Wycliffe College (Gloucestershire)
Encyclopedia
Wycliffe College is a co-educational
independent school located in the town of Stonehouse
(near the market town
of Stroud
) in Gloucestershire
, in the West of England
. The school was founded in 1882 by GW Sibly, and comprises a Nursery School for ages 2 – 4, a Preparatory School for ages 4 – 13, and a Senior School catering for ages 13 – 18, that includes a Sixth Form College. A total of around 800 pupils are enrolled at the school. The school is the first independent school in the country to have achieved recognition with National Academy for Able Children in Education (NACE). The school has also achieved 'CReSTeD' accreditation for teaching dyslexic pupils. A 2007 Ofsted
inspection report on the welfare and facilities for boarders assessed the overall quality as good, with some aspects being outstanding.
: Pennwood housing the male boarders and Windrush housing the female boarders. The school amenities include an indoor swimming pool, performing arts centre, tennis courts and extensive sports fields.
, cricket
, squash
, rowing
, football, tennis
, netball
, hockey
and swimming
.
Students are separated into different houses, this is where both their prep rooms and common rooms are located. The Preparatory and Senior school houses each have around 300 to 400 pupils.With the exceptions of Collingwood House, a mixed house for day pupils, and Loosley, a mixed sixth form
boarding house, the houses are single gender boarding houses. The school holds inter-house competitions, the most significant of which is the annual music competition. Other inter-house activities include drama, football, netball, hockey and rugby.
For the girls there is Hockey, Netball, Tennis, Rounders, Athletics, Cross Country, Rowing, Gym, Polo and Badminton
and a Round Square
Association.
), and is also accredited by CReSTeD for teaching dyslexic children.
Coeducation
Mixed-sex education, also known as coeducation or co-education, is the integrated education of male and female persons in the same institution. It is the opposite of single-sex education...
independent school located in the town of Stonehouse
Stonehouse, Gloucestershire
Stonehouse, Gloucestershire is an urban area within the Stroud District, in the UK. It is home to a number of factories, such as Dairy Crest and Schlumberger. The town is close to the M5 motorway. Stonehouse railway station has a regular train service to London...
(near the market town
Market town
Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...
of Stroud
Stroud, Gloucestershire
Stroud is a market town and civil parish in the county of Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District.Situated below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills at the meeting point of the Five Valleys, the town is noted for its steep streets and cafe culture...
) in Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
, in the West of England
West of England
The West of England is a loose and locationally unspecific term sometimes given to the area surrounding the city and county of Bristol, England, and also sometimes applied more widely and in other parts of South West England.-Use in the Bristol area:...
. The school was founded in 1882 by GW Sibly, and comprises a Nursery School for ages 2 – 4, a Preparatory School for ages 4 – 13, and a Senior School catering for ages 13 – 18, that includes a Sixth Form College. A total of around 800 pupils are enrolled at the school. The school is the first independent school in the country to have achieved recognition with National Academy for Able Children in Education (NACE). The school has also achieved 'CReSTeD' accreditation for teaching dyslexic pupils. A 2007 Ofsted
Ofsted
The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills is the non-ministerial government department of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools In England ....
inspection report on the welfare and facilities for boarders assessed the overall quality as good, with some aspects being outstanding.
Nursery School
The Nursery School which first opened in 1983 at the Grove (a beautiful cotswold stone house which was destroyed by fire in 1994) is located within the same grounds as the Preparatory School boarding houses and sports fields.Wycliffe Preparatory School
The Prep School has extensive sports grounds separated by a main road from the main campus. The pupils use a specially built bridge to cross over the road safely. The Prep School has two boarding housesBoarding 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...
: Pennwood housing the male boarders and Windrush housing the female boarders. The school amenities include an indoor swimming pool, performing arts centre, tennis courts and extensive sports fields.
The Senior School
The Senior School is located a five-minute walk away from the Prep and Pre-Prep campus. The campus covers a large area with classrooms, boarding houses and sports facilities all intermixed. The school fields teams in the following sports: 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:...
, 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...
, 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...
