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Ampleforth College

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Ampleforth College
Location
Map
Ampleforth
,
North Yorkshire
,
YO62 4ER

England
Information
TypeIndependent day and boarding
Motto[Dieu le ward] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)
(Anglo-Norman for God the protector)
Religious affiliation(s)Roman Catholic (Benedictine)
Established1802
Local authorityNorth Yorkshire
Department for Education URN121735 Tables
ChairAbbot Cuthbert Madden OSB
HeadmasterThe Reverend Fr Gabriel Everitt OSB
GenderCoeducational
Age13 to 18
Enrollment609~
Colour(s)    Black and Red
Former pupilsOld Amplefordians
Affiliated schoolSt Martin's Ampleforth
DioceseMiddlesbrough
Websitehttp://www.college.ampleforth.org.uk

Ampleforth College is a coeducational independent day and boarding school in the village of Ampleforth, North Yorkshire, England. It opened in 1802 as a boys' school, and is run by the Benedictine monks and lay staff[1] of Ampleforth Abbey.

The school is situated in a valley with sports pitches, wooded areas and lakes. There are three lakes remaining of the original five constructed by the Fairfax family centuries ago. The middle lake is stocked with trout (mainly brown and rainbow, although the occasional blue back has been seen).

Its affiliated preparatory school, St Martin's Ampleforth, is located across the valley at Gilling Castle.

History

The college began as a small school for 70 boys founded by Benedictine monks, at Ampleforth Abbey, in 1802.[2] The school formally constituted as a Roman Catholic boarding school in 1900.

Various buildings were slowly added, including the school theatre which was built in 1909. The first performances took place in 1910, and in 1922 a cinema projector was acquired, but couldn’t be used until the following year when electric lighting and central heating was installed.[3]

The first boarding houses were founded in 1926, to accommodate the growing pupil numbers. In 1929, the Abbey gained ownership of Gilling Castle and opened a preparatory school. Gilling Castle Prep merged with the college's junior school in 1992 before taking on its current name St Martin's Ampleforth after absorbing another nearby prep school.

Education

Ampleforth and the Valley from the air.

The school's primary concern is to provide pupils with not just academic, sporting and other achievements, but also "a spiritual compass for life": moral principles to give guidance in a secular world;[4] within a context where the "Benedictine ethos permeates pupils’ experience".[5]

The Good Schools Guide called the school an "Unfailingly civilised and understanding top co-educational boarding Catholic school that has suffered from time to time as a result of its long liberal tradition." The Guide adds also that there is "A refreshing openness and honesty about the place these days."[6]

It is notable that its academic admissions policy is not as exacting as that exercised by some other English public schools. As a result, the school is typically between 150 - 200 in the annual league tables of public examination results, although it was ranked 6th nationally in the 2004 "value added" table.

It maintains a scholarship set, with about 5% of pupils gaining the offer of a place at Oxford or Cambridge.[7] Over 90% go on to university.

School life

Though originally only a boys' school the college is now fully co-educational. In 2009 an OFSTED Social Care report said that the overall quality of care was outstanding.[8]

Religious life

Ampleforth Abbey

The monks at the Abbey belong to the Community of St Laurence (a House of the English Benedictine Congregation), who trace their origins back nearly 1000 years to medieval Westminster. Although there are 81 monks at Ampleforth, only about 12 are in contact with the students, with another 2 in St Martin's Ampleforth. As a result of the school's association with the monks, religion is central to the life of the school. All pupils are expected to take religious education all the way through school. Mass is attended by all pupils twice a week, once on a weekday in the house, and once on Sunday in the Abbey Church. In addition, each house has prayers each morning and evening.

The school has a boys' choir, the Schola Cantorum, which sings at High Mass on Sunday and also at a choral Mass on Friday nights during term time. The choir has made various recordings, broadcasts and tours throughout the world. There is also now a girls' choir, Schola Puellarum, which was recently noted in both newspaper and magazine. They sing a service every Thursday, and they sing on Holy Days of Obligation in High Mass each Sunday. They have been on a tour to Dublin, and sang in many of the well-known churches there.

Houses

The school is arranged into ten houses, with students living in the separate houses, eating together as a house and playing sport together as a house in inter-house competitions. Each House is named after a British saint:

  • St Aidan's (Girls) Housemistress: Dr. Victoria Fogg
  • St Bede's (Girls) Housemistress: Mr Brendan & Victoria Anglim
  • St Cuthbert's (Boys) Housemaster: Mr David Willis
  • St Dunstan's (Boys) Housemaster: Mr Ben Pennington
  • St Edward-Wilfrid's (Boys), originally two houses, Housemaster: Mr Adrian Smerdon
  • St Hugh's (Boys) Housemaster: Mr Hugh Codrington
  • St John's (Boys), Housemaster: Dr David Moses Phd
  • St Oswald's (Boys) Housemaster: Mr Patrick McBeath
  • St Margaret's (Girls) Housemistress: Mrs Gaelle McGovern
  • St Thomas' (Boys) Housemaster: Mr Paul Brenan

Some of the houses are paired into buildings named after people who have been instrumental in the school's history:

  • Hume House - St Cuthbert's and St Edward-Wilfrid's - Named after Cardinal Basil Hume (although originally Saint Edward's house on one side and Saint Wilfrid's house on the other)
  • Nevill House - St Dunstan's and St Oswald's
  • Bolton House - formerly St Edward's and St Wilfrid's before their merger in 2001
  • Fairfax House - St Margaret's and St Hugh's

Sport

Sport is a large part of school life, with pupils participating in a wide variety of sports including rugby, shooting, tennis, cricket and football. As well as many rugby and cricket pitches set in the 2000 acres (8 km²) of the valley, the school runs the St Alban's Centre (SAC), a sports centre with a large hall (also used for school assemblies and official ceremonies), a 25 metre swimming pool, three squash courts, and a fitness suite. SAC is also open to the general public for a fee.

