New College School
Encyclopedia
New College School is an independent preparatory school
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...

 for boys in Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

. It was founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham
William of Wykeham
William of Wykeham was Bishop of Winchester, Chancellor of England, founder of Winchester College, New College, Oxford, New College School, Oxford, and builder of a large part of Windsor Castle.-Life:...

 to provide for the education of 16 choristers for the chapel of New College, Oxford
New College, Oxford
New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.- Overview :The College's official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary", and is now almost always...

.

It is the oldest of Oxford's three choral foundations, ahead of Magdalen College School
Magdalen College School, Oxford
Magdalen College School is an independent school for boys aged 7 to 18 and girls in the sixth form, located on The Plain in Oxford, England. It was founded as part of Magdalen College, Oxford by William Waynflete in 1480....

 (1480) and Christ Church Cathedral School
Christ Church Cathedral School
Christ Church Cathedral School is a Prep and Pre-Prep, fee-paying boarding and day school for approximately 140 pupils based in Oxford, England. Steeped in music and history, the School was founded by Henry VIII in 1546 to provide choristers for Christ Church Cathedral and College. Now a Church of...

 (1546).

New College School

The youngest pupils at New College School are those who begin at the age of 4 in the pre-prep department; the oldest pupils are those in Year 8 (12-13) who are prepared for Common Entrance and Scholarship examinations to senior schools. The School has a healthy tradition of sending pupils – often with an academic, music, or sport scholarship – to some of the country’s leading secondary schools. In recent years NCS pupils have been awarded places and prestigious scholarships at, among others: Magdalen College School, Abingdon School, St Edward's School, Eton College, Radley College, Rugby School, Marlborough College, the Oratory School, Winchester College, Westminster School, and Leckford Place/d’Overbroecks.

The School currently has approximately 140 pupils and 20 full-time teaching staff. Class sizes average between 10 and 15 pupils. The Year 8 Scholarship class, in which pupils experience high-level tutorial-style teaching, averages between 3 and 6 pupils. The combination of small class sizes and committed teaching staff allows for education tailored to the needs of each and every pupil. The Headmaster is Mr Robert Gullifer, a former Choral Scholar at St Catharine’s College Cambridge, and previously Deputy Headmaster of Bristol Grammar School.

Aims of New College School

  • To uphold the founding principles of promoting ‘godliness and the studies of good learning’
  • To foster intellectual curiosity and a life-long enjoyment of learning
  • To offer a balanced and challenging curriculum which encourages high academic aspirations, a creative and artistic sensitivity, physical endeavour and spiritual and moral awareness
  • To promote the tradition of musical excellence and commitment exemplified in the choral foundation
  • To provide an enriching range of co-curricular activities which nurture diverse talents and give pupils experience and confidence for the future
  • To work closely with parents to develop each boy’s character, self-esteem and potential in a caring and constructive way
  • To promote values of courtesy, mutual respect and tolerance
  • To provide opportunities for leadership, competition and co-operation so that individual achievements are recognised and celebrated by the whole school community
  • To extend pupils’ understanding and commitment to the wider local, national and international community

Location

New College School is conveniently located on Savile Road in central Oxford: a stone’s throw from New College
New College, Oxford
New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.- Overview :The College's official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary", and is now almost always...

 on Holywell Street, and nestled among the Colleges of Wadham, Mansfield, and Harris Manchester. The postal address is New College School, 2 Savile Road, Oxford. OX1 3UA.

Choristers of the Choir of New College Oxford

Approximately one in seven pupils at NCS is a chorister in the Choir of New College Oxford. Potential choristers are auditioned when they are in Year 3. Successful candidates (usually four or five per year) become ‘probationers’ in Year 4 during which time they and their families become familiar with the timetable and demands of life as a chorister. In Year 5, upon successful completion of the necessary musical training, probationers are usually ‘surpliced’ and become full choristers. It is expected that they remain full choristers until they leave New College School in the Summer of Year 8. Choristers have a proud tradition of earning music scholarships or exhibitions to their secondary schools.

The life of a chorister is a demanding but a fulfilling and well-supported one. Choristers sing in services in New College Chapel, usually five or six times a week, during University term. On top of their normal school work, during the week choristers also have two rehearsals a day (except on Wednesdays), plus extra rehearsals on weekends. It is one of the famous sights of Oxford to see the choristers in gowns and ‘squares’ (mortarboards) processing the short distance between New College School and New College itself. In College the choristers receive an unrivalled musical education from the Organist, Professor Edward Higginbottom, and his assistant, Steven Grahl. There are also two specially-designated ‘chorister tutors’ who, supported by the rest of the school staff, see to the choristers’ safety and personal well-being.

