Old Buckenham Hall
Encyclopedia
Old Buckenham Hall School or OBH as it is most frequently known, is a leading independent
day and boarding
preparatory school
for boys and girls in Brettenham
, England
. It is described by the Good Schools Guide as being: "A virtually perfect country prep going from strength to strength".
Founded in 1862, OBH currently accommodates about 175 boys and just over 100 girls between the ages of 2 and 13 years.
OBH is located in about 80 acres (323,748.8 m²) of parkland in the heart of the Suffolk village of Brettenham
. The school puts great emphasis on a balanced, well-rounded, 'be the best you can' education driven by family values and Christian
principles. The school has an excellent reputation and is one of the leading preparatory schools
in the country. Its pupils do extremely well in the Common Entrance
system, going on to a wide range of leading public schools
such as Uppingham
, Harrow
, Oundle
, Radley
and Eton
.
under the name 'South Lodge preparatory school'. The school remained there for 75 years before moving to much larger premises at Old Buckenham Hall in the village of Old Buckenham
, Norfolk
. Here the school really started to grow and acquire the excellent reputation it has today. In December 1952, disaster struck and the Hall was burnt down by fire. In January of the following year the school found new premises at Merton Hall near Thetford
, Norfolk
. Here the school tried to pick up the pieces and get back on track but disaster struck again with a second fire in January 1956. The school's survival was seriously put in question and several possibilities were discussed as to what to do next. In short, the school became aware that Brettenham Park in Suffolk had come onto the market and the property was acquired. The school (know known as Old Buckenham Hall School) moved in September 1956 and soon became well established. The school has been on this site ever since, first taking on girls in the 1990s.
, hockey
, cricket
, tennis
, football, athletics, gymnastics
, lacrosse
, cross-country
, golf
, swimming
, netball
, squash
and badminton
.
Being a predominantly boarding school
, the school offers a wide range of activities for the pupils including: archery
, sailing
, riding
, clay-pigeon shooting
, go-karting and judo
.
exams. OBH is one of a select few Prep-schools in the UK that has something like this. The Programme starts with a week-long trip to Outward Bound
in Aberdovey, Wales. The course that the 13 year-olds go on with Outward Bound
was specially fabricated by a member of the OBH staff, as the company tended only to offer courses to adults, and is now used by many schools across the country for their pupils. Afterwards the pupils enjoy two weeks of an exciting array of trips, events and activities. These include trips to London
and the West End
, talks by distinguished people, a trip to the Wimbledon Championships
, concerts, a garden party and a triathlon
. It culminates with a Leavers' service and barbecue
followed by speech day and the end of term the next day.
Independent school (UK)
An independent school is a school that is not financed through the taxation system by local or national government and is instead funded by private sources, predominantly in the form of tuition charges, gifts and long-term charitable endowments, and so is not subject to the conditions imposed by...
day and boarding
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
preparatory school
Preparatory school (UK)
In English language usage in the former British Empire, the present-day Commonwealth, a preparatory school is an independent school preparing children up to the age of eleven or thirteen for entry into fee-paying, secondary independent schools, some of which are known as public schools...
for boys and girls in Brettenham
Brettenham, Suffolk
Brettenham is a village and civil parish in the Babergh district of Suffolk, England. In 2005 it had a population of 270.Almost the entire built-up area is defined as a conservation area, and the parish also contains some ancient woodland at Ram's Wood. The village is home to independent prep...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It is described by the Good Schools Guide as being: "A virtually perfect country prep going from strength to strength".
Founded in 1862, OBH currently accommodates about 175 boys and just over 100 girls between the ages of 2 and 13 years.
Present school
The School is currently split into the three parts;- Nursery (ages 3–4)
- Pre-Prep School (Reception – year 2)
- Prep School (Years 3–8)
OBH is located in about 80 acres (323,748.8 m²) of parkland in the heart of the Suffolk village of Brettenham
Brettenham, Suffolk
Brettenham is a village and civil parish in the Babergh district of Suffolk, England. In 2005 it had a population of 270.Almost the entire built-up area is defined as a conservation area, and the parish also contains some ancient woodland at Ram's Wood. The village is home to independent prep...
