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 ...

fee-charging boarding and

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

Wellington Wellington 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 third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

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. 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), formerly known as the Headmasters' Conference and now branded HMC (The Heads' Conference), is an association of the head teachers of 351 private fee-charging schools (both boarding schools ...

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

. Wellington School operates its 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 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 ...

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 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 substantive title, title customarily (but not automatically) awarded by British monarchs to their eldest daughters. Although purely honorary, it is the highest honour that may be given to a female member of the royal famil ...

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 private. The guide's contributors are predominantly parents, but include researchers and former headteachers. It uses a conversational tone. Selection of schools is made ...

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 Exp ...

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".

Arms

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, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

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 The iMac is a series of all-in-one computers from Apple Inc., sold as part of the company's Mac (computer), Mac family of computers. First introduced in 1998, it has remained a primary part of Apple's consumer desktop offerings since and evol ...

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 New York City by German piano builder Henry E. Steinway, Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth le ...

, 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 pump organ, harmonium, pipe organ and theatre organ. Originally designed to imitate their sound, or orchestral sounds, it has si ...

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 is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

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 State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

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, sub divided into Royal Navy, Royal Marines, Army and Royal Air Force sections. Its aim is to ...

, 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 English 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 U ...

* 1990 – 2006 Alan Rogers * 2006 – 2014 Martin Reader * 2014 – 2019 Henry Price * 2019 - 2024 Eugene du Toit * 2024 - Present Alex Battison

Prep School Headteachers

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

Notable alumni

Reza Abdoh Reza Abdoh (; also Romanized as "Rezā Abdoh", ) (February 23, 1963 – May 11, 1995) was an Iranian-born director and playwright known for large-scale, experimental theatrical productions, often staged in unusual spaces like warehouses and a ...

Persian-American playwright and poet * Salar Abdoh Persian-American author and journalist *

Jeffrey Archer Jeffrey Howard Archer, Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare (born 15 April 1940) is an English novelist and former politician. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Louth (Lincolnshire) from 1969 to 1974, but did not seek re-election after a fina ...

, Baron Archer, author and politician * John Baker, judge and politician * Thomas Benyon, politician *Brigadier

Shelford Bidwell Shelford Bidwell FRS (6 March 1848 – 18 December 1909) was an English physicist and inventor. He is best known for his work with "telephotography", a precursor to the modern fax machine. Private life He was born in Thetford, Norfolk the eld ...

, army officer and military historian * Tom Carson, Great Britain international hockey player * James Carson, Wales international hockey player *Sir

David Chipperfield Sir David Alan Chipperfield, , (born 18 December 1953) is a British architect. He established David Chipperfield Architects in 1985, which grew into a global architectural practice with offices in London, Berlin, Milan, Shanghai, and Santiago d ...

, architect *Rear Admiral Paul Chivers, naval officer * John Fraser Drummond, fighter pilot * Keith Floyd, chef, television presenter and restaurateur *Sir

Geoffrey Follows Sir Charles Geoffry Shield Follows (4 July 1896 – 7 August 1983) was a British colonial administrator. He was the Financial Secretary of Hong Kong from 1946 to 1951. Early life and education Follows (whose second name is also spelt Geoffrey) ...

, Financial Secretary of Hong Kong * Charles Garnsworthy, Baron Garnsworthy, politician * Herbert Gamlin, England international rugby union player * Frank Gillard, BBC broadcaster and administrator * Harriet Hawkins, cultural geographer * Niamh Holland, Somerset and Western Storm cricketer *Colonel Cecil Law, 6th Baron Ellenborough, Baron Ellenborough, army officer and politician * Bob Moran, cartoonist *

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

Simon Singh Simon Lehna Singh, (born 19 September 1964) is a British popular science author and 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 ...

, science author * Tom Singh, founder of New Look *

Rachel Skinner Rachel Susan Skinner (née Bass; born December 1976) is a British civil engineer with Canadian-based consultant WSP Global. She was named one of the ''Daily Telegraph'' Top 50 Influential Women in Engineering in 2016 and both the Best Woman Ci ...

, President of Institution of Civil Engineers * Peter St George-Hyslop, physician scientist *

David Suchet Sir David Courtney Suchet ( ; born 2 May 1946) is an English actor. He is known for his work on stage and in television. He portrayed Edward Teller in the television serial '' Oppenheimer'' (1980) and received the RTS and BPG awards for his pe ...

, actor *Sir Nigel Sweeney, High Court judge *Lieutenant-General Sir

Freddie Viggers Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Richard Viggers, (born 29 June 1951) is a former senior British Army officer who served as Adjutant-General to the Forces immediately prior to his retirement in 2008. He was Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod from ...

, army officer and Gentleman Usher of the

Black Rod The usher of the Black Rod is an official in the parliaments of several countries of the Commonwealth of Nations. The title is often shortened to Black Rod, and in some countries, formally known as Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod or Lady Usher ...

* Dhruv Parashar, Emirati cricketer

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.

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

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