Woodbridge School

This article relies too much on references to primary sources. Please improve this by adding secondary or tertiary sources. (March 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Coordinates: 52°5′43″N 1°18′23″E / 52.09528°N 1.30639°E / 52.09528; 1.30639

Woodbridge School
Address
Wikimedia | © OpenStreetMap
Burkitt Road Woodbridge , Suffolk , IP12 4JH England
Information
Type	Public school Independent day and boarding school
Motto	Pro Deo Rege Patria ("For God, king and country")
Religious affiliation(s)	Church of England
Established	1577; 444 years ago (1577)
Local authority	Suffolk
Head	Ms Shona Norman
Gender	Coeducational
Age	4 to 18
Houses	Day: Annott, Burwell, Seckford, Willard Boarding: School
Colour(s)	Red, Blue
Former pupils	Old Woodbridgians
Website	http://www.woodbridgeschool.org.uk

Woodbridge School is an independent school in Woodbridge, Suffolk, England, founded in 1577, for the poor of Woodbridge. It was later supported by the Seckford Foundation. Woodbridge School has been co-educational since September 1974.

History[]

The school was founded in 1577; however, like so many others, it lapsed during the Civil War. In 1662 Robert Marryott, known as ‘the great eater’, hosted a feast for local worthies in Woodbridge which started at the Crown Hotel and finished at the King’s Head in Woodbridge. From this feast came the reincarnation of the school which today enjoys the curious claim of being the only independent school in the country to have been founded in two public houses.^{[citation needed]}

The Free School, Woodbridge, was an expression of the new confidence in England following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. Local citizens contributed to the founding of the school in 1662, appointing a schoolmaster on an annual salary of £25 to teach, without charge, ten ‘sons of the meaner sort of the inhabitants of the town’.^[1] Additional pupils paid an annual fee of £1.

After a difficult start, including the ravages of the plague in 1666, the School flourished and enjoyed a glorious era in the eighteenth century when the East Anglian gentry enrolled their sons in great numbers. By the mid-nineteenth century, the cramped School building was proving inadequate and in 1861 the school integrated with the Seckford Trust, an almshouse charity, becoming a part beneficiary of an endowment left to the town of Woodbridge in 1587 by Thomas Seckford, Master of the Court of Requests to Queen Elizabeth I.

In 1864 the school moved from the centre of town on the site of the former Augustinian house of Woodbridge Priory to its present site with 45 acres (180,000 m²) of wooded grounds overlooking Woodbridge.^[2]

In 1974 the school became fully co-educational and today has 725 pupils.

The school[]

The school is a co-educational day school with a boarding component. It offers GCSE, IGCSE and AS/A Level examinations. The day pupil body is divided into four houses, Annott, Burwell, Seckford and Willard. There is a boarding house known as School House for pupils in Year 9 to 13. The school is next to the local state school Farlingaye High School. The school's music activities include.^[3] a symphony orchestra, chamber orchestra and choral society as well as smaller ensembles. Student musicians have been members of regional and national ensembles including the National Youth Choir of Great Britain. There is a professional theatre, the Seckford Theatre.

Sport[]

The school has playing fields including cricket squares, a heated sports dome with gym facilities, Astro turf for either tennis or hockey, an athletics track, rugby and hockey pitches.

Other sports include sailing (which takes place at Alton Water), riding, basketball, fencing, badminton, football, golf, netball, rowing, swimming, tennis, shooting and windsurfing.

Friday afternoons[]

From Year 9 onwards, on a Friday afternoon, students have a choice of joining the Combined Cadet Force (CCF), (Army, Royal Navy or Royal Air Force sections), the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme (or both) or honing their skills in the many different sports, arts, music, and other activities available at Woodbridge. Notably, Woodbridge is the leading school in the East of England for chess, being officially recognised as an English Chess Federation (ECF) centre of excellence and employs an International Master, Adam Hunt, as a full-time chess teacher.^[4][5]

Notable Old Woodbridgians[]

Notable staff[]

• Vincent Burrough Redstone, 2nd Master and Suffolk Historian, who suggested to Edith Pretty that the Sutton Hoo Ship-burial should be excavated.^[6]
• William Henry Balgarnie – inspiration for the character Mr Chips
• Louise Rickard – rugby player
• Michael Troughton – actor

Heads[]

This section does not cite any sources. Please help by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

References[]

https://www.gov.uk/government/people/victoria-busby

Literature[]

• Weaver M & C (1987) The Seckford Foundation : Four Hundred Years of a Tudor Foundation The Seckford Foundation, Woodbridge. ISBN 0951220306

External links[]

• Woodbridge School website
• BBC News League Tables Entry
• Profiles on the ISC website – The Abbey prep & Main School
• Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1031103)". National Heritage List for England.