Bishop Fox's School is a
mixed secondary school
A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...
located in
Taunton
Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England. It is a market town and has a Minster (church), minster church. Its population in 2011 was 64,621. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century priory, monastic foundation, owned by the ...
,
Somerset
Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...
, England.
History
The school traces its history back to the
Taunton Grammar School or Tudor Grammar School endowed by the
Bishop of Winchester
The Bishop of Winchester is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Winchester in the Church of England. The bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire.
The Bishop of Winchester has always held ''ex officio'' the offic ...
,
Richard Foxe
Richard Foxe (sometimes Richard Fox) ( 1448 – 5 October 1528) was an English churchman, the founder of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He was successively Bishop of Exeter, Bath and Wells, Durham, and Winchester, and became also Lor ...
, in 1522.
The school was housed in what is now referred to as the old
Municipal Buildings in Corporation Street.
[ After Taunton Grammar School in Corporation Street closed in 1885,][ a new girls' grammar school, funded by Bishop Fox's endowment, opened in the former Roman Catholic Church on The Crescent in 1890: it moved to Staplegrove Road in 1895 and to Kingston Road in 1940. It then relocated from Kingston Road into new purpose-built accommodation, on a 30-acre (12.1 ha) site at Bishop Fox Drive, which was opened by ]Prime Minister
A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
, John Major
Sir John Major (born 29 March 1943) is a British retired politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997. Following his defeat to Ton ...
, in 1994.
In September 2003, the school was awarded Specialist Status as a Business and Enterprise College
Business and Enterprise Colleges (BECs) were introduced in 2002 as part of the Specialist Schools Programme in England. The system enabled secondary schools to specialise in certain fields. Schools that successfully applied to the Specialist Sch ...
and, in July 2011, it became an Academy
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...
. A floodlit astro-turf pitch was installed in summer 2014.
Accolades
The school has been awarded the Gold Artsmark
Artsmark is the quality standard for culture and creativity in schools and education settings, awarded by Arts Council England. The Artsmark award provides a clear framework for teachers and education professionals to plan, develop and evaluat ...
Award three times.
Notable former pupils
* Winifred Hector (1909—2002), nurse and textbook author
* Jack Leach
Matthew Jack Leach (born 22 June 1991) is an English professional cricketer who plays internationally for the England Test cricket team. In domestic cricket, he represents Somerset. Leach made his Test debut in 2018. He plays as a left-arm ort ...
(born 1991), England cricketer["Mary Sanson", ''The Times'', 3 May 2010, p. 52]
References
External links
*
{{authority control
Schools in Taunton
Secondary schools in Somerset
Academies in Somerset