King's College School is a coeducational

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

preparatory school for pupils aged 4 to 13 in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, England, situated on West Road off Grange Road, west of the city centre. It was founded to educate the

chorister A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

s in the King's College Choir during the 15th century. Although no longer located on

College A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further education institution, or a secondary sc ...

grounds, it remains an integral part of the

Chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

's musical tradition and is still governed by and receives some funding from the College. The school is part of the same historic foundation as

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

. The most recent full integrated

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 private schools in England. These schools are members of associations, whi ...

(ISI) inspection awarded the grade "excellent" in all 9 categories.

History

King's College was founded in 1441 by

King Henry VI Henry VI (6 December 1421 – 21 May 1471) was King of England from 1422 to 1461 and 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. The only child of Henry V, he succeeded to the English throne at the age of eight months, upon ...

. By 1447 the full complement of 16 choristers had been recruited to sing in the chapel. They were likely educated by a fellow until the appointment of the first Informator Chorustarum (Master over the Choristers) in 1456, Robert Brantham. The existence of dedicated school rooms was recorded during a Marian visitation of the University in 1557 which inspected the "chorusters chamber and schole" and took away a number of books deemed to be unsuitable. The school has moved location several times since its inception. By 1693 it was located in a building to the south-east of the chapel, next to

King's Parade King's Parade is a street in central Cambridge, England. In this year that building was demolished and replaced with what was known as the New Brick Building which continued to house the school through to the nineteenth century. In the 1820s during the rebuilding by William Wilkins, the brick building and adjoining Provost's Lodge were demolished, opening up a view of the chapel from the street. The outline of the foundations of the brick building can be seen on the lawn during long periods of hot dry weather. In 1828 the Wilkins building on the south side of the court opposite the chapel was opened and the school was housed in rooms within it. By the 1870s in response to improving musical standards in other English choirs, it was decided to open a boarding house to accommodate choristers from outside Cambridge in order to widen the field from which selection of choristers could take place. This was opened on the current site in West Road in 1878, and by 1880 all 16 choristers were boarders, and there were also 8 non-chorister day pupils, a number that would gradually increase over the coming decades. From 1976 girls were admitted, and as the school expanded, it opened a pre-preparatory department.

Boarding

The boarding programme is open to boys and girls. Year 4 and 5 Choristers are weekly boarders. Year 6 to 8 Choristers are full boarders, with the option to spend Friday nights at home (until Saturday lunchtime), while other boarders return home for the weekend.

Houses

Like many British schools, King's uses a house system. This is not a system related to boarding houses, of which there is only one at King's, but one of which pupils are placed into one of four houses, each named after a surrounding road or path. There are many inter-house competitions throughout the year in sports and academics, in the form of merits, awarded for good work, which are totalled and averaged each term, with the house with the highest average merits winning a house party.

Links with other schools

The school began a link project with Sri Siddharta Dikkumbura school in

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

in 2007 initially as a response to the

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami On 26 December 2004, at 07:58:53 local time ( UTC+7), a major earthquake with a magnitude of 9.2–9.3 struck with an epicentre off the west coast of Aceh in northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The undersea megathrust earthquake, known in the sci ...

, after a visit there by the then headmaster, Nicholas Robinson, but the link quickly went beyond aid and became more of an academic link, with three yearly teacher exchanges and many more exchanges of work between the schools to learn more about each culture. King's often raises funds to help the school, and has sent musical instruments and sports equipment to the school in Sri Lanka as well.

Alumni

Heads

The following headteachers have served since 1878 when the school relocated to its present site in West Road:

References

External links

King's College School, Cambridge
* ISI Inspectio
Report
{{Coord, 52.2039, N, 0.1065, E, display=title, region:GB_type:landmark Schools in Cambridge Choir schools in England

School A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the Educational architecture, building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most co ...

Preparatory schools in Cambridgeshire Educational institutions established in the 15th century University-affiliated secondary schools