Taunton School
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| Taunton School | |
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| Motto | Offering More |
| Established | 1847 |
| Type | Independent, day and boarding school |
| Location | Staplegrove Road Taunton Somerset TA2 6AD England |
| Gender | Co-educational |
| Ages | 2 to 18 |
| Houses | Weirfield, Fairwater, Wills East, Wills West, Marshall, Goodland, Evans, Jenkin, Besley, Bevan |
| School colours | Blue |
| Website | www.tauntonschool.co.uk |
| Coordinates: | |
Taunton School is an independent school in Taunton, Somerset, England. It is co-educational and serves boarding and day-school pupils from ages 13-18. The current headmaster is John H. Newton MA FCollP DipMS(Ed), appointed in the autumn of 2005 to replace former headmaster Julian Whitely.
The school campus also includes Taunton International Study centre for pupils from overseas; Taunton Preparatory School, serving boarding and day-school pupils aged 7-13; Taunton Pre-Prep School, serving day-school pupils aged 4-7, and Taunton First Steps, serving pupils aged 2-4.
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[edit] Beginnings
Taunton School was founded in 1847 as a boy's only school for dissenters - those not members of the Church of England. Right from its founding, it was in direct competition with the other private schools in Taunton: King's College (Church of England) and Queen's College (Methodist). Its first site was at the southern end of the town.
In the 1870s, the school's governors purchased a site at the northern end of Taunton, on Staplegrove Road. They had built an impressive gothic-influenced building, in the prevailing style of the period. The school is constructed in a C-plan, with a 50 foot high tower. Grey stone came from Somerset's Mendip Hills. This large building still dominates the school's 90 acre campus today.
The school was a founding member of the World Individual Debating and Public Speaking Championships and has hosted the tournament numerous times.
[edit] Developments
A chapel was built in 1907 in contrasting style to the rest of the school. Its sponsor was the wealthy Sir Henry Wills, later Lord Winterstoke. Wills was a director of Bristol-based family firm, Wills Tobacco. This company later joined with several others to become Imperial Tobacco. Two features in the chapel are especially of note: the organ and the mosaics. In 2004 a sound system was installed, which includes 2 wired microphones, 4 radio microphones and 6 speakers. In 2007 on the centenary of the founding of the Chapel the old pipe organ was removed and scrapped. It was replaced by a new digital organ which was paid for in part, by donations from Old Tauntonians (Alumni).
[edit] Merger
In 1976 Taunton School merged with the senior section of Weirfield School for Girls, Taunton, a similar independent, single-sex, boarding and day-school, which was also situated on Staplegrove Road. This became one of the earliest fully co-educational independent schools in England. Additional buildings were erected on the original Taunton School campus and Weirfield continued as a girl's only junior school.
In 1990, in order to create closer links between the two junior schools and Taunton School, Taunton Junior School (Thone) and Weirfield were renamed Taunton Junior Boys and Taunton Junior Girls Schools, respectively. As both Junior Schools needed modernisation, building began in 1993 in the Boys' site (Thone) to create a new joint Boys and Girls School, this was partly financed by the sale of the Weirfield site. In 1994 both schools were located at the Thone site and they were renamed Taunton Preparatory School. A classroom block in the Preparatory School is called Weirfield as is the main Senior Girls' Boarding house.
[edit] Notable alumni
- Charles George Gordon, British army officer and administrator
- Bryon Butler, football broadcaster
- John Cameron (cricketer), cricketer, SCCCCCCC
- Gerald Chapman, theatre director and founder of the New York Young Playwright's Festival
- Mark Getty, founder of Getty Images
- Alan Gibson, cricket writer and broadcaster
- Aftab Habib, cricketer
- John Jameson (cricketer), cricketer
- Sophie Raworth, (English news reader and television presenter)
- J. M. Roberts, author and historian
- Ian McNeice, actor
- Jack White (cricketer), cricketer
- Tim Willcox, BBC news presenter
[edit] Weirfield
- Barbara Jefford OBE, Shakespearean actress
[edit] Special notes
John Rae (Headmaster, 1966-1970) was a prominent educator and novelist who went on to become headmaster of Westminster School.
[edit] Radio station
Taunton School Radio is now transmitting live across Taunton on 1449KHz AM broadcast band. The station's website is www.tauntonschoolam.com.
[edit] Academic Results 2007
- GCSE
Percentage of pupils who gained at least 5 Grades A - C = 91.5% Percentage of pupils obtaining Grades A* / A = 47.7%
- AS and A2
Overall pass rate = 100% of which grades A and B = 88.9%
- Oxbridge
During the last 2 years, over 78 pupils have been successful in gaining places at Oxford or Cambridge.
