Colfe's School

Colfe's School

Motto	AD ASTRA PER ASPERA "Through hardships to the stars"
Established	1588 (restablished 1652)
Type	Co-educational Independent day school
Headmaster (Senior)	Richard Russell
Headmaster (Preparatory)	John Gallagher
Governors	Leathersellers' Company
Founder	John Glyn in 1588, reestablished with Abraham Colfe's name in 1652
Location	Lee London England
Staff	100 (approx.)
Students	1,000 (approx.)
Houses	Beardwood, Bramley, Norton and Prendergast
Publication	The Colfeian
Official Visitor	HRH Prince Michael of Kent
Former Pupils	Old Colfeians
Ages	3-18 (Nursery - Sixth Form)
Website	colfes.com

Colfe's is a co-educational independent day school in Horn Park in the London Borough of Greenwich. The school is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. The official Visitor to the school is HRH Prince Michael of Kent.

History

Colfe's is one of the oldest schools in London. The parish priest of Lewisham taught the local children from the time of Richard Walker's chantry, founded in 1494, until the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII. Rev. John Glyn re-established the school in 1568 and it was granted a Charter by Elizabeth I in 1574. Abraham Colfe became a Governor in 1613 and the school was re-founded bearing his name in 1652.

Colfe declared that the aim of the school was to provide an education for the boys from "the hundred of Blackheath". He invited the Leathersellers' Company, one of London's livery companies, to be the trustee of his will. Links between the school and the Leathersellers remain strong.

The school was originally built around Colfe's house with an entrance in Lewisham Hill. The site was progressively developed and extended until 1890, when it was completely rebuilt on the same site with its entrance now in Granville Park. During the Second World War the school was first evacuated to Tunbridge Wells, Kent, and then to Frome in Somerset. A period of inactivity on the Western front led about 100 boys to return to London, so the school was spilt for a few years. In 1944 a V2 (Flying bomb) aimed at Lewisham railway junction almost totally destroyed the school.

At the end of the War, with no school buildings and the pupil roll having halved, it was uncertain if the school would continue. In London the school was split between two sites - Beacon Road School in Hither Green and Ennersdale Road School, about a quarter of a mile away. "Temporary" buildings (rows of pre-fabricated concrete construction) were erected and the school came together again in 1947 under the headmastership of Herbert Beardwood MSc. The "temporary" buildings were still being used until the move to the new site in 1963.

Herbert Beardwood updated Leland Duncan's "History of Colfe's Grammar School" in 1952, in celebration of the school's tercentenary under Colfe's name. The book was further updated by Beardwood in 1972, to reflect both the move to the present campus at the east end of the playing fields, and the impact on the school of the machinations of early 1970s UK politics.

The school moved to its current site in 1963 and since then there has been much change: improved facilities have been provided, such as an all-weather sports pitch and a new performing arts centre. The Leathersellers' sports ground has been renovated to make it the home of senior sport (rugby football and cricket). Recently it was the site of the Sixth Form leavers' ball.

Having been a voluntary aided grammar school, Colfe's became independent again in 1977. Although founded as a school for boys, girls have been admitted to the Sixth Form for over thirty years. In 1997, it was decided to allow girls throughout the school, and there are now girls in every year group. Colfe's first Head Girl, in the 2005/2006 academic year, was Amy Tarrant.

The School today

The School is split into two, with students aged 3–11 at the Preparatory School and students aged 12–18 at the Senior School.

Senior School (Ages 12-18)

The Senior School is based at the top of the main school site. The Senior School has very average standards and has had excellent academic success, performing well at A-Level and GCSE.An all-weather playing field (funded in part by donations from parents and former pupils) was opened in 2006. The school also has a new Performing arts centre, a Sports Complex complete with a 25 m swimming pool, 2 gyms and a Sports Hall, excellent IT and Music facilities and over 30 acres (120,000 m²) of playing fields. Many of the facilities are shared with the Preparatory School.

