Oundle School

Oundle School is a private school providing boarding and day school facilities for pupils 11–18 situated in the market town of Oundle in Northamptonshire, England. The school has been governed by the Worshipful Company of Grocers of the City of London since its foundation by William Laxton in 1556. The school's alumni – known as Old Oundelians – include entrepreneurs, scientists, politicians, military figures and sportspeople. Oundle has eight boys' houses, five girls' houses, two day houses, a junior house and a junior day house. Together these accommodate more than 1100 pupils, generally between the ages of 11 and 18. It is the third-largest boarding school in England after Eton College and Millfield. As of 2025 the Headteacher is Dominic Oliver, who joined the school in August 2025. The school follows the English public school tradition and is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and the Rugby Group. In 2025, 60% of the schools candidates scored A*/A in their A-level examinations. History William Laxton, who had been eight times Master of the Worshipful Company of Grocers and was Lord Mayor of London in 1544, died in 1556, and in his will decreed the founding of a school for the local boys of Oundle, which was to be maintained by the Worshipful Company of Grocers. There had been a school on the site since at least 1485, at which Laxton himself was educated, and the school he established was known as Laxton Grammar School. The size and reputation of Laxton Grammar School rose gradually in the following centuries, and by the mid-nineteenth century many of the school's pupils were being sent to Oundle from around the country to receive their education. In 1876, the decision was made by the Grocers' Company to divide the school into Laxton Grammar School, which was to continue to educate boys from Oundle and its surrounding villages, in accordance with the will of the founder, and Oundle School, which was to be a public school, accepting the sons of gentlemen from further afield as boarders. The rise of Oundle to prominence can largely be attributed to Frederick William Sanderson, who was the school's headmaster from 1892 until his death in 1922. When Sanderson joined Oundle, he found a minor country boarding school; by the time of his death, it had become England's leading school for an education in the sciences and engineering. The success of Sanderson can be attributed to his educational ethos; he believed in teaching pupils what they wanted to learn, and as a result helped to introduce subjects such as the sciences, engineering, and modern languages to the English public school curriculum. A major development came about in 1990, when Oundle admitted girls for the first time. In the year 2000, the decision was made by the school's governing body to re-unite Oundle School and Laxton School as a single educational establishment under the common name Oundle School, with Laxton House becoming the day house of the school. Present day Oundle has 835 boarders and 235 day pupils. It is the third largest independent boarding school in England, after Eton in Berkshire and Millfield in Somerset. The various school buildings, some of which date from the 15th century, are scattered around the market town, with the Cloisters acting as the nucleus of the school community. The Good Schools Guide described the school as a "Popular, well oiled, well heeled co-educational boarding school which is riding high". Pupils obtain strong results at GCSE and A Level. In their 2013 A Levels pupils achieved 89.1% A* to B grades, with over 60% of grades either A* or A. In the year 2016, 28 pupils achieved 10 or more A* results in their GCSE examinations, with 89% of all results awarded being A* or A. In 2019, 48% of pupils scored A*-A for their A-Levels examination, whereas 79% scored A*-A for their GCSEs. The school promotes the practice of Christian values and maintains links with the Church of England by celebrating the major events of the Christian calendar. All pupils who board are required to attend services in the school chapel three times a week: one midweek lunch time service, Friday hymn practice, and the Sunday service. Pupils of other faiths are free to worship according to their own beliefs but must attend chapel with the rest of the school. The school has a programme of voluntary clubs and societies (approaching 50 in number), which range from poetry and debating to croquet and wine tasting. Each academic subject also has its own society which organises evening lectures from guest speakers throughout the year. A new subject, Trivium, gives third form pupils timetabled engagement with extension topics for their own sake, using methods of thought drawn from the traditional liberal arts. Quadrivium is also an option for pupils in the lower sixth to study, similar to trivium taught in the third form. Outside term-time, pupils can participate in school trips to other