Magdalen College School, Oxford

Magdalen College School (MCS) is a public school (English independent day school) in Oxford, England, for boys aged seven to eighteen and for girls in the sixth form. It was founded by William Waynflete about 1480 as part of Magdalen College, Oxford.

In 2010 '' The Good Schools Guide'' described the school as having "A comfortable mix of brains, brawn and artistic flair but demanding and challenging too. Not what you might expect a boys' public school to look like or feel like."

The school was named Independent School of the Year by ''The Sunday Times'' in 2004, and 2008, being the first boys' school to attain this accolade twice.

The school is run by a headmaster, known since the foundation of the school simply as "the Master" and controlled by a Board of Governors, who appoint the Master. It has both a senior school and a junior school. The Senior School has six houses, each headed by a housemaster selected from the senior members of the teaching staff, of whom there are about 160. There are also six houses in the Junior School.

Almost all of the school's pupils go on to university, about a third of them to Oxford or Cambridge.

The present Master, Helen Pike, was appointed in August 2016, after previously being Headmistress of the South Hampstead High School and is the first female Master in the school's history.

In a review by the Independent Schools Inspectorate in 2017, the school was described as remarkable and providing rich opportunities, where "pupils' academic results are exceptional".

History

Early history

The School was founded by William Waynflete as a department of Magdalen College, to teach the sixteen boy choristers of the college, who sang in the college's chapel, as well as other local children of high academic achievement. The first certain evidence of the school's existence dates to 1480, although the beginnings of the school are probably at least as early as 1478.Stanier (1958), p. 13 Since then, it has grown in size from about thirty boys to over 850 children.

Over its history, the school occupied various parts of the present-day Magdalen College, firstly the low hall south of the Chapel of the Hospital of St. John the Baptist, which before the establishment of Magdalen College by William Waynflete had occupied the present site. This building, replaced by the 15th-century college buildings, stood roughly between the present-day porters' lodge and the Great Tower.

Grant-aided status

After the First World War,Bebbington, David. (2014)
Mister Brownrigg's Boys
: Magdalen College School and The Great War (London: Pen and Sword Books) the school opted into the arrangements of the Education (Administrative Provisions) Act 1907, and as a grant-aided secondary school had to guarantee a quarter of its places as free scholarships for boys from public elementary schools. Of this decision, Stanier, a former Master and the author of the school history, writes:

The origins of the present-day school site begin in the late 19th century, when the school was occupying part of the college grounds alongside Longwall Street. It was slowly relocated by a few hundred feet, over Magdalen Bridge, onto the present site on Cowley Place began under the tenure of W. E. Sherwood in 1891 when, after an outbreak of scarlet fever in the old boarding house on the corner of Longwall Street and the High Street (ascribed partly to the dilapidated state of the building and in particular to the drainage) plans for a new school house were laid out. The new building on the Plain, which forms the modern-day School House, was first used in September 1894 when boarders at the school moved into it.

At that time, teaching still took place on the Longwall Street site. Boarders thus had a short daily walk over Magdalen Bridge to the college. The choristers still today make this short daily journey, but using a tunnel under Magdalen Bridge to avoid crossing the busy road.

The school continued to grow during the early 20th century, and by 1925, there were about 170 students.

Migration to Cowley Place

In 1928, increased pressure on the Magdalen College buildings on Longwall Street caused the migration of the entire school over Magdalen Bridge. Plans were made for new buildings designed by Giles Gilbert Scott, but this period was marked by uncertainty for the school, as in 1926 the College statute referring to the School had been altered. "Where before it had ordained that the College should always maintain the School, it now ran, 'So long as the grammar school of the College in Oxford is maintained....". As a result, temporary classrooms were built along Cowley Place, most of which are still standing today.

The buildings that the school had used on Longwall Street underwent a change of use or were redeveloped, and now form part of the College buildings: the School's original 'Big School' became the present-day "New Library" of the college, and the former school playground turned into the college's Longwall Quad.

A new school chapel was added to the 1928 buildings at the Milham Ford end, paid for by Old Boys, and was furnished with stained glass from the original chapel on Longwall Street, portraits of former Masters, Ushers, and Old Waynfletes (men educated at the school), and with an old organ built by Binns of Bramley, near Leeds. Choir stalls later donated by the Old Waynfletes and carved by Stanley Fisher completed the building, until it was eventually transformed into a Library when the present-day Big School building was opened in 1966. The stalls from the chapel of 1929 are now in the 'altar' section of the new Big School.

