The Royal School, Wolverhampton is a

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 ...

free school and

sixth form In the education systems of England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepare for A-l ...

for

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 Boarding may refer to: *Boarding, used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals as in a: ** Boarding house **Boarding school *Boarding (horses) (also known as a livery yard, livery stable, or boarding stable), is a stable where ho ...

pupils in

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunian ...

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

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 is the only state school of its type in the UK to have a Royal Charter and it has been a free school since September 2016. The school was previously a fee paying

independent school An independent school is independent in its finances and governance. Also known as private schools, non-governmental, privately funded, or non-state schools, they are not administered by local, state or national governments. In British Eng ...

and it is now one of a handful of state boarding schools in the country.

History

The Royal School, Wolverhampton began life as ''The Wolverhampton Orphan Asylum''. It was founded in 1850 by John Lees, a local lock-manufacturer and

freemason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

, after a

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...

epidemic ravaged the town and left many children orphaned. The orphanage was completely funded by voluntary subscription and was dedicated to the education and maintenance of children who had lost one or both parents. The ''Royal Orphanage of Wolverhampton'' came into being in 1891 when

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

gave permission for the prefix 'Royal' to be used. The charity carried on using this title until the late 1940s when

King George VI George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of Ind ...

permitted it to be re-styled ''The Royal Wolverhampton School.'' The following decade saw a rapid decline in the number of pupils as the newly formed

Welfare State A welfare state is a form of government in which the state (or a well-established network of social institutions) protects and promotes the economic and social well-being of its citizens, based upon the principles of equal opportunity, equitabl ...

took over some of the school's responsibilities. The cost of caring for orphans also dramatically increased and so the constitution was controversially changed to allow the admission of fee-paying pupils. Their proportion steadily grew to the extent that they eventually constituted around 90% of its students. The school became a free school in September 2016.

Buildings and Facilities

The school's original premises were at 46 Queen Street,

. In 1854 it moved to new buildings on Penn Road. These have been greatly extended over the years but they still form the nucleus of the current school.

Hilda Hayward Swimming Pool

The original Hilda Hayward swimming pool was constructed in the 1970s with money donated by the Hayward Foundation. It was named in honour of Sir Charles Hayward's wife who died during its construction. This pool was destroyed in a fire in February 2005. Its replacement, also called the Hilda Hayward swimming pool, cost £2.5 million and was opened by Prince Edward in September 2006. The Hilda Hayward pool also provides facilities for the School's Elite Swim Club and Learn to Swim Programme, part of the

Amateur Swimming Association Swim England is the national governing body for swimming, diving, water polo, open water swimming, and synchronised swimming in England. It forms part of British Swimming, a federation of the national governing bodies of England, Scotland ( Scott ...

Royal Patronage

The school's patron is Prince Edward, the youngest son of

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

. Prince Edward succeeded his grandmother,

Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 to 6 February 1952 as the wife of King George VI. She was the l ...

, in this role.

Forces bursaries

The children of serving personnel in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

are afforded £1,000 a term per child of military personnel in order to help them pay for their children to board.

Eric Idle Eric Idle (born 29 March 1943) is an English actor, comedian, musician and writer. Idle was a member of the British surreal comedy group Monty Python and the parody rock band The Rutles, and is the writer of the music and lyrics for the Broadwa ...

was an Orphan's scholarship holder and benefited from a forces bursary as his late father had been a former member of the RAF.

Extracurricular Activities

Sport

The main sports on offer are

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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

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 ...

.Sport
/ref>

CCF

All pupils in Year 8 up until Year 10 are required to be a member of the

Combined Cadet Force The Combined Cadet Force (CCF) is a youth organisation in the United Kingdom, sponsored by the Ministry of Defence (MOD), which operates in schools, and normally includes Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force sections. Its aim is to "provide a ...

(CCF). Other students (Year 11 onwards) have the option to continue CCF sessions.

Notable people

* Montagu Dawson, RAF group captain * Alice Dearing, swimmer *

Edward Gopsill Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Gopsill, (22 December 1921 – 25 July 2016) was a decorated British Army officer and founder of the 1st Malaysian Rangers. Early life Gopsill was born in Birkenhead in 1921. He left school at fourteen and took a job ...

, lieutenant colonel *

Gilbert Harding Gilbert Charles Harding (5 June 1907 – 16 November 1960) was a British journalist and radio and television personality. His many careers included schoolmaster, journalist, policeman, disc jockey, actor, interviewer and television presenter. He ...

, broadcaster *

, comedian *

Tully Kearney Tully Alicia Jacqueline Kearney (born 11 April 1997) is a British Paralympic swimmer. Kearney competes in the S5 classification for swimmers with physical disabilities. She won Gold and Silver at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games setting World ...

, Paralympic Swimmer *

Michael Kidson Michael George MacDonald Kidson (24 August 1929 – 20 June 2015) was a British schoolmaster who taught history at Eton College. Among Kidson's pupils was former Prime Minister David Cameron. Kidson was born in Belgravia, London. His parents s ...

, schoolmaster * Kelly Massey Olympic 400m athlete *

Philip Oakes Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who popularize ...

, journalist *

Jonathan Pedley Jonathan may refer to: *Jonathan (name), a masculine given name Media * ''Jonathan'' (1970 film), a German film directed by Hans W. Geißendörfer * ''Jonathan'' (2016 film), a German film directed by Piotr J. Lewandowski * ''Jonathan'' (2018 ...

, wine expert * Matthew Richards, Olympic swimmer * Tom Webster, cartoonist

References

External links

The Royal School, Wolverhampton official websiteProfile
on the

Independent Schools Council The Independent Schools Council (ISC) is a non-profit lobby group that represents over 1,300 schools in the United Kingdom's independent education sector. The organisation comprises seven independent school associations and promotes the busin ...

website *

Independent Schools Inspectorate The Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) is approved by the Secretary of State for Education – under section 106 of the Education and Skills Act 2008 – to inspect independent schools in England. These schools are members of associations, w ...

Inspectio
Reports

History of the Orphanage/School
{{DEFAULTSORT:Royal School, Wolverhampton Educational institutions established in 1850 1850 establishments in England Boarding schools in the West Midlands (county) Secondary schools in Wolverhampton Church of England secondary schools in the Diocese of Lichfield Church of England primary schools in the Diocese of Lichfield Primary schools in Wolverhampton Free schools in England