countries. These include history trips to European cities, language exchanges in Europe and Asia, charity work in Africa, AAAS conventions and politics trips in America and natural history expeditions to Antarctica. In 2025, the head of modern foreign languages said in The Times that "Language exchange trips have largely disappeared". Although there are other sports to choose from, the school's emphasis remains on team sports such as rugby, hockey, cricket, rowing and soccer for boys, and hockey, netball and tennis for girls. Oundle performs strongly in independent school rugby, cricket, and girls' hockey. The school sends regular rugby, cricket and hockey tours to other countries, while the social 'Ramblers' cricket team tours the U.K. and the Caribbean. The Oundle Rovers Cricket Club (made up of Old Oundelians) plays in The Cricketer Cup and hosts its own cricket week at the school. The Rovers have won the cup three times and are fourth in the all-time order of merit. Over 60% of pupils practise a musical instrument while at Oundle. The school has groups, bands, orchestras and choirs performing different kinds of music. Some pupils have gone on to receive musical or choral scholarships from universities, and school bands and choirs have performed concerts across the UK, Europe and Asia. The school's rock music society had Bruce Dickinson among its earliest members; 'Roc-Soc' has been running since the 1970s and promotes the independent formation of popular music bands which have their own dedicated concerts towards the end of every term. The experimental/industrial music pioneers Throbbing Gristle played at the school in 1980. Oundle School has the largest Combined Cadet Force of any school in the country, and it is involved in the annual Remembrance Day service held in St Peter's Church. The school has a tradition of serving the community with many pupils opting to provide assistance in the local area, or Community Action as an alternative to CCF. Many pupils choose to undertake the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme. Every summer since 1982 sixth formers and former pupils have run the Oundle School Mencap holiday, a residential holiday for children with a range of learning disabilities and now a charity in its own right. In November 2005 the school was found to have taken part in a cartel of price fixing among public schools. However, Jean Scott, the head of the Independent Schools Council, said that independent schools had always been exempt from anti-cartel rules applied to business, were following a long-established procedure in sharing the information with each other, and that they were unaware of the change to the law (on which they had not been consulted). She wrote to John Vickers, the OFT Director General, saying, "They are not a group of businessmen meeting behind closed doors to fix the price of their products to the disadvantage of the consumer. They are schools that have quite openly continued to follow a long-established practice because they were unaware that the law had changed." Oundle won the Tatler Public School of the Year Award in 2018. Facilities There are teaching buildings located throughout the town which house classrooms, studios and science and language laboratories. Many lessons take place in the Cloisters which are located in the heart of the town, and other main teaching buildings include the Adamson Centre, the Gascoigne, the Needham, Old Dryden, the Patrick Centre and SciTec. The school has numerous sporting facilities which cater for a wide variety of different sports. Among these are four sand-filled astroturf pitches, a six lane synthetic athletics track, a swimming pool and over twenty tennis courts. The Sports Centre houses two fully equipped sports halls, indoor squash and fives facilities, a climbing wall and well equipped gymnasia. All of these have been rebuilt or refurbished in recent years. There are also extensive playing fields and boating facilities on the nearby River Nene, as well as sailing at Rutland Sailing Club. There are a number of Combined Cadet Force (CCF) buildings including the Armoury (the main administrative building and rifle store), two shooting ranges, and various other smaller buildings used primarily for rifle and first aid training. Situated approximately two miles from Oundle, outside the hamlet of Elmington on the Ashton estate, is Oundle School's full bore outdoor range. At 500 yards (460 m) long, the range is one of the few of its size in the country to be owned by a school. Rifles can be fired from firing points at either 100, 200, 300 or 500 yards (460 m). There is another, smaller .22 shooting range situated next to the school armoury which is used for day to day use. Great Hall The Great Hall was constructed in 1908, with the North and South Wings added shortly afterwards. The Great Hall is located prominently in the centre of the town adjacent to the Cloisters and School House; it is