Canford School

Infobox UK school
name = Canford School


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motto = Nisi dominus frustra
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established = 1923
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type = Independent School
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head_label = Head Master
head = John Lever, MA (Cantab)
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city = Wimborne
county = Dorset
country = England, UK
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staff = ~100
enrollment = ~600
gender = Boys
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upper_age = 18
houses = 10
colours = Blue & Whitecolor box|#0000FFcolor box|#FFFFFF
publication = The Canfordian, This Week
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website_name = [http://www.canford.com/ Official site]

Canford School is a full boarding, coeducational, independent private school with a significant minority of day pupils, in the village of Canford Magna, near Wimborne Minster, Dorset, England. The school was founded in 1923. There are approximately 600 pupils at Canford, organised into houses and ranging in age from thirteen to eighteen. John Lever is currently the Headmaster; Richard Knott is currently the Second Master. The school performs well academically and in the last four years has exceeded both the LA and national average for GCSE performance. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/education/06/school_tables/secondary_schools/html/836_6000.stm BBC NEWS | Education | League Tables | Canford School ] ] The "Good Schools Guide" called the school "Hard to fault, kind, confident, enthusiastic, unpretentious and good all round." [http://goodschoolsguide.co.uk/school/canford-school.html] According to the Guardian the school is one of the top five coeducational boarding schools in the country, costing on average, £21,000 a year for full boarding. [ [http://education.guardian.co.uk/publicschools/story/0,,1727281,00.html Pupils tested for legionnaires' at public school | Schools special reports | EducationGuardian.co.uk ] ]

In 2005 the school was one of fifty of the country's leading private schools which were found guilty of running an illegal price-fixing cartel, exposed by "The Times", which had allowed them to drive up fees for thousands of parents. [ [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article588559.ece Independent schools face huge fines over cartel to fix fees - Times Online ] ] Each school was required to pay a nominal penalty of £10,000 and all agreed to make ex-gratia payments totalling three million pounds into a trust designed to benefit pupils who attended the schools during the period in respect of which fee information was shared. [ [http://www.oft.gov.uk/news/press/2006/182-06 The Office of Fair Trading: OFT names further trustees as part of the independent schools settlement ] ]

The school also has achieved high sporting success over the years winning the national Rosslyn Park rugby sevens in 1997 (the team in which Old Canfordians and now rugby professionals Ben Gollings and Nick Makin played) and several national hockey titles. in 2007 the U15 cricket team reached the semi-final of the national Taverners Cup beating the favourites Millfield in the process. Even more recently the u16 hockey team reached the finals of the national indoors and the semi-finals of the nationals. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/4789904.stm BBC NEWS | England | Dorset | Legionnaires' hits public school ] ]

In March 2006 the school suffered an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease though only two students were affected. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/4789904.stm BBC NEWS | England | Dorset | Legionnaires' hits public school ] ]

House system

Canford has seven boarding houses and three day houses. Each house has a married housemaster/mistress, three tutors (one resident in each boarding house) and at least one house matron. House year groups vary between ten and fifteen and each community numbers sixty to sixty-five.

Boys boarding houses:
*Franklin
*Monteacute
*School
*Court

Girls boarding houses:
*Beaufort
*de Lacy
*Marriotts

Day houses:
*Lancaster
*Salisbury
*Wimborne

Facilities

The school has its own 9-hole golf course run by Canford Golf Club which is a proprietary club owned by Canford School. The course is set within the school's convert|300|acre|km2 of mature parkland with many ancient trees and a rippling brook providing the context for some challenging holes of golf. There are tennis courts around the grounds, including during the summer months where one of the two astro-turf pitches is converted into tennis courts. Canford also has one of the few real tennis courts which are left in the United Kingdom, part of a complex which includes four squash courts. A large sports complex has recently been built which includes fitness gym, resident physiotherapist, double size sports hall with facilities for basketball, indoor football, netball and trampolining and facilities for the teaching of A-Level Physical Education.

*School grounds convert|300|acre|km2
*9-hole golf course
*Tennis courts
*A real tennis court
*Swimming pool
*Sports centre
*Theatre
*Boathouse with direct access to river Stour
*Music Centre
*Two all weather playing fields
*Seven Boarding Houses and three day.