The school has a sporting history, mostly regarding arch rivals Sedbergh School and Stonyhurst College both of whom play Ampleforth in about twenty (boys and girls) sports annually. The highlight of the sporting year however, is the annual rugby matches between Sedbergh and Ampleforth. Sedbergh has in recent years proven to be superior, not having lost a 1st XV game against "the old enemy" since 1998.

Ampleforth has produced some top class sportsmen, especially in rugby, such as Lawrence Dallaglio and Simon and Guy Easterby.

Controversies

Fee-fixing

In September 2005, Ampleforth was one of fifty of the country's leading independent schools which were found by the Office of Fair Trading to be operating a fee-fixing cartel in breach of the Competition Act of 1998. All of the schools were ordered to abandon this practice, pay a nominal penalty of £10,000 and 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.[9][10] However, Mrs Jean Scott, the head of the Independent Schools Council, said that they were unaware that the law had changed."[11]

The school has periodically experienced a drugs problem.[12] A 2003 TV documentary made by director Dan Barraclough highlighted large-scale breaking of the school rules on smoking and some abuse of alcohol.[13]

Sexual abuse

See also: Sexual abuse scandal in the English Benedictine Congregation

The Yorkshire Post reported in 2005: "Pupils at a leading Roman Catholic school suffered abuse from paedophiles."[14]

Ampleforth College has since put in place a clear safeguarding policy, which is authorised by and monitored by the independent Trustees of St Laurence Education Trust and the Ampleforth Abbey Trust Safeguarding Commission. The policy follows the local inter-agency procedures of the North Yorkshire Safeguarding Children Board as well as the advice of the Ampleforth Abbey Trust Safeguarding Commission to ensure that each pupil is protected from any form of abuse, whether from an adult or another pupil and to oblige all members of the college community to be alert to signs of abuse both in the School and from outside, including dealing appropriately with every suspicion or complaint of abuse. The policy also ensures that safer recruitment is practised in checking the suitability of staff, governors, and volunteers, including staff employed by other organisations, to work with children and young people in accordance with the guidance given in Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education, the Education (Independent School Standards) (England) Regulations 2010 and the National Minimum Standards for Boarding Schools.[15]

Notable Old Amplefordians

See also: Category:People educated at Ampleforth College

Religion

Politics, law and business

Arts and entertainment

Military

Philosophy and academe

Science and medicine

Sport

References

  1. ^ "Ampleforth College: Our Mission". College.ampleforth.org.uk. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
  2. ^ History of the Ampleforth Community
  3. ^ Theatre - A brief history
  4. ^ "Ampleforth College: An Introduction from the Headmaster". College.ampleforth.org.uk. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
  5. ^ "Ampleforth College: School Development Plan Explored Further". College.ampleforth.org.uk. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
  6. ^ "Ampleforth College, York - The Good School Guide". Goodschoolsguide.co.uk. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
  7. ^ Ampleforth College - School Development Plan 2006-2007
  8. ^ http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/oxcare_reports/download/(id)/217654/(as)/SC007916_SC.pdf
  9. ^ The Office of Fair Trading: OFT names further trustees as part of the independent schools settlement
  10. ^ Halpin, Tony (10 November 2005). "Independent schools face huge fines over cartel to fix fees". The Times. London.
  11. ^ "Private schools send papers to fee-fixing inquiry". The Daily Telegraph. London. 1 March 2004. Retrieved 15 March 2011.
  12. ^ Drugs inquiry opens at top Catholic school, Yorkshire Post, 8 July 2005.
  13. ^ How Television smoked out the secret life of Ampleforth, Yorkshire Post, 23 April 2003.
  14. ^ Ampleforth child abuse scandal allegedly hushed up by Basil Hume, The Yorkshire Post, 18 November 2005.
  15. ^ Ampleforth College: Child Protection Policy - Independent Day and Boarding School for Boys and Girls
  16. ^ "HEDLEY, Rt. Rev. John Cuthbert". Who's Who,. 59: pp. 815–816. 1907. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  17. ^ The Catholic Who's who and Yearbook edited by Francis Cowley Burnand, Published by Burns & Oates., 1940, page 39
  18. ^ The Ampleforth Journal, by Ampleforth Abbey (York, England), published by Ampleforth Abbey, Item notes: 14 (1908-1909), p233
  19. ^ The Ampleforth Journal, by Ampleforth Abbey (York, England), Page 234, Item notes: 14 (1908-1909)

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