HURSTPIERPOINT COLLEGE

'Hurstpierpoint College' is part of the Woodard Schools that form the largest group of Church of England schools in England and Wales. It is an independent, co-educational, day and boarding school for pupils aged 13-18, located in the village of Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex. The school was originally established in 1849 as St John's Middle School, based in Shoreham. It's first headmaster, Rev. Edward Clark Lowe, had worked with Woodard at Lancing College and stayed at Hurstpierpoint for 22 years until 1872. The school moved to Mansion House in Hurstpierpoint and then, thanks to the local benefactors the Campion Family, on the 21 June 1853 made its final move to its present site. Intended to resemble the collegiate system at Oxford and Cambridge, Nathaniel Woodard designed the College to have adjoining Inner and Outer quads and the chapel and dining hall adjacent to each other.

Contents

Overview

Traditions

Sports

Southern Railway "Schools" Class V

Headmaster

Famous Old Johnians

Woodard schools

References

External links

Overview

The school comprises 10 houses:

'Name'	'House colour'	'Type'
Chevron	Yellow/Black	Boys, day house
Crescent	Black/White	Boys, day house
Woodard	Maroon/White	Boys, day house
Fleur De Lys	Sky Blue/Yellow	Girls, flexi boarding house
Martlet	Green/White	Girls, boarding house
Shield	Pink/Black	Girls, boarding house
Eagle	Green/Black	Boys, boarding house
Red Cross	Red/Black	Boys, boarding house
Star	Navy/Sky Blue	Boys, boarding house
St Johns	Maroon/Grey	All Upper Sixth

The college currently teaches pupils aged 13 - 18. The years are named as follows;

★ Shell - 13-14

★ Remove - 14-15

★ Vth Form - 15-16

★ LVIth - 16-17

★ UVIth - 17-18
In addition, the College has an adjoining Preparatory School, called Hurstpierpoint College Preparatory School, and Pre-Prep consisting of about 220 pupils.

Traditions

The school still preserves a number of ceremonies, which for the most part were taken from other schools such as Winchester College, in order to give the school a feeling of tradition back in its early Victorian days.
During the year there are a number of banner processions, each house having a banner. St Etheldreda's (Æthelthryth) day - the day on which the chapel was dedicated - is Old Johnian day, the day when all the old Pupils are invited back to the school to participate in various events.
On Ascension Day, every member of the College climbs the nearby Wolstonbury Hill nicknamed Danny Hill - after the Campion family home, Danny House, located at the bottom of the hill on the South Downs. Once the whole school is assembled on top of the hill the choir sings the 17th century Hymnus Eucharisticus. After singing the hymn the Headmaster hands out the Lowe's Dole - money left by the first Headmaster, Canon Lowe, for the choir and sacristans.
The most exotic tradition is the boar's Head Procession and Feast this occurs at the end of the Michaelmas Term. The sacristans and the choir accompany a boars head that is borne through the cloisters. As they go the sing the 15th century carol 'Caput Apri Defero' (Boar's Head Carol) and then attend the feast.

Sports

Hurstpierpoints main sports are rugby, hockey and cricket. Rugby is the primary sport of the Michaelmas term (September - December), hockey in the Lent term (January - March) and cricket in the Summer term (April - June).
Hurstpierpoint College enjoys a fierce rivalry with nearby Brighton College. The two schools regularly compete in a variety of sports, most notably rugby and cricket.

Southern Railway "Schools" Class V

The School lent its name to the nineteenth steam locomotive (Engine 918) in the Southern Railway's Class V of which there were 40. This SR Class V was also known as the ''Schools Class'' because all 40 of the locomotives were named after prominent English public schools. 'Hurstpierpoint', as it was called, was built in 1934. The locomotive bearing the School's name was withdrawn in the early 1960s.

Headmaster

Mr Tim Manly

Famous Old Johnians

★ Martin Speight, English cricketer.

★ Ben Broster, Welsh international rugby union player

★ Michael Boyce, Baron Boyce, former First Sea Lord of the Royal Navy and Chief of Defence Staff.

★ Jamie Theakston (Prep School), English television and radio presenter and producer

★ Michael York, English actor

★ Noah Cato, English rugby player

Woodard schools

Hurstpierpoint College along with Lancing College and Ardingly College were the first three of the family of over 30 schools founded by Nathaniel Woodard to provide an affordable Church of England education to the middle classes. (Others include Worksop College, Denstone College, and Abbots Bromley School for Girls.) The school has retained its affiliation with the Church.

References

★ roll-of-honour.com

External links

★ Hurstpierpoint College official website