used for a variety of functions throughout the year including concerts, receptions, lectures, debates and assemblies. The building also houses the offices of the Headmaster and the school admissions department. Chapel of Saint Anthony The Chapel of Saint Anthony, consecrated in 1923, was built as a memorial to the 221 Old Oundelians who were killed during the First World War. It is where the school community meets, linking past and present, and bearing witness, both in itself and in its art and worship, to the abiding values of the Christian Faith. The chapel is a freestanding late Perpendicular Gothic Revival style building designed by Arthur Conran Blomfield, son of architect Sir Arthur Blomfield. Its nave is flanked by low aisles and a tall clerestory that floods the interior with light, while the east end is formed of polygonal apse surrounded by low ambulatory. In the ambulatory are roll of honour tablets listing the names of all the fallen. They were designed by Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis, the architect of Portmeirion and an Old Oundelian. Between the tablets are seven stained glass windows depicting the seven Ages of Man from perspective of an Oundle schoolboy. They were made by Hugh Easton and installed in 1949. In 1956, to celebrate school’s 400th anniversary, the Grocers’ Company commissioned John Piper - already a renowned artist but not yet a stained glass designer - to design three new windows for the sanctuary. Patrick Reyntiens was recruited to interpret Piper’s modernist designs in glass, which took over three years, so beginning a professional partnership that would last the next three decades and see Piper and Reyntiens complete around 60 stained glass commissions together, among the most notable of which are those for Coventry Cathedral, Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral and Washington National Cathedral. Immediately recognised for their innovative style, the windows depict Christ in nine forms, from north to south: The Way, Truth and Life; the True Vine, Bread and Water; and the Judge, Teacher and Shepherd. The window in the north chapel was installed in 1997 as a memorial to school's former music teacher, Mark Honeyball. Made by Paul Quail, it shows St Cecelia playing a lap harp, whilst angels descend from heaven with sheets of music. To mark the millennium, Mark Angus was commissioned to provide 32 brightly coloured windows for the nave, 16 to each side in 8 pairs. They were installed between 2002 and 2005. The windows in the south aisle shows scenes from the Order of Creation, while those in the north aisle illustrate biblical history from Genesis to the Passion of Jesus. Four windows in the antechapel, also by Angus, depict a host of angels, and four more in the west porch depicting saints associated with the Grocer's Company. The chapel houses two organs, a classical instrument built in 1984 by Frobenius of Denmark has three manuals and pedals, thirty-five speaking stops and mechanical action. It is situated in the Gallery at the West end. An electronic instrument installed by Copeman Hart in 2000 and situated at the East end of the Chapel provides accompaniment for the Chapel Choir, and leads the whole school singing. It has three manuals and pedals with a West end solo division. Yarrow Gallery The Yarrow Gallery is the school's private art gallery, donated in 1918 by the shipbuilder Sir Alfred Yarrow in memory of his son, Eric, who was killed at the Second Battle of Ypres. The gallery puts on approximately half a dozen exhibitions every year. The space is adaptable and suitable for activities such as poetry readings, plays and small concerts as well as exhibitions. The purpose of the museum is that it should house a collection of pictures, specimens and models to illustrate "the history, development and beauty of the various branches of knowledge". The genealogical tree of the aeroplane and the Durham miner were charted and exhibits such as the skeleton of the white horse which used to draw the School ambulance to the Sanatorium were featured. The statue by Kathleen Scott entitled Here Am I, Send Me is erroneously held to be modelled on her son Peter Scott. Stahl Theatre The Stahl Theatre opened in 1980 and runs from a converted church on West Street; it can seat an audience of over 400. The Stahl Theatre is owned and managed by Oundle School, run by the Drama Department staff, many of whom have a professional theatre background. It houses both the School productions and visiting professional theatre companies. Patrick Engineering Centre The Patrick Engineering Centre specialises in design technology, automobile engineering and other manual crafts. The school has had a strong reputation for science and engineering since the days of F. W. Sanderson, and this is reflected in the excellent facilities and equipment located within these buildings. Opened in 1998 after a generous donation from an old boy, the