The school has a house system where each pupil is randomly assigned to one of the four houses (named after the four longest serving Headmasters in Colfe's more than 350 year history: Beardwood, Bramley, Norton and Prendergast). Throughout the school year each pupil takes part in a full and varied programme of activities outside the main curriculum, in which the pupils participate in healthy competition by age groups to help his or her house win at the end of the year. The current winners are Norton, led by Mr Crowe, Miss Mellor, Henry Byrne and Rosie Yates. Each house has two House Tutors, plus two House Captains selected from the Lower VI (Year 8). In addition, all new members of staff are assigned to one of the houses. The houses are as follows:

Norton House Tutors: Mr Crowe and Miss L Mellor

Prendergast House Tutors: Mr A Bateson and Miss C Humphries

Beardword House Tutors: Mr J Fishwick and Mrs A Chapman

Bramley House Tutors: Dr B Davies and Miss H Dawson

Colfe's School is also in the minority of schools which boast a Combined Cadet Force (CCF). Boys from year 8 and girls from year 9 learn valuable life skills such as leadership and organisation, and have the chance to earn their Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award, a highly regarded achievement. Led by the CO Major Chris Cherry.

Colfe's organises various events throughout the year in which pupils raise money for a variety of charities. In collaboration with various shops and services in Blackheath, Colfe's hosts an annual fashion show to raise money for Cancer Research UK. In December 2004, Colfe's students and teachers began to build, decorate and stock a library at Kotu Senior Secondary School in the first of a now annual series of visits to The Gambia. Subsequent developments at Kotu have included a sports surface, new and improved toilet blocks, classroom refurbishment, a new Domestic Science room and an assembly hall. Colfe's Senior School (along with the Preparatory School) has recently been added to the 'Good Schools Guide' website ^[1]

Preparatory School (Ages 3-12)

The Preparatory School is located at the bottom of the school site, in two self-contained buildings. One of the buildings is for Pre-Prep and Nursery and the other for Preparatory. The preparatory school has the same high standards as the Senior School and has had great academic success with the SATS. The preparatory school also shares many of the facilities with the Senior School including the sports complex and fields and the Performing arts centre.

The Preparatory School also has a house system, with four houses (named after famous constellations) and they collect pluspoints and credits throughout the year. The winning house each term has a house tea party. The four houses are: Aquila, Lynx, Orion and Pegasus. The house names were changed in 2008, to mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade (the previous house names 'Drake', 'Frobisher', 'Hawkins' and 'Raleigh' were all slave traders). The Headmaster of the Preparatory School is currently former rugby union and rugby league star John Gallagher.

