, established = 1925 , type = Preparatory

day A day is the time period of a full rotation of the Earth with respect to the Sun. On average, this is 24 hours, 1440 minutes, or 86,400 seconds. In everyday life, the word "day" often refers to a solar day, which is the length between two so ...

and

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 ...

, religious_affiliation =

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

, head_label = Headmaster , head = Jeremy Wyld , chair_label = Chairman of Governors , chair = J. Harris , founders = Ronnie and Joan Forbes , address = Cromwell Avenue , city =

Woodhall Spa Woodhall Spa is a former spa Village and civil parish in Lincolnshire, England, on the southern edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds, south-west of Horncastle, west of Skegness, east-south-east of Lincoln and north-west of Boston. It is noted for ...

, county =

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

, postcode = LN10 6TQ , country = England , coordinates = , urn = 120732 , dfeno = 925/6022 , staff = 43 teaching, 21 support , capacity = 188 , enrolment = 200 , 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 = 2 , upper_age = 13 , houses = Forbes, Kelham, Wheeler , colours = , publication = ''St Hugh's'' (annually)
''The Recorder'' (weekly) , website = , free_label_1 = Named after , free_1 =

Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln Hugh of Lincoln (1246 – 27 August 1255) was an English boy whose death in Lincoln was falsely attributed to Jews. He is sometimes known as Little Saint Hugh or Little Sir Hugh to distinguish him from the adult saint, Hugh of Lincoln (died 12 ...

, St Hugh of Lincoln St Hugh's School is a

coeducational 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 ...

, preparatory school in the village of

, England, founded in 1925. It was originally known as a

, although a significant proportion of its students are now day pupils or flexi-boarders. The headmaster is Jeremy Wyld, who has been in post since September 2019.

History

St Hugh's School was founded by Ronnie and Joan Forbes in 1925, initially in a three-storied house on the corner of Iddesleigh Road and Stanhope Avenue. The school expanded rapidly, spreading into another house which later became the offices of Woodhall Spa UDC. In 1929, the school moved to the present site on Cromwell Avenue, with the buildings being extended and enlarged in 1929 and 1933. In 1940, when Lincolnshire airfields became a target for the

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

and the school buildings were commandeered for military use, St Hugh's was evacuated to

Storrs Hall Storrs Hall is a hotel on the banks of Windermere in Storrs in the Lake District, Cumbria, England. The hotel, a Grade II* listed Georgian mansion, is also home to the National Trust-owned folly the "Temple" on the end of a stone jetty on Win ...

in the

Lake District The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (or ''fells''), and its associations with William Wordswor ...

, until it was deemed safe to return in 1944. Fairmead House, a former girls' school, was purchased for use as a senior boys' boarding house in 1946, with the war-time huts in the garden being put to various uses, and in 1952, Austral House, renamed "Dominies", was added as the headmaster's house. On the death of the founder in 1960, an advisory council was established to govern the school, chaired by

Kenneth Riches Kenneth Riches (20 September 1908 – 15 May 1999) was an Anglican bishop during the second half of the 20th century. He served as the bishop of Dorchester from 1952 to 1957, and as the Bishop of Lincoln from 1957 to 1974. He was also the pr ...

Bishop of Lincoln The Bishop of Lincoln is the ordinary (diocesan bishop) of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury. The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and ...

. The school became a charitable trust in 1964 and became co-educational in 1980. The school is named after Saint Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln but also

. Little St Hugh was a child whose alleged murder by Jews in 1255 formed one of the most well-known and persistent

anti-semitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

blood libel Blood libel or ritual murder libel (also blood accusation) is an antisemitic canardTurvey, Brent E. ''Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis'', Academic Press, 2008, p. 3. "Blood libel: An accusation of ritual mur ...

s. The

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

formally apologised for the Little St Hugh allegations in 1955. In some

ballads A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

retelling the story, Hugh was playing with a ball, which he lost over the wall of a neighbouring Jewish family, and was murdered after being invited into the garden to retrieve it. Mrs Forbes was familiar with the myth while Mr Forbes asserted that this story should remind his boys to maintain control, both of the ball and where they were allowed to play with it. The story and its moral were represented in the school badge, which showed a ball flying over a wall. In 2020, the school's governing board removed the circle from the logo, retaining the bricks "to reiterate the significance of the educational building blocks".