As part of the choir, choristers also participate in extra concerts, university events, CD recordings, broadcasts, and tours. In recent years the choir has toured to: Cyprus, Brazil, Australia, Luxembourg, Malta, the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. Closer to home, choristers have sung at: the Royal Festival Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Sheldonian Theatre Oxford, the Barbican, Dorchester Abbey, King’s College Chapel Cambridge, Hampton Court, at the Spitalfields, Bournemouth, and Brighton Festivals, and in Promenade Concerts at the Royal Albert Hall. The choir frequently can be heard on BBC Radio 3 (including Evensong recordings) and on Classic FM. Recordings can be purchased from the Choir of New College website (link below).

Open days for potential choristers are held throughout the year.

History of New College School

New College School was founded in November 1379 by William of Wykeham
William of Wykeham
William of Wykeham was Bishop of Winchester, Chancellor of England, founder of Winchester College, New College, Oxford, New College School, Oxford, and builder of a large part of Windsor Castle.-Life:...

, Bishop of Winchester, as part of the foundation of the College of St Mary of Winchester in Oxford (commonly called New College Oxford). Wykeham provided for sixteen choristers, alongside ten chaplains and three clerks, to participate in services to the glory of God and to pray for his soul. In 1394 the College started to pay for an informator choristarum to teach the choristers singing and grammar.

Since its foundation the School has had a peripatetic existence and it has varied in size according to the fortunes and demands of history. In the 1620s we know that choristers were accommodated on the site of New College itself as the attic between the hall and the kitchen was opened up for this purpose. They were taught in a schoolroom between the Chapel and the Cloisters, although this was disrupted during the 1640s when – faced with civil war – the Cloisters became a powder magazine. The boys predictably were distracted by this development; Anthony Wood
Anthony Wood
Anthony Wood or Anthony à Wood was an English antiquary.-Early life:Anthony Wood was the fourth son of Thomas Wood , BCL of Oxford, where Anthony was born...

, a pupil at the school, noted that they were of ‘a longing condition to be one of the train, that they could never be brought to their books again’. Nonetheless the choristers were moved to former servants’ quarters at the east end of the Hall which Wood called a ‘dark, nasty room and very unfit for such a purpose’. It was also during this period that New College School was mentioned in John Aubrey
John Aubrey
John Aubrey FRS, was an English antiquary, natural philosopher and writer. He is perhaps best known as the author of the collection of short biographical pieces usually referred to as Brief Lives...

's famous "Brief Life" of Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury , in some older texts Thomas Hobbs of Malmsbury, was an English philosopher, best known today for his work on political philosophy...

. In the late seventeenth century the vestry and song-room were refitted to accommodate one hundred or so new boys. This marked the moment at which the School, as today, educated both choristers and non-choristers.

In 1694, faced with this sudden increase in numbers, the School moved outside New College itself, to the Congregation House at St Mary’s. It was during this period that the boys were taught by one of the School’s most notable Masters, James Badger. Badger was at the School for twenty-three years and he became (according to one manuscript in the Bodleian Library) ‘one of ye most famous Schoolmasters in England. Several Heads and Fellows of Colleges in this University had been his Scholars’. He, like many of the School’s tutors past and present, was also a published academic.

The School roll of 1737-8 recorded 117 boys at the School. By the end of the eighteenth century sufficient space had been found in College for the boys, and they moved back, though they were now based in the south undercroft. They moved again in the mid-nineteenth century, to two nearby houses – 26 and 28 Holywell Street – before moving again at the turn of the twentieth century to 6 New College Lane and 19 Holywell Street. The School’s wanderings ceased in 1903, however, when the land of its current site was purchased from Merton College. From this date the School’s buildings have grown and been refurbished. The most recent addition was made in 2007: a state-of-the-art gym, art studio, and music technology suite commensurate with the School’s pre-eminent role in the musical life of the country.

Links with the University of Oxford

New College School has strong links with the University of Oxford. The School’s Chair of Governors is the Warden of New College Oxford (currently Professor Sir Curtis Price). Choristers frequently sing at University occasions and previously the School has provided the Chancellor’s Page for Encaenia
Encaenia
Encaenia is an academic or sometimes ecclesiastical ceremony, usually performed at colleges or universities. It generally occurs some time near the annual ceremony for the general conference of degrees to students...

 ceremonies. Pupils at the School also enjoy close geographical proximity to College buildings, galleries, and events. Each Wednesday every member of the School attends a service in New College Chapel, usually presided over by the College Chaplain. University figures often are willing to aid with NCS pupils’ education. One of Merton College’s Visiting Research Fellows, for example, recently held a Literature Masterclass with Year 8 pupils and a British Academy Research Fellow based at Somerville College judged the Upper School’s Poetry Competition.

