(He who does things for others does them for himself)
, established =
, closed =
, type =
Public school
Public school may refer to:
* State school (known as a public school in many countries), a no-fee school, publicly funded and operated by the government
* Public school (United Kingdom), certain elite fee-charging independent schools in England 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
, religion =
Nondenominational Christian
Nondenominational Christianity (or non-denominational Christianity) consists of churches which typically distance themselves from the confessionalism or creedalism of other Christian communities by not formally aligning with a specific Christian d ...
, president =
, head_label = Head
, head = Edward Elliott
, r_head_label =
, r_head =
, chair_label = Chairman of the Governing Body
, chair = Jonathan W Scott
, founder =
Stephen Perse
, medium =
, address =
Hills Road
Hills Road is an arterial road (part of the A1307) in southeast Cambridge, England. It runs between Regent Street at the junction with Lensfield Road and Gonville Place (the A603) to the northwest and a roundabout by the Cambridge Bio ...
, location =
, city =
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
, district =
, postcode = CB2 8QF
, county =
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...
, country = England
, coordinates =
, local_authority =
, dfeno = 873/6010
, urn = 110923
, ofsted =
, staff = 138 teaching, 117 support staff, 26 peripatetics
, capacity =
, enrolment = 1,564 (2016)
, gender =
Co-educational
Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...
, lower_age = 11
, upper_age = 18
, houses =
8
, colours =
Purple and black
, publication = OP News Magazine
, free_label_1 = Alumni
, free_1 =
Old Perseans
, free_label_3 =
, free_3 =
, website = http://www.perse.co.uk/
The Perse School is a
public school
Public school may refer to:
* State school (known as a public school in many countries), a no-fee school, publicly funded and operated by the government
* Public school (United Kingdom), certain elite fee-charging independent schools in England an ...
(English
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 and, in the case of the Perse, a former
boarding school
A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...
) in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
, England. Founded in 1615 by
Stephen Perse, its motto is ''Qui facit per alium facit per se'', taken to mean 'He who does things for others does them for himself'. The School began accepting girls at 11 and 13+ in September 2010 and was fully co-educational by September 2012. 'Perse' is a member of the
Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference
The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC) is an association of the head teachers of 361 independent schools (both boarding schools and day schools), some traditionally described as public schools. 298 Members are based in the United ...
, an association of the leading UK independent schools.
The organisation now comprises three schools, which together provide for children aged 3 through to 18. The Pelican is the Perse's nursery and pre-preparatory school, and accommodates pupils from 3–7. It is situated on Glebe Road, close to the main school site. Preparatory education for students aged 7 to 11 years old is provided by the Perse Prep, which is located close to the Upper School, just north of the junction of Long Road and Trumpington Road. In Year 7 pupils usually progress to the Upper School, where they sit
GCSE
The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a particular subject, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. Private sc ...
or
IGCSE
The International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) is an English language based examination similar to GCSE and is recognised in the United Kingdom as being equivalent to the GCSE for the purposes of recognising prior attainm ...
examinations and
A-Levels
The A-Level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational aut ...
.
History
The school was founded in 1615 at its original site in
Free School Lane
Free School Lane is a historic street in central Cambridge, England which includes important buildings of University of Cambridge. It is the location of the Whipple Museum of the History of Science, the Department of History and Philosophy of ...
, Cambridge. Its former buildings now house the
Whipple Museum of the History of Science
Whipple may refer to:
People
* Whipple (surname) (including a list of people with the surname)
* Whip Jones (1909–2001), American ski industry pioneer, founder, developer and original operator of the Aspen Highlands ski area in Aspen, Colorado
* ...
. In 1960, the school moved to the site it now occupies as its 'Upper' school on Hills Road. There have been multiple phases of expansion, particularly in the 21st century. Among notable developments is the Peter Hall Performing Arts Centre, a 400-seat theatre, exhibition and rehearsal space designed by architects Haworth Tompkins, which opened in 2018.
An old prospectus lists the fees as £3 per term in 1890.
From 1945 to 1976 it was a
direct grant grammar school
A direct grant grammar school was a type of selective secondary school in the United Kingdom that existed between 1945 and 1976. One quarter of the places in these schools were directly funded by central government, while the remainder attracted ...
, offering free places to 40% of pupils. Following the abolition of the
Assisted Places Scheme
The Assisted Places Scheme was established in the UK by the Conservative government in 1980. Children who were eligible were provided with free or subsidised places to fee-charging independent schools - based on the child's results in the school ...
