Wellington School 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 ...

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 * Independe ...

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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 exte ...

in the English public school tradition for pupils aged 3–18 located in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lor ...

, England. Wellington School was founded in 1837. Wellington School is a

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and has around 800 pupils currently in attendance. Around 150 of those pupils are boarders. The school 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 Un ...

. Wellington School is based on a 35-acre campus in

. Wellington School operates is own feeder preparatory school, Wellington Prep School which shares the main campus. Wellington Prep School students often use the sporting pitches and science labs of Wellington School.

History

Wellington School is situated to the south of the centre of the small town of Wellington. It was founded originally as Wellington Academy in 1837 as an all-boys school by Benjamin Frost (Headmaster 1837–1848). It was later purchased and run by Frost's wife and William Corner (Headmaster 1848–1879). In 1879 under new headmaster Francis Raban renamed the school West Somerset County School, although only 34 years later the school was again renamed but this time as Wellington School, the name it retains today. The school was originally founded as a private all boys school, but in the early 1970s girls were first accepted into the Sixth Form. From 1979 girls were accepted from the age of 10. The school's arms consist of one quarter of the Duke of Wellington's arms, the dragons represent the

County of Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

and the open book represents learning. The school opened a new junior school in 2000, having previously only catered for pupils aged 10 and over. This was renamed "Wellington Prep School" in 2015. In 2003 the

Princess Royal Princess Royal is a style customarily (but not automatically) awarded by a British monarch to their eldest daughter. Although purely honorary, it is the highest honour that may be given to a female member of the royal family. There have been se ...

opened the Princess Royal Sports Complex, a £2.65 million indoor sports facility. The Princess Royal Sports Complex was offered to competitors in the 2012 London Olympics for training.

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 ...

described Wellington School as "Friendly, purposeful and busy, it is a solid, well-managed school, neat but not glossy, giving its pupils a sound education and masses of high points in developmental experience." The

Guide A guide is a person who leads travelers, sportspeople, or tourists through unknown or unfamiliar locations. The term can also be applied to a person who leads others to more abstract goals such as knowledge or wisdom. Travel and recreation Ex ...

also described Wellington School as "Down to earth. Punches above its weight. No sense of entitlement. Good value for money. Not our words, those of a parent. Says it for us, too".

Sports

The school has rugby pitches, cricket squares, football pitches, an all-weather pitch, all-weather training areas, tennis courts, squash courts, climbing wall and an indoor swimming pool.

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 ...

was reintroduced in the 2003 school year. Many students have gone on to represent the school in county and England hockey, national athletics, county and England fencing and county rugby.

Music

The school's music department, dedicated to the ex-headmaster George Corner, includes a recording studio,

iMac iMac is a family of all-in-one Mac desktop computers designed and built by Apple Inc. It has been the primary part of Apple's consumer desktop offerings since its debut in August 1998, and has evolved through seven distinct forms. In it ...

suite, and percussion studio as well as many practice rooms and two classrooms. All 15 pianos in the department are by

Steinway & Sons Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway (), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in Manhattan by German piano builder Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth led to the opening of a ...

, accrediting the school as an 'All Steinway School', the first of its kind in England. Regular concerts are held throughout the school year, performance spaces include the department's 'Small Hall', the school's main hall (Great Hall) and the school chapel which is fitted with an

electronic organ An electric organ, also known as electronic organ, is an electronic keyboard instrument which was derived from the harmonium, pipe organ and theatre organ. Originally designed to imitate their sound, or orchestral sounds, it has since developed ...

alongside a Steinway baby grand.

Chapel

Built between 1928 and 1931 by C. H. Biddulph-Pinchard, the

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

red brick building is dressed with stone and has a flat roof which is concealed behind a parapet. It is a rectangular single-cell chapel with a carved stone altar. The Chapel went through specialist restoration work in 2013 which involved the repainting of the ceiling among other maintenance tasks. This restoration was funded partly by the school's Old Wellingtonians' Association The east end of the building holds choir stalls and an organ loft over the entrance vestibule. The interior is highly decorated with finely carved wooden wall panels and elaborately decorated canopies made of molded plaster. 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 Brit ...