Campus

The school sits on a campus on the edge of the village of Woodhall Spa. The original building, an Edwardian villa, has been much extended and the buildings on campus now include a teaching block, a science block, a music school, a library, an assembly hall and a

nursery school A preschool, also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, or play school or creche, is an educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they begin compulsory education at primary school ...

and pre-prep department. The school has a swimming pool and a sports hall. The cricket pavilion looks over the of playing field and the Lincolnshire farmland beyond. ''Fairmead House'' (for senior boys' boarding) and ''Dominies'' (the headmaster's house) were sold as part of the restructuring of the school in the 1990s. All senior boarders are now accommodated in the main building and in ''Raftsund House''—an

Arts and Crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

villa next door.

Houses

The school uses the

house system The house system is a traditional feature of schools in the United Kingdom. The practice has since spread to Commonwealth countries and the United States. The school is divided into subunits called "houses" and each student is allocated to o ...

, with each pupil being placed in a house when they join the school.
The houses are named after three former headmasters; Forbes Kelham and Wheeler.

Academic

Pupils study the usual core subjects of maths, English and the sciences, together with

ICT ICT may refer to: Sciences and technology * Information and communications technology * Image Constraint Token, in video processing * Immunochromatographic test, a rapid immunoassay used to detect diseases such as anthrax * In-circuit test, in ...

, history, geography, art, cookery, DT, RS and textiles. Language teaching includes

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

and either

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

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 ...

. Pupils also engage in music, drama and PE and games.

Sports

The main sports for boys are

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

and

Rugby football Rugby football is the collective name for the team sports of rugby union and rugby league. Canadian football and, to a lesser extent, American football were once considered forms of rugby football, but are seldom now referred to as such. The ...

.. Older boys also play rugby sevens and

hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

. Girls play

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...

and

rounders Rounders is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams. Rounders is a striking and fielding team game that involves hitting a small, hard, leather-cased ball with a rounded end wooden, plastic, or metal bat. The players score by running aroun ...

. The children also compete in

cross country running Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open coun ...

and

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competiti ...

. The school has its own

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

pool, and is the regional champion at U9 and U11 level. Other sports available include

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

, creative dance,

gymnastics Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, shou ...

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...

and

orienteering Orienteering is a group of sports that require navigational skills using a map and compass to navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain whilst moving at speed. Participants are given a topographical map, usually a s ...

Extra curricular

The school has an active music department with two choirs, and an orchestra which often plays full symphony pieces. In addition to curricular drama lessons, all senior pupils have the chance to participate in a full-length musical production, accompanied by a professional band, in the spring term each year. In addition, there is a range of productions for children in different age groups throughout the school year. The school operates a

forest school Forest School or Forrest School may refer to: Educational philosophy * Forest school (learning style), a learner centred outdoor learning approach. Religious philosophy * Thai Forest Tradition, a Theravada school of Buddhism in Thailand. * Sri La ...

in its woodland. The school runs hobbies sessions at the end of each school day.

Headmasters

* G. R. Forbes 1925—1960 * Mr Vincent 1960–1962 * M. J. C. Wheeler 1962—1972 * M. W. Kelham 1972—1994 * P. Wells 1994—1995 * S. J. Greenish 1997—2013 * C. A. Ward 2013—2019 * J. Wyld 2019—present

Notable former pupils

* Henry Samuel Sharpley (1925—2010); farmer; member of the EEC Cereals Advisory Committee in Brussels; chairman of the NFU Labour committee 1961—1970;

High Sheriff of Lincolnshire This is a list of High Sheriffs of Lincolnshire. The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilitie ...

1991—1992. *

David Frost Sir David Paradine Frost (7 April 1939 – 31 August 2013) was a British television host, journalist, comedian and writer. He rose to prominence during the satire boom in the United Kingdom when he was chosen to host the satirical programme ' ...

(1939—2013); journalist, comedian, writer, media personality and television host. *

John Mallett John Anthony Mallett (born in Lincoln, 28 May 1970) is a former English rugby union footballer. He played as a prop. Mallett was educated at St Hugh's School, Woodhall Spa until age of 13, he then moved to Millfield and played for Bath Rugby u ...

(born 1970); English rugby union footballer, attended the school until 1983.

References

External links

St Hugh's School website

Profile
on the

Good Schools Guide ''The Good Schools Guide'' is a guide to British schools, both state and independent. Overview The guide is compiled by a team of editors which, according to the official website, "''comprises some 50 editors, writers, researchers and contri ...

* ISI Inspectio
Reports

St Hugh's School
on the

ISC #REDIRECT ISC {{redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from ambiguous page ...

website {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Hugh's School, Woodhall Spa Preparatory schools in Lincolnshire Church of England private schools in the Diocese of Lincoln Boarding schools in Lincolnshire Member schools of the Independent Schools Association (UK) Private schools in Lincolnshire