The European School, Culham (ESC) was one of the fourteen

European School A European School ( la, Schola Europaea) is a type of international school emphasising a multilingual and multicultural pedagogical approach to the teaching of nursery, primary and secondary students, leading to the European Baccalaureate as t ...

s and the only one in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Located in

Culham Culham is a village and civil parish in a bend of the River Thames, south of Abingdon in Oxfordshire. The parish includes Culham Science Centre and Europa School UK (formerly the European School, Culham, which was the only Accredited Europe ...

near Abingdon in Oxfordshire. It was founded in 1978 for the purpose of providing an education to the children of staff working for the

European Atomic Energy Community The European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom) is an international organisation established by the Euratom Treaty on 25 March 1957 with the original purpose of creating a specialist market for nuclear power in Europe, by developing nucl ...

(Euratom).

History

The European School, Culham was founded in 1978 for the purpose of providing an education to the children of staff working for the

(Euratom) on the

Joint European Torus The Joint European Torus, or JET, is an operational Magnetic confinement fusion, magnetically confined Plasma (physics), plasma physics experiment, located at Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom, UK. Based on a tokamak ...

(JET) fusion energy research programme based nearby, and later, additionally, children of staff seconded as part of the

European Fusion Development Agreement EFDA (1999 — 2013) has been followed by EUROfusion, which is a consortium of national fusion research institutes located in the European Union and Switzerland. The European Union has a strongly coordinated nuclear fusion research programme. At ...

(EFDA). With the relocation of European Union-seconded researchers and their families following the formation of JET's successor in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, the

International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor ITER (initially the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, ''iter'' meaning "the way" or "the path" in Latin) is an international nuclear fusion research and engineering megaproject aimed at creating energy by replicating, on Earth ...

(ITER), and the formation of EFDA's successor,

EUROfusion EUROfusion is a consortium of national fusion research institutes located in the European Union, the UK, Switzerland and Ukraine. It was established in 2014 to succeed the European Fusion Development Agreement ( EFDA) as the umbrella organisation o ...

, to support ITER's development, it was announced that the school would close on 31 August 2017. The school confirmed that this was a move unrelated to

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC ...

. The final two employees, the bursar and accountant, continued to work until 31 May 2018. The former ESC campus was subsumed by the Europa School UK on 1 September 2017. ESUK is a 'free school' and an Accredited European School with all students following a learning programme leading to the

European Baccalaureate The European Baccalaureate (or EB) is a bilingual educational diploma, which certifies the completion of secondary studies in a European School or Accredited European School by the Board of Governors of the intergovernmental organisation, "The Eu ...

qualification. Accredited European Schools are schools under national jurisdiction within European Union (EU) member states which, without forming part of the intergovernmental network of European Schools, offer its multilingual curriculum and the

Notable alumni

* Henry Brett, England polo player * Tommaso Allan, Italian

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

player

Notable former staff

Tom Høyem Tom Høyem (born 10 October 1941) is a Danish and German politician, and former headmaster in the European Schools. Political career in Denmark Between September 1982 and September 1987, Høyem served as Minister for Greenland within the Da ...

, school Director (1987-1994) * Marcus Stock, former teacher of Religious Education. Now Bishop of Leeds. * Colin Hannaford, former mathematics teacher.

References

External links

*
How Your School Compares Internationally: PISA-based Test for Schools Pilot Trial
OECD, 2012
The European Baccalaureate – An Overview
Department for Education, 2016 {{authority control

Defunct schools in Oxfordshire International schools in the United Kingdom Educational institutions established in 1978 1978 establishments in England Educational institutions disestablished in 2017 2017 disestablishments in England

History

Notable alumni

Notable former staff

See also

References

Further reading

External links