Chapel has a full-time Chaplain who prepares pupils for Confirmation annually. Though some assemblies and concerts are also held in the building, there are Sunday services throughout term time for boarders and members of the public; these involve regular performances by the school's chapel choir. There are also shorter services most days during the week with pupils attending on a house rota basis. The Chapel was built as a memorial to those who fell during the first world war. George Corner, the then headmaster, wrote to the Old Boys and asked for their support in the project. The 37 members of the Wellington School Community who gave their lives are listed on the walls of the Chapel. Each year a pupil from each boarding house remembers one former pupil specifically, researching how and where they died and a basket of flowers is laid in their memory. Confirmation and all the other occasional offices of the church are open to all members of the school community on request.

Combined Cadet Force

The school has a marching band and active

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 ...

, founded in 1901. The Combined Cadet Force is open to senior school pupils, and has upwards of 170 cadets across the Royal Navy, Army and Air Force sections. The cadets learn military based skills such as drill, weapons handling, map and compass, battlecraft, climbing, abseiling and leadership development. There are various CCF camps, military training weekends and cadet competitions each year, during which the cadets go on field manoeuvres in order to apply the skills they have learned in a practical situation. Wellington School is unique in having three field exercises a year, each lasting three days and two nights. A full-time member of staff at Wellington School runs the CCF and acts as the senior officer. He is assisted by an experienced warrant officer. The cadets are required to present themselves for inspection by the masters in charge of each section on a weekly basis.

Headteachers

Senior School Headteachers

* 1837 – 1848 Benjamin Frost * 1848 – 1879 William Corner * 1879 – 1885 Francis Raban * 1885 – 1899 James Beuttler * 1899 – 1938 George Corner * 1938 – 1945 Aubrey Price * 1945 – 1957 M Banks-Williams * 1957 – 1973 James Stredder * 1973 – 1990

John Kendall-Carpenter John MacGregor Kendall Kendall-Carpenter (25 September 1925 – 24 May 1990) was an England rugby union international who won 23 caps as a back row forward between 1949 and 1954. He subsequently served as President of the Rugby Football Uni ...

* 1990 – 2006 Alan Rogers * 2006 – 2014 Martin Reader * 2014 – 2019 Henry Price * Since 2019 Eugene Du Toit

Prep School Headteachers

* 2000-2004 John Wyatt * 2004-2010 Harry McFaul * 2010–2020 Adam Gibson * Since 2020 Victoria Richardson

Notable alumni

* Reza Abdoh Persian-American playwright and poet *

Salar Abdoh Salar Abdoh is an Iranian novelist and essayist. He is the author of the novels The Poet Game (2000), Opium (2004), Tehran At Twilight (2014), and the editor and translator of the anthology Tehran Noir (2014). He is also a director of the grad ...

Persian-American author and journalist *

Jeffrey Archer Jeffrey Howard Archer, Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare (born 15 April 1940) is an English novelist, life peer, convicted criminal, and former politician. Before becoming an author, Archer was a Member of Parliament (1969–1974), but did not ...

, Baron Archer, author and politician * John Baker DL, judge and politician *

Thomas Benyon Thomas Yates Benyon, OBE (born 13 August 1942, Newmarket, West Suffolk) is a British activist and former Conservative Party politician. Early life Benyon was educated at Wellington School, Somerset from 1956 to 1960. Parliamentary career Ben ...

OBE, politician *Brigadier Shelford Bidwell OBE, army officer and military historian * Tom Carson, Great Britain international hockey player *Sir

David Chipperfield Sir David Alan Chipperfield, (born 18 December 1953) is an English architect. He established David Chipperfield Architects in 1985. His major works include the River and Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire (1989–1998); the Museu ...

CBE, architect *Rear Admiral Paul Chivers CBE, naval officer *

John Fraser Drummond John Fraser Drummond, DFC (19 October 1918 – 10 October 1940) was a fighter pilot and flying ace who flew with the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. He was killed after his aircraft collided with another during the Battle of Britain ...

DFC, fighter pilot *

Keith Floyd Keith Floyd (28 December 1943 – 14 September 2009) was a British celebrity cook, restaurateur, television personality and "gastronaut" who hosted cooking shows for the BBC and published many books combining cookery and travel. On televi ...