. The school puts great emphasis on a balanced, well-rounded, 'be the best you can' education driven by family values and Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
principles. The school has an excellent reputation and is one of the leading preparatory schools
Preparatory school (UK)
In English language usage in the former British Empire, the present-day Commonwealth, a preparatory school is an independent school preparing children up to the age of eleven or thirteen for entry into fee-paying, secondary independent schools, some of which are known as public schools...
in the country. Its pupils do extremely well in the Common Entrance
Common Entrance
Common Entrance Examinations are taken by some children in the UK as part of the admissions process for academically selective secondary schools at age 13 or 11. Most of the secondary schools that use Common Entrance for admission are public schools; most of the schools that routinely prepare...
system, going on to a wide range of leading public schools
Independent school (UK)
An independent school is a school that is not financed through the taxation system by local or national government and is instead funded by private sources, predominantly in the form of tuition charges, gifts and long-term charitable endowments, and so is not subject to the conditions imposed by...
such as Uppingham
Uppingham School
Uppingham School is a co-educational independent school of the English public school tradition, situated in the small town of Uppingham in Rutland, England...
, Harrow
Harrow School
Harrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an English independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London.. The school is of worldwide renown. There is some evidence that there has been a school on the site since 1243 but the Harrow School we know today was...
, Oundle
Oundle School
Oundle School is a co-educational British public school located in the ancient market town of Oundle in Northamptonshire. The school has been maintained by the Worshipful Company of Grocers of the City of London since its foundation in 1556. Oundle has eight boys' houses, five girls' houses, a day...
, Radley
Radley College
Radley College , founded in 1847, is a British independent school for boys on the edge of the English village of Radley, near to the market town of Abingdon in Oxfordshire, and has become a well-established boarding school...
and Eton
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
.
History
The school was founded as a boys school in 1862 by Misses Ellen and Margaret Ringer in the Suffolk coastal town of LowestoftLowestoft
Lowestoft is a town in the English county of Suffolk. The town is on the North Sea coast and is the most easterly point of the United Kingdom. It is north-east of London, north-east of Ipswich and south-east of Norwich...
under the name 'South Lodge preparatory school'. The school remained there for 75 years before moving to much larger premises at Old Buckenham Hall in the village of Old Buckenham
Old Buckenham
Old Buckenham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk, approximately south-west of Norwich.It covers an area of and had a population of 1,294 in 658 households as of the2001 census...
, Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
. Here the school really started to grow and acquire the excellent reputation it has today. In December 1952, disaster struck and the Hall was burnt down by fire. In January of the following year the school found new premises at Merton Hall near Thetford
Thetford
Thetford is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland district of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road between Norwich and London, just south of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of , has a population of 21,588.-History:...
, Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
. Here the school tried to pick up the pieces and get back on track but disaster struck again with a second fire in January 1956. The school's survival was seriously put in question and several possibilities were discussed as to what to do next. In short, the school became aware that Brettenham Park in Suffolk had come onto the market and the property was acquired. The school (know known as Old Buckenham Hall School) moved in September 1956 and soon became well established. The school has been on this site ever since, first taking on girls in the 1990s.
Sports and activities
The school makes use of its many sports pitches and facilities (2 rugby pitches, 5 football and 6 hockey pitches, 5 cricket squares, 6 tennis courts, all-weather netball courts, a 2000 yards (1,828.8 m) nine-hole golf course and an outdoor heated swimming pool) with the pupils spending 5 afternoons a week playing games. Pupils at OBH play a wide variety of sports including: rugbyRugby football
Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...
, hockey
Hockey
Hockey is a family of sports in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver a ball or a puck into the opponent's goal using a hockey stick.-Etymology:...
, cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
, tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
, football, athletics, gymnastics
Gymnastics
Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...
, lacrosse
Lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...
, cross-country
Cross country running
Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...
, golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
, swimming
Swimming (sport)
Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...
, netball
Netball
Netball is a ball sport played between two teams of seven players. Its development, derived from early versions of basketball, began in England in the 1890s. By 1960 international playing rules had been standardised for the game, and the International Federation of Netball and Women's Basketball ...
, squash
Squash (sport)
Squash is a high-speed racquet sport played by two players in a four-walled court with a small, hollow rubber ball...
and badminton
Badminton
Badminton is a racquet sport played by either two opposing players or two opposing pairs , who take positions on opposite halves of a rectangular court that is divided by a net. Players score points by striking a shuttlecock with their racquet so that it passes over the net and lands in their...