The Canford-Miho Assyrian relief

In 1992 a lost Assyrian relief was rediscovered on the wall of "the Grubber" (the school tuck shop). [ [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/record/archives/vol20/vol20_iss5/record2005.24.html Professor Finds Ancient Frieze in Students' 'Sweet Shop' ] ] The relief was sold by Christie´s at auction in 1994 for £ 7.7 million (US$ 11.9 million), by far the highest price ever paid for an antiquity. Although it is at first sight rather unlikely that such a valuable item should be found on the wall of a school tuck shop, the history of the school explains how the relief came to be there. The relief had been brought back from the site of Nimrud in northern Mesopotamia (Iraq) by Sir Austen Henry Layard along with other antiquities which were displayed at Canford before it was a school. Originally Canford had been a country house (known as Canford Manor), designed by Sir Charles Barry, and the residence of Layard's cousin and mother-in-law, Lady Charlotte Guest and her husband, Sir John Josiah Guest. At that time the building now known as the Grubber had been used to display antiquities and was known as "the Nineveh Porch". The relief had been brought back from Iraq by Sir Austen Henry Layard along with other antiquities which were displayed at Canford before it was a school. It was however thought by the school that the frieze was a plaster copy of an original which had been lost overboard during river transit and little attention was paid to it after the school was established. A dartboard was even hung in the Grubber close to where the frieze was displayed. It was John Russell of Columbia University who identified the frieze as an original, one of a set of three relief slabs taken from the throne room of Assyrian King Assurnasirpal II (883–859 BC). A new plaster copy now stands in its place at Canford and a number of "Assyrian Scholarships" are available, funded by the proceeds of the sale. The original relief is now part of the collection of the Miho Museum in Japan. [ [http://www.miho.jp/english/collect/collect.htm Miho Museum ] ]

The sale helped pay for the construction of a new schools theatre, known as the Layard theatre, which features regular productions. [ [http://www.remotegoat.co.uk/venue_view.php?uid=322&partnersite=1 Layard Theatre, Wimborne ] ] Proceeds from the sale also helped pay for the construction of a new sports facility.

*John Malcolm Russell, From Nineveh to New York. The strange story of the Assyrian reliefs in the Metropolitan Museum and the hidden masterpiece at Canford School. New Haven/London: Yale University Press; New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1997.

*Judith McKenzie, "Canford School", ch. 10 of Russell 1997 (above), pp. 173-189.

*Samuel M. Paley, "A winged genius and royal attendant from the Northwest Palace at Nimrud". Bulletin of the Miho Museum 2 (1999), pp. 17-29, Pl. 1.

ocieties

Canford also has a number of prestigious and esteemed societies, some of which are almost as old as the school itself:

The Old Canfordian Society

Reserved for those pupils who have left the school, the "O.C.s" come back for frequent reunions and social events. Some O.C.s have later gone on to become school governors after forging successful careers, most notably Peter Lovell.

Heretics

The Heretics' Society is an invitation-only Sixth Form discussion group, comprising about twenty members, where the emphasis is on the honing of analytical and discursive skills rather than on the rhetorical flourish and exhibitionist flair that might be found in a traditional debating society. The basis for a meeting is the reading of paper by a member of the society; recent topics have ranged from a probing enquiry into the nature and purpose of consciousness, through a hotly contested investigation into the possible justifications for torture, to an inconclusive stab at the proper purpose of education. Led by an appointed committee, comprising three members led by the Chairman, the meetings are conducted in an atmosphere in which ideas can be presented and explored with an openness of mind while at the same time being challenged with benign rigour.

John o'Gaunt Debating Society

A society which is almost as old as the school itself, it is open to all members of the school who wish to engage in stimulating, articulate and intellectual discussion on topics ranging from politics to social and ethical issues. The society has an elected committee comprising four members, led by the Chairman.

Ichthyans

A religious society for the school's Christians, it has grown in membership over the past few years and Ichythans is now a stimulating, warm environment for pupils to discuss their beliefs and thoughts. It is run by the Chaplain of Canford and other Christian teachers and often features talks from students or visiting Christians.

The Layard Society

Named after Sir Austen Henry Layard, this society is for Sixth Form History students. Visiting speakers often attend and other meetings offer an opportunity for A-level Historians to prepare and deliver lectures themselves.

Politicos

A political society open to all those studying Politics in the Sixth Form, Politicos is named after the famous bookstore near Parliament. Guest speakers are frequently invited to give talks and answer questions from the students; recent guests have included Annette Brooke and Ann Widdecombe.

Notable Old Canfordians

*Stephen Ward (1912–1963), osteopath involved in the Profumo Affair
*Sir Ashley Bramall (1916–1999), Leader of the Inner London Education Authority, 1970–1981
*Charles Maclean of Duart, Baron Maclean (1916–1990), Chief Scout of the United Kingdom, 1959–1971, Chief Scout of the Commonwealth, 1959–1975, and Lord Chamberlain, 1971–1984
*Hector Monro, Baron Monro of Langholm (1922–2006), politician
*Captain Nick Barker (1933–1997), Captain of HMS "Endurance" during the Falklands War
*Sir John Drummond (1934–2006), arts administrator, former controller of BBC Radio 3
*Derek Jarman (1942–1994), film director, gay rights activist
*Alan Hollinghurst (born 1954), author
*Michael Medwin (born 1929), actor
*Ben Gollings (born 1980), England rugby sevens player
*Tom Allen National League 1 Rotherham Titans rugby player

References

External links

* [http://www.canford.com Canford School website]
* [http://goodschoolsguide.co.uk/school/canford-school.html Profile at the Good Schools Guide]
* [http://www.alliedschools.org.uk The Allied Schools]