, chef, television presenter and restaurateur *Sir Geoffrey Follows CMG, Financial Secretary of Hong Kong * Charles Garnsworthy OBE, Baron Garnsworthy, politician *

Herbert Gamlin Herbert Temlett Gamlin (12 February 1878 – 12 July 1937), known as Octopus Gamlin, played in 15 rugby union internationals for England between 1899 and 1904 as a full-back. He also played first-class cricket for Somerset in 1895 and 1896. He ...

, England international rugby union player * Frank Gillard CBE, BBC broadcaster and administrator * Harriet Hawkins, cultural geographer * Colonel Cecil Law CB DL, Baron Ellenborough, army officer and politician *

Bob Moran Bob Moran is a British cartoonist whose work has been published in many publications including, '' Morning Star'', ''The Guardian'' and ''The Telegraph'' and more recently The Conservative Woman. On 12 October 2017, he was awarded the Cartoon A ...

, cartoonist and anti-vaccine campaigner. *

David Oxley David Oxley (7 November 1920 – 30 October 1985) was an English actor who made many film, television and stage appearances over a 28-year period. He is best known for portraying Gilles de Rais in '' Saint Joan'' (1957), Sir Hugo Baskerville in ' ...

, actor *Vice Admiral

Duncan Potts Vice Admiral Duncan Laurence Potts, (born 10 March 1961) is a retired senior Royal Navy officer. He served as Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Capability) and Controller of the Navy from 2013 to 2014, and as Director General of the Defence Acad ...

CB, naval officer * John Robins, Wales international rugby union player *

Simon Singh Simon Lehna Singh, (born 19 September 1964) is a British popular science author, theoretical and particle physicist. His written works include ''Fermat's Last Theorem'' (in the United States titled ''Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve th ...

MBE, science author *

Tom Singh Tom Singh (born August 1949) is the founder of the New Look, a chain of high street fashion stores in the United Kingdom. Early life Singh was born into a Punjabi Sikh family, who emigrated from the Punjab to England in the late 1940s when he ...

OBE, founder of New Look * Rachel Skinner FREng, President of Institution of Civil Engineers *

Peter St George-Hyslop Peter Henry St George-Hyslop, OC, FRS, FRSC, FRCPC, (born July 10, 1953) is a British and Canadian medical scientist, neurologist and molecular geneticist who is known for his research into neurodegenerative diseases. St George-Hyslop is one of ...

OC FRS, physician scientist *

David Suchet Sir David Courtney Suchet''England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916–2007'' ( ; born 2 May 1946) is an English actor known for his work on British stage and television. He portrayed Edward Teller in the television serial '' Oppen ...

CBE, actor * Sir

Nigel Sweeney Sir Nigel Hamilton Sweeney KC (born 18 March 1954), styled The Hon. Mr Justice Sweeney, is a High Court judge. Biography Sweeney studied law at the University of Nottingham under Sir John Cyril Smith. He was called to the bar in 1976 at the M ...

, High Court judge *Lieutenant-General Sir Freddie Viggers KCB CMG DL, army officer and Gentleman Usher of the

Black Rod Black Rod (officially known as the Lady Usher of the Black Rod or, if male, the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod) is an official in the parliaments of several Commonwealth countries. The position originates in the House of Lords of the Parlia ...

Notable staff

was headmaster of the school from 1973 to 1990. Kendall-Carpenter was President of the Rugby Football Union from 1980 to 1981, the England Schools Rugby Football Union from 1985 to 1990 and the Cornish Rugby Football Union from 1984 to 1987. He was also chairman of the committee that organised the first Rugby World Cup in 1987.

Arms

Scandals

* A maths teacher, Andrew Crozier, was forced to quit in March 2003 after starting a sexual relationship with the 18-year-old head girl. * Another maths teacher, Ian Sarginson, was convicted of indecently assaulting an underage male pupil in March 2004 and sent to prison.

References

External links

Wellington School's official website

Wellington School's Princess Royal Sports Complex
*

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 ...

br>Inspection Reports
Independent schools in Somerset Boarding schools in Somerset Member schools of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference Educational institutions established in 1837 School sexual abuse scandals 1837 establishments in England Wellington, Somerset {{DEFAULTSORT:Wellington_School_Somerset