.
Being a predominantly boarding school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
, the school offers a wide range of activities for the pupils including: archery
Archery
Archery is the art, practice, or skill of propelling arrows with the use of a bow, from Latin arcus. Archery has historically been used for hunting and combat; in modern times, however, its main use is that of a recreational activity...
, sailing
Sailing
Sailing is the propulsion of a vehicle and the control of its movement with large foils called sails. By changing the rigging, rudder, and sometimes the keel or centre board, a sailor manages the force of the wind on the sails in order to move the boat relative to its surrounding medium and...
, riding
Equestrianism
Equestrianism more often known as riding, horseback riding or horse riding refers to the skill of riding, driving, or vaulting with horses...
, clay-pigeon shooting
Shooting
Shooting is the act or process of firing rifles, shotguns or other projectile weapons such as bows or crossbows. Even the firing of artillery, rockets and missiles can be called shooting. A person who specializes in shooting is a marksman...
, go-karting and judo
Judo
is a modern martial art and combat sport created in Japan in 1882 by Jigoro Kano. Its most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the object is to either throw or takedown one's opponent to the ground, immobilize or otherwise subdue one's opponent with a grappling maneuver, or force an...
.
The Leavers' Programme
OBH organises a Leavers' Programme for the pupils that are leaving the school in the last few weeks of the summer term after their Common EntranceCommon Entrance
Common Entrance Examinations are taken by some children in the UK as part of the admissions process for academically selective secondary schools at age 13 or 11. Most of the secondary schools that use Common Entrance for admission are public schools; most of the schools that routinely prepare...
exams. OBH is one of a select few Prep-schools in the UK that has something like this. The Programme starts with a week-long trip to Outward Bound
Outward Bound
Outward Bound is an international, non-profit, independent, outdoor educationorganization with approximately 40 schools around the world and 200,000 participants per year...
in Aberdovey, Wales. The course that the 13 year-olds go on with Outward Bound
Outward Bound
Outward Bound is an international, non-profit, independent, outdoor educationorganization with approximately 40 schools around the world and 200,000 participants per year...
was specially fabricated by a member of the OBH staff, as the company tended only to offer courses to adults, and is now used by many schools across the country for their pupils. Afterwards the pupils enjoy two weeks of an exciting array of trips, events and activities. These include trips to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and the West End
West End of London
The West End of London is an area of central London, containing many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buildings, and entertainment . Use of the term began in the early 19th century to describe fashionable areas to the west of Charing Cross...
, talks by distinguished people, a trip to the Wimbledon Championships
The Championships, Wimbledon
The Championships, Wimbledon, or simply Wimbledon , is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, considered by many to be the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London since 1877. It is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the other three Majors...
, concerts, a garden party and a triathlon
Triathlon
A triathlon is a multi-sport event involving the completion of three continuous and sequential endurance events. While many variations of the sport exist, triathlon, in its most popular form, involves swimming, cycling, and running in immediate succession over various distances...
. It culminates with a Leavers' service and barbecue
Barbecue
Barbecue or barbeque , used chiefly in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia is a method and apparatus for cooking meat, poultry and occasionally fish with the heat and hot smoke of a fire, smoking wood, or hot coals of...
followed by speech day and the end of term the next day.
Notable former pupils
- Benjamin BrittenBenjamin BrittenEdward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
, composer - Harry JuddHarry JuddHarry Mark Christopher Judd is an English musician who is best known as the drummer for British pop rock band McFly, along with fellow band members Tom Fletcher, Dougie Poynter and Danny Jones...
, percussionist from McFlyMcFlyMcFly are an English pop rock band who first found fame in 2004. The band consists of Tom Fletcher , Danny Jones , Dougie Poynter and Harry Judd . They were signed to the Island Records label from their 2004 launch until December 2007, before creating their own label, Super Records... - Laura Wright, singer from All AngelsAll AngelsAll Angels are a British classical crossover group formed in 2006, consisting of Daisy Chute, Rachel Fabri, Melanie Nakhla andCharlotte Ritchie....
- Jaime AlguersuariJaime AlguersuariJaime Víctor Alguersuari Escudero , is a Spanish racing driver who became the youngest Formula One driver to start a Grand Prix in history at the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix. Alguersuari is the first driver to be born in the 1990s to compete in Formula One....
spent one year at the school