, The Perse no longer received any state funding and became independent.
The school was ranked 13th in the Sunday Times Parent Power league table in 2019 and 6th in the Daily Telegraph national table of A Level, Pre-U and IB results with 83% A* and A grades from 175 candidates. In 2021, The Sunday Times also named The Perse School as the top independent secondary school in East Anglia, as the school had the best performance in the GCE A Level Examinations in the region.
Motto
The school motto is ''Qui facit per alium facit per se'', usually taken to mean "He who does things for others does them for himself". This is an example of a
rebus
A rebus () is a puzzle device that combines the use of illustrated pictures with individual letters to depict words or phrases. For example: the word "been" might be depicted by a rebus showing an illustrated bumblebee next to a plus sign (+) ...
motto, the Latin sentence ending in a word play on the founder's name "per se" and his benefaction. A
blue plaque
A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term i ...
dedicated to the school's founder, Dr Stephen Perse, was installed in
Free School Lane
Free School Lane is a historic street in central Cambridge, England which includes important buildings of University of Cambridge. It is the location of the Whipple Museum of the History of Science, the Department of History and Philosophy of ...
, Cambridge.
Competitions, Olympiads and scholarships
Pupils have competed and scored highly in academic competitions and
Olympiads
An olympiad ( el, Ὀλυμπιάς, ''Olympiás'') is a period of four years, particularly those associated with the ancient and modern Olympic Games.
Although the ancient Olympics were established during Greece's Archaic Era, it was not unti ...
, in addition to winning awards including
Arkwright Engineering Scholarships and
Nuffield Research Placements (previously Nuffield Science Bursaries). Students have won scholarships for summer placements at the
Weizmann Institute of Science
The Weizmann Institute of Science ( he, מכון ויצמן למדע ''Machon Vaitzman LeMada'') is a public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, 14 years before the State of Israel. It differs from other Israeli unive ...
in
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
and research institutes in
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
.
British competition results include:
*First place in the Pi Wars robot competition
*First place in the
Schools' Challenge
Schools Challenge is the national general knowledge competition for schools in the United Kingdom, founded by Colin Galloway in 1978. It uses the same quiz bowl rules as University Challenge, although it is affiliated with neither the game nor ...
general knowledge competition
*First place (winning the
Trinity College Trinity College may refer to:
Australia
* Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales
* Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
prize) in the
National Cipher Challenge
*First place in the
Bank of England ''Target Two Point Zero'' interest rate challenge
*Invitation to the British Physics Olympiad presentation afternoon (top 4 in the country in the AS Challenge)
*Qualifying for the
UKMT Team Maths Challenge final (winning the poster competition)
*Qualifying for the
British Informatics Olympiad
The British Informatics Olympiad (BIO) is an annual computer-programming competition for secondary and sixth-form students. Any student under 19 who is in full-time pre-university education and resident in mainland Britain is eligible to compet ...
final (top 15 in the country)
*Qualifying for Round 2 (top 20 to 25 in the country) of the UK Chemistry Olympiad
*Scoring Gold in Round 1 of
United Kingdom Linguistics Olympiad
The United Kingdom Linguistics Olympiad (UKLO) is a linguistics competition for primary and secondary school students in the United Kingdom. The competition is divided into four levels: Breakthrough, Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced, collecti ...
Students have also competed in international competitions including the
International Mathematical Olympiad
The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is a mathematical olympiad for pre-university students, and is the oldest of the International Science Olympiads. The first IMO was held in Romania in 1959. It has since been held annually, except i ...
, the
Balkan Mathematical Olympiad
The Balkan Mathematical Olympiad (BMO) is an international contest of winners of high-school national competitions from European countries.
Participants (incomplete)
* Albania
** BMO 1991: 1.Julian Mulla 2.Erion Dasho 3.Elton Bojaxhi 4.Enke ...
,
the
European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad
The European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad (EGMO) is a mathematical olympiad for girls which started in 2012. It is similar to, and was inspired by, the China Girls Mathematical Olympiad (CGMO). Although the competition is held in Europe, several co ...
,
the
International Biology Olympiad
The International Biology Olympiad (IBO) is a biological olympiad for pre-university students under the age 20, and is one of the most well-known International Science Olympiads. The first IBO was held in Czechoslovakia in 1990, and it has since b ...
, the International Rocketry Challenge, the
European Union Contest for Young Scientists and the
Intel International Science and Engineering Fair The Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) is an annual science fair in the United States. It is owned and administered by the Society for Science, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. Each May, more th ...