Patrick Centre plays an important role in the academic and extra-curricular activities of many pupils. Year after year Oundelians continue to build cars and other forms of automobile, the parts of which are manufactured almost entirely in the workshops. Cripps Library The Cripps Library was opened in 1988. It houses approximately 22,000 books encompassing all subjects. The Library is staffed throughout the school day and is open to the whole school for research, information or borrowing for academic work and leisure reading. The library was completely refurbished in 2011, with study spaces named in honour of inspirational former teachers at the school. The Peter Ling Room houses the new display cabinets for the Greek pots, the Dudley Heesom Room has been equipped with computer projection facilities for classes and meetings, the Rare Book Room now houses the rare book collection in sycamore cabinets. School Archive The School Archive is located in the old stables at Cobthorne House. It conserves an increasingly wide-ranging collection of photographs, newspaper cuttings, publications and record books relating to the school's history, the most notable being the earliest register of pupils of 1626. OSCAR Radio OSCAR Radio is the school’s own radio station which broadcasts from newly converted studios in the Gascoigne Building. Over 2000 pupils and local children have taken part in OSCAR broadcasts since 1998. SciTec SciTec first phase of a new science and technology centre was completed in summer 2007. In September 2007 it was officially opened by the Duke of Gloucester. The project in total cost around £20 million. SciTec was the School's millennium project which upon completion was intended to create a distinctive, new centre to combine the Sciences, Art and Design and Technology. The first stage houses the Chemistry and Biology departments. In 2016, the sci-tec building was extended to house the maths department on the ground floor and first floor, including laboratories for students to use to conduct their own experiments for an EPQ. The Patrick Engineering Centre for Design, Engineering and Technology opened in the same year, marking the completion of the project. Notable alumni Former pupils are known as Old Oundelians and the Old Oundelians Club (known as the OO Club) was founded in 1883. Former pupils of the school include Professor Maxwell Hutchinson, Past President of the Royal Institute of British Architects, Supreme Court Justices of the United Kingdom David Richards, and David Kitchin, evolutionary biologist and science writer Richard Dawkins, rock musician Bruce Dickinson, England rugby players (and twins) Tom and Ben Curry, architect Christopher Alexander, and feminist campaigner, researcher and writer Caroline Criado-Perez. Victoria Cross winners Three Old Oundelians were awarded the Victoria Cross for valour in the presence of the enemy during the First World War: Alan Jerrard VC Cecil Leonard Knox VC Charles Geoffrey Vickers VC Heads 1876–1883: Henry Reade 1883–1884: Rev. Thomas. C. Fry 1885–1892: Rev. Mungo Travers Park 1892–1922: Frederick William Sanderson (1857–1922) 1922–1945: Kenneth Fisher, previously senior science master at Eton 1945–1956: Graham Henry Stainforth, later head of Wellington College 1956–1968: Richard Knight 1968–1984: Barry Trapnell 1984–1999: David McMurray 1999–2005: Ralph Townsend 2005–2015: Charles Bush, previously head of Eastbourne College 2015–2025: Sarah Kerr-Dineen, former Warden of Forest School, Walthamstow 2025– : Dominic Oliver, previously head of Lancing College Notable masters John Olver (England rugby international) Simon Hodgkinson (England rugby international) Daniel Grewcock MBE (England rugby international) John Crawley (England cricket player), teaches History Kevin Walton GC DSC taught workshop engineering at the school Terry Cobner (Wales and British Lions rugby union player) W. G. Grace Jr (eldest son of W. G. Grace) Ian Hepburn (1902–74), botanist, ecologist and author. Master for 39 years; Housemaster of Laxton House; Second Master; retired 1964. The Hepburn Music Competition is named after him. David Carpanini taught Art at the school. Douglas Robb (born 1970), a housemaster at the school, later head of Oswestry and Gresham's School Richard Howitt, Housemaster and former cricketer. School song The official school song is Carmen Undeliense (words by R. F. Patterson, music by Clement M. Spurling, published in 1912 by Novello & Co of London). References Further reading Raymond Flower, Oundle and the English Public School (Stacey International, 1989, ISBN 978-0905743561) McKim, R. J.; Brown, J. (February 1994). "Astronomy at Oundle School". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 104 (1): 36–39. Bibcode:1994JBAA..104...36M. Edward Black, "The Avondale Case" (Lulu, Amazon, B&W, March 2014) External links Oundle School Profile at the Good Schools Guide ISI Inspection Reports Ofsted Boarding Inspection Reports