Second World War and "Bricks for wood"

By 1938, the school's buildings had become too small. They had always been of a timber construction, never designed for longevity. This was the topic of the 1938 Commemoration speech given by Dr John Johnson, in which a "Bricks for wood" appeal was made to nineteen other donors, to be matched by Dr Johnson in raising a total of £20,000 to rejuvenate the fabric of the school. Whilst £8,000 was promised by the end of the year, the outbreak of the Second World War curtailed any further fundraising or large-scale building for its duration.

Under the mastership of Kennard Davis, the period of the war was marked by an increase in the school's numbers, caused in part by the relative safety of the city of Oxford, while the Officers' Training Corps, precursor to the present-day Combined Cadet Force, "played its part in the defence of Oxford against possible enemy parachutists and fifth-columnists, guarding the river banks at night with fixed bayonets!". By 1949, the school had about 400 pupils. At the end of the war, the Education Act 1944 saw the school opt to become a Direct grant grammar school, continuing its long-standing tradition of open education.

After the War, the school took over buildings on the site of the present-day Hard Courts and Music Department, built for civil defence, including several air raid shelters and huts, as well as buildings formerly belonging to the defunct Milham Ford School, and these formed part of an expanded school which by now had several hundred pupils. A building campaign in the 1950s represented the first wave of a gradual expansion and enlargement of the school, commencing in 1951 with a five-building concrete block, and more significantly, between 1955 and 1957, the construction of the three-storey teaching block which is near the modern Colin Sanders building.

In the late 1950s, the school faced another threat: a new road was proposed, to ease traffic flow, which would have straddled both the school fields and the site of the boarding house. This plan was never set into motion, and in 1957 the school built new laboratories, on the Plain roundabout end of the site, now housing both science and Design & Technology facilities. In 1959, a movement began towards constructing the present-day Big School building, which was designed by Booth, Ledeboer, and Pinckheard and eventually opened in 1966. The new building was hexagonal, with a stage and orchestra pit at one end and an altar (given by Magdalen College) in a chapel area at the other, as well as an acoustic-panelled ceiling and a cluster of lighting.

With the opening of the new Big School, the old Big School became the school's gymnasium. With the stage removed, the floor replaced, a wall removed to connect the hall with the adjoining classroom, and with the addition of wallbars and gym apparatus, this 'temporary' building began a new phase in its long history.

Independence

By the late 1960s, the school's status as a Direct Grant scheme member came under threat as sweeping changes were made to the then Tripartite System. By 1976, the school was no longer a Direct Grant school, the Governors having opted to become fully independent.

The 1970s also saw two further buildings: new Science buildings on the Cowley Road side, and a new music facility including a large rehearsal room suitable for a chamber ensemble or small orchestra, several smaller tuition rooms, a classroom, and sheet music and instrument stores.

The school's quincentenary in 1980 saw the further addition of buildings on the Cowley Road side, including modern physics and chemistry laboratories.

1998 saw the opening of the new Colin Sanders building, named after an Old Waynflete who was heavily involved in fundraising for the building but died before its completion. It originally housed two common rooms on the ground floor, which later became computing suites, with the 1928 'Big School' undergoing another change of use to house a merged sixth-form centre next to the Staff Common Room, into which it subsequently expanded upon the completion of the New Building complex at the bottom of Cowley Place, which also houses a new Dining Hall.

With the demolition of the 1929 library, the ground floor open areas of the Colin Sanders building now house the Basil Blackwell library.

On 20 March 2007, Dr David Brunton, head of media studies and English teacher at the school, was found dead at the base of St Mary the Virgin Church tower in Radcliffe Square, Oxford. His death was recorded as accidental. A bursary was set up by pupils, parents and staff in his memory.

In 2010, the school admitted girls in the sixth form for the first time, and continues to offer coeducation in the final two years ( Years 12 and 13).

Junior School

The Junior School is the section of MCS for boys of ages seven to eleven (or years 3 to 6). Year 3 is split into J1A and J1B and contains around 28 boys; Year 4 is split into 2 J2A and J2B and contains approximately the same number; Year 5 is split into J3A and J3B and contains around 35 boys; while Year 6 is split into J4A and J4B and contains around 40 boys. The current head of the Junior School is Mr Timothy Skipwith, while the deputy head is Mrs Elizabeth Stapleton. There is an art competition every year; it is to design a front/back cover for the Magdalen College Junior School magazine called ''Views from the Bridge''.
There are six houses: Holt; Millard, More, Ogle, Tyndale and Wolsey, named after old masters of the school who have achieved notable things.

Terms

The school operates a three-term academic year and refers to its terms by the names of the University of Oxford's three terms, which however are shorter than the school's. They are:
* The Michaelmas term, from early September to mid December
* The Hilary term

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