Notable Colfeians

See also: Category:Old Colfeians

• Eric Ambler OBE (1909-1998), spy novelist. Anthony Burgess coined the word 'Amblerian', to describe Ambler's qualities.^[2]
• Professor Henry Armstrong FRS (1848-1937) Chemist (see further Biographical Database of the British Chemical Community, 1880-1970) ^[3]
• Sir John Bennett(1814-1897), politician and watchmaker. His portrait hangs in the National Portrait Gallery ^[4]
• Sir Antonio Brady (1811-1881) Admiralty official, naturalist, and social reformer.^[5]
• Sir Richard Madox Bromley(1813–1865), civil servant (biography by M. C. Curthoys, 'Bromley, Sir Richard Madox (1813–1865)', first published Sept 2004, 410 words)
• Garry Bushell, journalist
• James Cleverly, Conservative politician
• Richard Clinton, cricketer^[6]
• Roger Coleman (1929-2002), publisher who oversaw the creation of the Revised English Bible. Obituary The Independent15 May 2002 ^[7]
• Brian Fahey, arranger and composer of big-band music, who worked with Dame Shirley Bassey and other artists.^[8]. The Scotsman Obituary 20 April 2007 noted that during World War II Fahey then a Lance Bombardier with the RA was one of the few survivors from the infamous Wormhoudt massacre by German SS troops of British soldiers captured at Dunkirk. As the bullets tore into his chest he recalled "half remembered sights and sounds of the cricket nets at Colfe's...". He was one of only six out of 120 to survive ^[9] See also The Herald Obituary 30 June 2007 ^[10]
• Sir Alan Goodison, Diplomat, British Ambassador to Dublin was appointed CMG in 1975, CVO in 1980 and KCMG in 1985. See Telegraph Obituary 14 July 2006 ^[11]] and Times Obituary 13 July 2006 ^[12]
• Professor Kenneth Grayston, Bristol University's first theology professor^[13]
• Malcolm Hardee, comedy club proprietor
• John Henry Hayes, Conservative politician
• Professor Jeff Hearn, Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration in Helsinki
• Peter Howitt (1968-present), Actor (Joey, Bread - BBC TV) and Film Writer/Director (Sliding Doors, Johnny English, Antitrust, Laws of Attraction, Dangerous Parking)
• Jem Karacan, professional footballer with Reading F.C.
• Robert Key, England cricketer
• F.L. Lucas (1894-1967), literary critic, writer, Fellow of King's College Cambridge, intelligence analyst at Bletchley Park 1939-45 (son of Colfe's headmaster F. W. Lucas)
• James Marsh, Academy Award winning film maker - Man on Wire, 2008
• Geoffrey Masters (Lieut-Colonel RA) MC and Bar in World War II (see Telegraph Obituary 25 May 2006) Lieutenant-Colonel Geoffrey Masters
• Edmund Nelson was a talented painter whose portraits of leading Cambridge intellectuals, including G.M. Trevelyan and E.M. Forster, were complemented by those of cricketers (his C.B. Fry now hangs in the Committee Room at Lord's) and artists. His moving portrait of his wife won the prize for the best portrait in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition of 1947.^[14]
• Tony Reeves, musician, Greenslade, Curved Air and Colosseum^[15]
• Jack Ryder, actor
• Professor George 'Dick' Say, Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Heriot-Watt College, Edinburgh, for thirty years, and author of various book, died on 14 November 1992, aged 90.^[16]
• Keith Colin Smith, (1965-2000) Fellow of the RAS, stellar spectroscopist and author of many scientific papers in the field of astro physics^[17]
• Professor William Alexander Campbell Stewart (1915-1997), educationist and university administrator.(see The Independent Obituary 13 May 1997) [1]
• Dennis Main Wilson, died aged 72, producer of television and radio comedy, best known for Till Death Us Do Part. In a career spanning 50 years he was also responsible for such series as The Goon Show, Hancock's Half Hour, Citizen Smith, and The Marty Feldman Show. See Telegraph Obituary 25 January 1997 ^[18].
• Henry Williamson, author of Tarka the Otter and member of the British Union of Fascists
• Victor Maslin Yeates, often abbreviated to VM Yeates, school friend of Henry Williamson. With 5 confirmed kills whilst serving in the RFC and RAF, he was an English fighter ace in World War I, author of Winged Victory
• Conor Henderson, professional footballer with Arsenal FC

Further reading

• Leland L. Duncan The History of Colfe's Grammar School and a life of its founder 1910.

References

1. ^ The Good Schools Guide - Colfe's School
2. ^ Dead link
3. ^ ARMSTRONG, Henry Edward
4. ^ Sir John Bennett (1814-1897), Politician and watchmaker
5. ^ Brady, Sir Antonio (1811–1881), Admiralty official, naturalist, and social reformer
6. ^ 403 Forbidden
7. ^ Roger Coleman - Obituaries, News - Independent.co.uk
8. ^ Times Obituary 17 May 2007
9. ^ Scotsman.com News
10. ^ The Herald : Features: OBITUARIES
11. ^ Sir Alan Goodison - Telegraph
12. ^ Sir Alan Goodison obituary - Times Online
13. ^ Guardian Obituary 30 June 2005
14. ^ Edmund Nelson: Uncompromising portrait painter, Independent Obituary 13 February 2007)
15. ^ LET IT ROCK - Tony REEVES interview
16. ^ Obituary
17. ^ Keith Colin Smith, 1965–2000: Fellow of the RAS, stellar spectroscopist and dedicated teacher
18. ^ Telegraph Obituary 25 January 1997

The History of Colfe's Grammar School by Leland L. Duncan (revised and updated by H Beardwood), pub: University of London Press, 1952

External links

• Colfe's School website

Coordinates: 51°27′00″N 0°01′16″E / 51.45°N 0.021°E / 51.45; 0.021