its first sixth form pupils. In March 2012, a fire broke out in one of the main buildings and damaged an office. The school was commended by the

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for their prompt action and coordination of the evacuation.

Houses

Each pupil is assigned to a house upon entry. The houses are named after famous people associated with

Music

The Cathedral School is noted for its strong musical tradition. In 2011, the Cathedral Choir broadcast their Christmas Day

Eucharist The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instit ...

live on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

and most recently, they sang live on BBC Radio 3 for its

Evensong Evensong is a church service traditionally held near sunset focused on singing psalms and other biblical canticles. In origin, it is identical to the canonical hour of vespers. Old English speakers translated the Latin word as , which became ...

programme. At age 13, boys whose voices have changed may receive music scholarships at the school or elsewhere. A new girls' choir was started in 2006 for girls aged 10 to 14, and more recently the choir was admitted into the cathedral's choral foundation.

Notable alumni

* Guy N. Smith, writer mainly of

horror fiction Horror is a genre of fiction which is intended to frighten, scare, or disgust. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror, which is in the realm of speculative fiction. Literary historian ...

.Report by Mark Andrews on case of embezzlement of which he was victim.

References

External links

School WebsiteProfile
on

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website {{authority control Choir schools in England Independent schools in Staffordshire Educational institutions established in the 14th century

Cathedral School Cathedral schools began in the Early Middle Ages as centers of advanced education, some of them ultimately evolving into medieval universities. Throughout the Middle Ages and beyond, they were complemented by the monastic schools. Some of these ...

Cathedral schools Church of England independent schools in the Diocese of Lichfield

School A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes comp ...