.
Innovation
In 2018, The Perse School partnered with a Cambridge-based education technology entrepreneur, Rob Percival, to support the creation of an online artificial intelligence maths teaching platform. Blutick in association with The Perse School, exhibited at the BETT Show in London, 2019 to launch a free beta version.
Developments
The Perse School began accepting girls at 11+ and 13+ in September 2010 and became fully co-educational in September 2012 .
Since 2020, The Perse School Cambridge International (TPSCI) has liaised with partners to open up The Perse international schools outside of England. Currently, two international schools have been set up, namely The Perse School Singapore (opened in Jan 2020) and The Perse School Suzhou in China (opened in Sep 2021).
Headmaster's blog
On his blog the headmaster, Ed Elliott, described his 'ten second challenge' in which he would give students who "commit occasional minor misdemeanours (such as forgetting a book) the opportunity to talk their way out of a punishment". The story was quickly picked up by the mainstream media who reported that pupils were "let off punishment for clever excuses".
Notable Perseans
Academia
*
Maurice Bloch
Maurice Émile Félix Bloch (born 21 October 1939 in Caen, Calvados, France) is a British anthropologist. He is famous for his fieldwork on the shift of agriculturalists in Madagascar, Japan and other parts of the world, and has also contribut ...
, anthropologist
*
Harold James, professor of history and international relations
*
W. E. Johnson, logician
*
F. R. Leavis
Frank Raymond "F. R." Leavis (14 July 1895 – 14 April 1978) was an English literary critic of the early-to-mid-twentieth century. He taught for much of his career at Downing College, Cambridge, and later at the University of York.
Leavis ra ...
, literary critic
*
Michael Loewe
Michael Arthur Nathan Loewe (born 2 November 1922) is a British Sinologist, historian, and writer who has authored dozens of books, articles, and other publications in the fields of Classical Chinese as well as the history of ancient and ear ...
, sinologist
*
Edward Henry Palmer
Edward Henry Palmer (7 August 184010 August 1882), known as E. H. Palmer, was an English orientalist and explorer.
Biography
Youth and education
Palmer was born in Green Street, Cambridge the son of a private schoolmaster. He was orphaned a ...
, orientalist
*
G. L. S. Shackle
George Lennox Sharman Shackle (14 July 1903 – 3 March 1992) was an English economist. He made a practical attempt to challenge classical rational choice theory and has been characterised as a "post-Keynesian", though he is influenced as well by ...
, economist
*
E. H. Warmington, classicist
Art
*
Thomas P. Campbell
Thomas Patrick Campbell (born July 12, 1962) is the director and CEO of Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, overseeing the De Young Museum, de Young and Legion of Honor (museum), Legion of Honor museums. ...
, director of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
Business
*
David Tang
Sir David Wing-cheung Tang, (; 2 August 1954 – 29 August 2017), was a Hong Kong businessman, philanthropist and socialite. He was best known for founding the Shanghai Tang fashion chain in 1994, which he sold in 1998 to Richemont.
Early l ...
,
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
-based entrepreneur
Engineering
*
Arthur Marshall, aviation engineer
*
Anthony Michell
Anthony George Maldon Michell FRS (21 June 1870 – 17 February 1959) was an Australian mechanical engineer of the early 20th century.
Early life
Michell was born in London while his parents were on a visit to England from Australia to which th ...
, hydraulic engineer
Film and theatre
*
Ranjit Bolt
Ranjit Bolt OBE (born 1959) is a British playwright and translator. He was born in Manchester of Anglo-Indian parents and is the nephew of playwright and screenwriter Robert Bolt.Programme notes for ''The Grouch'', West Yorkshire Playhouse Feb ...
, translator and playwright
*
Marius Goring
Marius Re Goring, (23 May 191230 September 1998) was a British stage and screen actor. He is best remembered for the four films he made with Powell & Pressburger, particularly as Conductor 71 in '' A Matter of Life and Death'' and as Julian Cr ...
, actor
*
Peter Hall, founder of the
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and produces around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, St ...
*
Humphrey Jennings
Frank Humphrey Sinkler Jennings (19 August 1907 – 24 September 1950) was an English documentary filmmaker and one of the founders of the Mass Observation organisation. Jennings was described by film critic and director Lindsay Anderson in 195 ...
, film director
*
Matthew Lloyd
Matthew James Lloyd (born 16 April 1978) is a former professional Australian rules footballer, who played for the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).