, rowing
Rowing (sport)
Rowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other on rivers, on lakes or on the ocean, depending upon the type of race and the discipline. The boats are propelled by the reaction forces on the oar blades as they are pushed against the water...
, football, 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...
, 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 ...
, 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:...
and 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...
.
Students are separated into different houses, this is where both their prep rooms and common rooms are located. The Preparatory and Senior school houses each have around 300 to 400 pupils.With the exceptions of Collingwood House, a mixed house for day pupils, and Loosley, a mixed sixth form
Sixth form
In the education systems of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and of Commonwealth West Indian countries such as Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Jamaica and Malta, the sixth form is the final two years of secondary education, where students, usually sixteen to eighteen years of age,...
boarding house, the houses are single gender boarding houses. The school holds inter-house competitions, the most significant of which is the annual music competition. Other inter-house activities include drama, football, netball, hockey and rugby.
Sport
Wycliffe is a major squash-playing school, due to their recent and previous success in the squash court. Many of the pupils choose to do squash as an out of school activity for both boys and girls. The large number of students playing squash has led to many of these squash players being world and country champions.. Other sports played at Wycliffe include rugby, hockey, football, cricket, rowing, tennis, Volleyball, Gym, Athletics, Cross Country, Kickball, Badminton and Polo for the boys.For the girls there is Hockey, Netball, Tennis, Rounders, Athletics, Cross Country, Rowing, Gym, Polo and Badminton
Curriculum
The academic structure targets exams of both standard English curriculum GCSE and the International GCSE, and A level subjects at the standard English curriculum. Other activities include a Combined Cadet ForceCombined Cadet Force
The Combined Cadet Force is a Ministry of Defence sponsored youth organisation in the United Kingdom. Its aim is to "provide a disciplined organisation in a school so that pupils may develop powers of leadership by means of training to promote the qualities of responsibility, self reliance,...
and a Round Square
Round Square
The Round Square Conference of Schools is a worldwide association of more than 80 schools that allows students to travel between schools,tour foreign countries, involve themselves in community service and discover cultures along the way.-History:...
Association.
Achievements
Wycliffe was the first private school in the United Kingdom to be recognised by the National Academy for Able Children in Education (NACENACE
NACE may refer to:* National Association of Colleges and Employers* National Association of Corrosion Engineers* Nomenclature statistique des activités économiques dans la Communauté européenne * National Association for Able Children in Education* National Association of Chimney Engineers...
), and is also accredited by CReSTeD for teaching dyslexic children.
Head Teachers (Senior)
- G W Sibley (1882–1912)
- W A Sibley (1912–1947)
- S G H Loosley (1947–1967)
- R D H Roberts (1967–1980)
- Richard Poulton (1980-?)
- Tony Millard (1987-1993)
- David Prichard (1994-1998)
- Tony Collins (1998-2005)
- Margie E Burnet Ward (Present)
Notable Old Wycliffians
Notable Old Wycliffians include:- Charlie SharplesCharlie SharplesCharlie Sharples is an English rugby union footballer, currently playing in the Guinness Premiership for Gloucester. He plays as a wing....
, Gloucester Rugby winger. - Charlie StaytCharlie StaytCharles Stayt is a British journalist and presenter, currently working freelance with the BBC as a presenter of BBC Breakfast.-Early life:Stayt was born in 1962 in Gloucester in Gloucestershire, in the West of England...
, presenter of BBC BreakfastBBC BreakfastBBC Breakfast is the morning television news programme simulcast on BBC One and the BBC News channel. It is presented live from BBC Television Centre in White City, West London, and contains a mixture of news, sport, weather, business and feature items...
on BBC OneBBC OneBBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution... - Ananda CoomaraswamyAnanda CoomaraswamyAnanda Kentish Coomaraswamy was a Ceylonese philosopher and metaphysician, as well as a pioneering historian and philosopher of Indian art, particularly art history and symbolism, and an early interpreter of Indian culture to the West...
(1877–1947), Philosopher and Art Historian - William Wasbrough FosterWilliam Wasbrough FosterMajor-General William Wasbrough Foster DSO CMG VD was a noted mountaineer, Conservative Party politician, business man, and chief constable in British Columbia, Canada in addition to his distinguished military career....
