| Stamford School | |
| Coordinates: | 52.6552°N -0.4717°W |
| Motto: | Christ Me Spede |
| Type: | Public school Private day and boarding |
| Head Label: | Headmaster |
| Head: | William Phelan |
| Principal Label: | Principal of SES |
| Principal: | William Phelan |
| Founder: | William Radcliffe |
| Address: | St Paul's Street |
| Country: | England |
| Postcode: | PE9 2BQ |
| Dfeno: | 925/6027 |
| Lower Age: | 11 |
| Upper Age: | 18 |
| Gender: | All Genders |
| Houses: | Day – Beale/Ancaster, Anderson/Brazenose, Exeter/Cavell, Radcliffe/Eliot. Boarding - Browne, Byard, Park, St Paul's, Welland, Wothorpe. |
| Colours: | Navy, maroon |
| Publication: | The Stamfordian |
| Free Label 1: | Former pupils |
Stamford School is a co-educational independent school in Stamford, Lincolnshire in the English public school tradition. Founded in 1532, it has been a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference since 1920. With the former Stamford High School and the coeducational Stamford Junior School, it is part of the Stamford Endowed Schools (SES). From September 2023, Stamford became co-educational.
Here are the latest academic results for Stamford School:[1]
The school was founded in 1532[2] by a local merchant and alderman, William Radcliffe, who had been encouraged when younger by Lady Margaret Beaufort, (died 1509) mother of Henry VII, though there is evidence to suggest that a school existed from the beginning of the fourteenth century. Founded as a chantry school, it fell foul of the Protestant reformers and was only saved from destruction under the Chantries Act of Edward VI by the personal intervention of Sir William Cecil (later Lord Burghley) who worked in the service of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset and who secured a specific Act of Parliament in 1548 ensuring its survival. Apart from the chantries of the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge, only those of Eton College, Winchester College, Berkhamsted, St Albans and Stamford schools survived.
Teaching is believed to have begun in the Corpus Christi chapel of Stamford's twelfth-century St Mary's Church, but by 1566 was taking place in the remaining portion of the redundant St Paul's Church, originally built no later than 1152. This building continued in use as a school room until the early twentieth century when it was restored and extended and, in 1930, returned to use as a chapel. In 1961, a nineteenth-century Gray and Davison pipe organ was installed although this was removed in the 1990s and replaced with an electronic substitute. Over its history the school has built or absorbed seventeenth-, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century buildings, besides the site of a further demolished medieval church (Holy Trinity/St Stephen's) and remains of Brazenose College built by the secessionists from the University of Oxford in the fourteenth century. Brasenose College, Oxford bought Brazenose House in 1890 to recover the original medieval brass Brazenose knocker.[3] [4]
The right of appointment of the school's master, a position hotly contested in past centuries on account of the post's disproportionately large salary, was shared between the Mayor of Stamford and the Master of St John's College, Cambridge. Both Stamford Town Council and St John's College still have nominees on the school's governing body. Stamford School has a sister school, Stamford High School which was founded in 1877. The funds for the foundation of the High School and the further financial endowment of the existing boys' school were appropriated from the endowment of Browne's Hospital by Act of Parliament in 1871. This trust had been established for the relief of poverty by William Browne (died 1489), another wealthy wool merchant and alderman of the town, and his gift is commemorated in the name of a school house.
From 1975, Lincolnshire County Council purchased places at Stamford School and Stamford High School on the basis that Stamford had no LEA grammar school (unlike the county's other towns). This local form of the Assisted Places Scheme provided funding to send children to the two schools that were formerly direct-grant grammars.[5] The national Assisted Places Scheme was ended by the Labour government in 1997 but the Stamford arrangements remained in place as an increasingly protracted transitional arrangement. In 2006, Lincolnshire County Council agreed to taper down from 50 the number of county scholarships to the Stamford Endowed Schools so that there would be no new scholarships from 2012.[6] [7]
In recent years, the two schools were united under the leadership of a single principal as the Stamford Endowed Schools. This organisation comprised Stamford Junior School, a co-educational establishment for pupils aged between 2 and 11 years and Stamford School and Stamford High School for students aged 11–18. Sixth form teaching was carried out jointly between Stamford School and Stamford High School.[8]
Stamford School has four senior houses. Following the merger with Stamford High School in 2023, the houses merged with the High School houses. The houses are now as follows:
Yellow House: Anderson in Years 7 – 9, Brazenose in Years 10 – 13.
Blue House: Radcliffe in Years 7 – 9, Eliot in Years 10 – 13
Green House: Exeter in Years 7 – 9, Cavell in Years 10 – 13
Red House: Beale in Years 7 – 9, Ancaster in Years 10 – 13
Since 1885 The Stamfordian has been the school magazine of Stamford School. Currently published annually in the Autumn term, it provides for current pupils and parents as well as Old Stamfordians and prospective parents an account of a year in the life of the school.
The school has rivalries with nearby Uppingham School, Oakham School and Oundle School.
The school's crest is a stork (the spede bird) with wings displayed on a wool bale over the motto + me spede, that is Christ me spede. The emblem was adopted from medieval wool merchant, William Browne, after the school had been re-endowed from Browne's Charity in 1873.[9] (The stork is supposed to be a rebus on his wife, Margaret's maiden name of Stoke). The current form was designed by Nelson Dawson.
While originally a tradition for students joining the school, the school tradition of kissing the stone head above the chapel (“kissing the old man”) has now become a right of passage for Y13 students leaving the school.
Each year all boys of the school take part in an annual cross country race in the grounds of the local stately home, Burghley House, this is known as the “Burghley Run”.
On the last day of lessons before their leave of absence for exams, a football game is played between students in their final year at the school colloquially known as "the Year 13 El Clásico".[10]