A highly decorated full-forward, Lloyd's AFL's honours include ...
, theatre director,
Royal Exchange, Manchester
The Royal Exchange is a grade II listed building in Manchester, England. It is located in the city centre on the land bounded by St Ann's Square, Exchange Street, Market Street, Cross Street and Old Bank Street. The complex includes the Royal ...
*
Colin McFarlane
Colin Andrew Ignatius Peter McFarlane (born 15 September 1961) is a British actor, narrator and voice actor. He is best known for his role as Gillian B. Loeb in two films of Christopher Nolan's ''The Dark Knight Trilogy'', Ulysses in the STARZ ...
, actor
*
Jeremy Silberston
Jeremy Silberston (1 April 1950 – 9 March 2006), was an English film director.
Early life
His father was economist Aubrey Silberston, and his mother, Dorothy, was a founder member of the National Schizophrenia Fellowship. He attended The Perse ...
, film director
Law
*
Mark Potter, Appeal Court judge and
President of the Family Division
The President of the Family Division is the head of the Family Division of the High Court of Justice in England and Wales and Head of Family Justice. The Family Division was created in 1971 when Admiralty and contentious probate cases were remove ...
Media
*
Simon Akam
Simon Akam is a British journalist and historian of the British Army.
Early life
Akam was born in Cambridge and educated at The Perse School, the University of Oxford, and Columbia University. During his gap year in 2003, he served a short ser ...
, author, writing on military history and the British Army since 9/11
*
Mel Calman
Melville Calman (19 May 1931 – 10 February 1994) was a British cartoonist best known for his "little man" cartoons published in British newspapers including the ''Daily Express'' (1957–63), ''The Sunday Telegraph'' (1964–65), ''The Obse ...
, cartoonist
*
Rodney Dale
Rodney A.M. Dale (28 November 1933 – 29 March 2020) was an English author, editor, publisher, and a co-founder and former member of Cambridge Consultants Ltd. He wrote principally on non-fiction topics (biography, technology, computing, jaz ...
, writer and publisher
*
John Gross
John Gross FRSL (12 March 1935 – 10 January 2011) was an eminent English man of letters. A leading intellectual, writer, anthologist, and critic, ''The Guardian'' (in a tribute titled "My Hero") and ''The Spectator'' were among several pu ...
, critic and editor
*
Tom Harwood, journalist for ''
Guido Fawkes
Guido Fawkes is a right-wing political website published by British-Irish political blogger Paul Staines.
History
In September 2004, Staines began writing an anonymous blog about British politics under the name of Guido Fawkes, an alternative ...
'', ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was fo ...
'' and
GB News
GB News is a British free-to-air television and radio news channel. The channel is available on Freeview, Freesat, Sky, YouView, Virgin Media and via the internet. Since 4 January 2022, an audio simulcast of the station is available on DAB+ ...
*
Tom Rosenthal (publisher)
Thomas Gabriel Rosenthal (16 July 1935 – 3 January 2014) was a British publisher and art critic.
Early life
Thomas Gabriel Rosenthal was born on 16 July 1935 in London, the son of Erwin Isak Jacob Rosenthal (1904–1991), a Hebrew scholar an ...
(1935–2014), publisher and art critic
*
Mark Saggers,
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
* George Griffith, MA - died 1686
* Frederick Heppenstall, MA - 1864 to 1874
* Dr
, MA, LittD (Cantab) - 1902 to 1928. Formerly a fellow of
* H. A. Wootton - 1928 to 1945
*
, MA - 1945 to 1969. Formerly a housemaster at
* Anthony E. Melville - 1969 to 1987. Formerly senior history master at
- 1987 to 1994. Subsequently, High Master of
from 2004 to 2011. Director of Education for
UK. Non-Executive Chairman of the Clarendon Academies Group
* Dr Nigel P. V. Richardson - 1994 to 2008. Headmaster of
from 1989 to 1992. Chairman of the
in 2007. Governor of
.
board member. Author of the biography ''Thring of Uppingham: Victorian Educator''
* Mr Edward C. Elliott, MA - 2008 onwards. Joined the school in 1997 as head of sixth form and was senior deputy head before being appointed headmaster
, served as a sports coach at the Perse from 2005 to 2014, including as assistant director of sport and head of hockey from 2012 to 2014. After three years away from The Perse School, Kirkham returned to the new post of Upper School Director of Sport in September 2017. Kirkham participated at the