DSODistinguished Service OrderThe Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
CMGOrder of St Michael and St GeorgeThe Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....
, Canadian businessman, Police and Army officer. - Brian Fothergill (1921–1990), biographer
- Sir Michael GraydonMichael GraydonAir Chief Marshal Sir Michael James Graydon GCB, CBE, ADC is a retired RAF officer. He was a fast jet pilot in the 1960s and 1970s and a senior RAF commander in the 1980s until his retirement in 1997...
, Chief of the Air Staff (1992–1997) - Jeffrey HarborneJeffrey HarborneJeffrey Barry Harborne FRS was the Professor of Botany at the University of Reading, 1976–93, then Professor emeritus. He specialised in phytochemistry. He contributed to more than 40 books and 270 research papers and was a pioneer in ecological biochemistry, particularly in the complex chemical...
, botanist - Somerville HastingsSomerville HastingsSomerville Hastings FRCS MP was a British surgeon and Labour Party politician.The son of the Reverend H G Hastings, he was born in Warminster, Wiltshire. He was educated at Wycliffe College , University College and the Middlesex Hospital, London...
(1878–1967), surgeon and politician - William MoseleyWilliam Moseley (actor)William Peter Moseley is a British actor, currently best known for appearing as Peter Pevensie in the film series The Chronicles of Narnia. Previously, he had a small role as Forrester in a 2002 adaptation of the novel Goodbye Mr...
, actor. - Mike OsborneMike OsborneMichael Evans Osborne was an English jazz alto saxophonist, pianist and clarinetist, perhaps most noteworthy for his contributions as a member to the Chris McGregor band Brotherhood of Breath in the 1960s and 1970s.He was born in Hereford and attended Wycliffe College in Gloucestershire and the...
, jazz musician. - Gilbert ParkhouseGilbert ParkhouseWilliam Gilbert Anthony Parkhouse was a Welsh cricketer who played in seven Tests for England in 1950, 1950-51 and 1959....
, Glamorgan and England cricketer. - Charlie Barnett (cricketer)Charlie Barnett (cricketer)Charles John Barnett was an English cricketer, who played in 20 Tests from 1933 to 1948...
, (1910–1993), Gloucestershire and England cricketer. - Ben ParkinBen ParkinBenjamin Theaker Parkin was a British teacher and politician who served as Member of Parliament for Stroud and for Paddington North...
MPMember of ParliamentA Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,... - Mark PorterMark Porter (doctor)Mark Porter, MBE is a GP and medical correspondent for The Times. He also has a weekly programme on Radio 4 called Case Notes and joined The One Show on BBC One in 2011....
, medical doctor and media person. - Sir Franklin Sibly (1883–1948), geologist and university administrator.
- Jon SilkinJon SilkinJon Silkin was a British poet.-Early life:Jon Silkin was born in London, in a Jewish immigrant family and named after Jon Forsyte in The Forsyte Saga, and attended Wycliffe College and Dulwich College During the Second World War he was one of the children evacuated from London ; he remembered that...
, poet - William StanierWilliam StanierSir William Arthur Stanier, FRS was Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway.- Biography :...
, railway engineer - Al StewartAl StewartAl Stewart is a Scottish singer-songwriter and folk-rock musician.Stewart came to stardom as part of the British folk revival in the 1960s and 1970s, and developed his own unique style of combining folk-rock songs with delicately woven tales of the great characters and events from history.He is...
, singer-songwriter - Geoffrey ToveyGeoffrey ToveyGeoffrey Harold Tovey CBE CBE, MD, FRCP, FRCPath, was a doctor whose scientific contributions in the field of haematology brought him an international reputation. He was also an expert in serology and founder and Director of the UK Transplant Service.-Childhood and early life:Geoffrey Harold Tovey...
, serologist and founder of UK Transplant service - Tim Payne, England rugby player
- Alex GidmanAlex GidmanAlexander Peter Richard Gidman is an English cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm medium-pace bowler who currently plays for Gloucestershire....
Gloucestershire and England A Cricket Captain.