Notable alumni of New College School

  • Dr Roger Allen [former Director of Music at NCS]: musician and academic
  • Thomas Allen (1681-1755): clergyman and author
  • Henry Bright
    Henry Bright
    Henry Bright was a scholar, teacher, and school chaplainBright was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, where he became a Fellow and chaplain. He was the headmaster of Abingdon School from 1758 to 1774, and of New College School, Oxford, from 1774 to 1790)...

    : teacher and author
  • Dara Carroll: recording artist and teacher
  • John Case (d. 1600): doctor, philosopher, musician, Canon of Salisbury
  • George Valentine Cox (1786-1875) [Master of NCS]: author
  • Alec Cranswick: pathfinder bomber pilot
  • Michael Criswell: recording artist
  • William Dobson: poet and author
  • Aldred Drury: sculptor (sculpted statue of Sir Joshua Reynolds at Burlington House)
  • Sir (Donald) Keith Falkner (1900-1994): singer and Director of the Royal College of Music
  • Ian Fountain: pianist
  • Hugo Frederick Garten [former teacher at NCS]: German scholar and writer for Die Zeitung
    Die Zeitung
    Die Zeitung was a German language newspaper in London published during World War II. It had an average circulation of 15.000 to 20.000 from March 1941 to June 1945 and was mainly read by Germans in exile...

  • James Gilchrist: tenor
  • Howard Goodall
    Howard Goodall
    210px|thumb|Howard Goodall at St. John the Baptist Church in Devon, United Kingdom, May 2009Howard Lindsay Goodall CBE is a British composer of musicals, choral music and music for television...

    : singer, composer, and broadcaster
  • Sir Richard Goodwin Keats
    Richard Goodwin Keats
    Admiral Sir Richard Goodwin Keats was a British naval officer who fought throughout the American Revolution, French Revolutionary War and Napoleonic War. He retired in 1812 due to ill health and was made Commodore-Governor of Newfoundland from 1813 to 1816. In 1821 he was made Governor of...

    (1757-1834): admiral, Governor of the Royal Naval Hospital in Greenwich, and mentor to Nelson and King William IV
  • Greg Hainge: Professor of French, University of Queensland
  • James Philip Hewlett: clergyman and author
  • John Holloway: teacher, composer, former Director of Music at Wellington College
  • Ralph Holmes: violinist
  • Matthew Lloyd: Vice President at D. E. Shaw & Co. LLP, former software engineer at Google
  • David Mitchell
    David Mitchell (actor)
    David James Stuart Mitchell is a British actor, comedian and writer. He is half of the comedy duo Mitchell and Webb, alongside Robert Webb, whom he met at Cambridge University. There they were both part of the Cambridge Footlights, of which Mitchell became President. Together the duo star in the...

    : comedian
  • Charles Oliver Mules [former teacher at NCS]: Bishop of Nelson (New Zealand)
  • Ian Partridge
    Ian Partridge
    Ian Partridge CBE is a retired English lyric tenor, whose repertoire ranged from Monteverdi, Bach and Handel, the Elizabethan lute songs, German, French and English songs, through to Schoenberg, Weill and Britten, and on to contemporary works. He formed a renowned vocal-piano duo with his sister...

    : tenor
  • Richard Peers (1685-1739): author
  • Thomas Randall: Mayor of Oxford
  • John Rogers (bap. 1678-1729): clergyman, royal chaplain, and author
  • Paul Spicer
    Paul Spicer (musician)
    Paul Spicer is an English composer, conductor and organist. He has worked as a music teacher, at the Royal College of Music and the Birmingham Conservatoire, as a producer for BBC Radio 3, and as artistic director of the Lichfield Festival. He conducts the Birmingham Bach Choir, the Finzi Singers...

    : organist, producer, conductor, composer, Professor of Choral Conducting at the Royal College of Music
  • Stainton de B. Taylor: musician and critic
  • Joseph Trapp
    Joseph Trapp
    Joseph Trapp was an English clergyman, academic, poet and pamphleteer. His production as a younger man of occasional verse and dramas led to his appointment as the first Oxford Professor of Poetry in 1708. Later his High Church opinions established him in preferment and position...

    (1679-1747): clergyman, poet, playwright, first Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford, translator of complete works of Virgil (1731)
  • William Tuckwell (1829-1919) [Master of NCS]: author and ‘radical parson’
  • Francis Wise (1695-1767): author, archaeologist, Radcliffe Librarian
  • Anthony Wood (1632-1695): antiquarian, historian, and author

External links

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