EDUCATION AND TRAINING
The King’s School – a proud history with an ambitious future
History is much more than a lesson at The King’s School – it’s everywhere you look at one of Gloucestershire’s most well-respected institutions. The school has always been at the heart of the city, from its position in the shadow of Gloucester Cathedral. When King Henry VIII re-founded the school in 1541, eight ‘youths who have good voices and are inclined to singing’ were required to serve as choristers. Since then, the Cathedral Choir has offered boys – and more recently girls – from ordinary Gloucester families the chance to receive a first-class education. Many of those pupils have juggled their musical responsibilities with an apprenticeship in a trade or craft, perhaps the most notable being First World War poet and composer Ivor Gurney. One of King’s most influential headmasters was Maurice Wheeler, who served between 1684 and 1712 and insisted his scholars undertake worthwhile
community projects. It was those boys who created the large public garden known as The Grove at the east end of the Cathedral. Mr Wheeler saw gardening as a way of combining the benefits of physical exercise with projects that would have a lasting effect on the wider community. At the end of the 18th century, another of the school’s heads, Thomas Stock, saw King’s as a platform to deliver a sound basic education to the poorest people in the city. Working alongside one of his former pupils, Robert
Raikes, he set up Gloucester’s first Sunday School, to teach the ‘four Rs’, reading, ‘riting, ‘rithmmetic, and religion. This would take place on the one day every week where the youngsters were not forced into work in the docks and factories
110 | July 2019 | www. punchline-gloucester .com
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs