page_title: Norwich School
section_title: 20th century to present
hierarchical_section_title: Norwich School / History / 20th century to present
caption_attribution_description: English: American Red Cross Service Club, Norwich- Life at the Club at the Bishop's Palace, Norfolk, England, UK, 1943 American service personnel enjoy a meal and a smoke in the impressive surroundings of the cafeteria at the American Red Cross Service Club, in what was once the dining room of the Bishop's Palace. The room is dominated by a huge arched window with flower-shaped stained glass panels, and paintings of former Bishops line the walls. According to the original caption, the cafeteria is open "day and night, staffed by British women, paid and volunteer. Tables, chairs, equipment came on reverse Lease Lend. Breakfast, lunch, supper cost a shilling".
context_page_description: Norwich School is a selective English independent day school in the close of Norwich Cathedral, Norwich. Among the oldest schools in the United Kingdom, it has a traceable history to 1096 as an episcopal grammar school established by Herbert de Losinga, first Bishop of Norwich. In the 16th century the school came under the control of the city of Norwich and moved to Blackfriars' Hall following a successful petition to Henry VIII. The school was refounded in 1547 in a royal charter granted by Edward VI and moved to its current site beside the cathedral in 1551. In the 19th century it became independent of the city and its classical curriculum was broadened in response to the declining demand for classical education following the Industrial Revolution.
  Early statutes declared the school was to instruct 90 sons of Norwich citizens, though it has since grown to a total enrolment of approximately 1,020 pupils. For most of its history it was a boys' school, before becoming co-educational in the sixth form in 1994 and in every year group in 2010.
context_section_description: Extensive building development was completed in 1908, which included converting the chapel back to religious use, a redesigned School Lodge and a block of six classrooms designed by Edward Boardman called the New Buildings. To secure its finances the school accepted a grant from the Board of Education in return for offering 10 percent of its intake to places funded by central government. The First World War saw the establishment of an Officers Training Corps company associated with the Norfolk Regiment, which disbanded in 1918. Pupil numbers grew steadily to 277 in 1930 and there was further modernisation of the curriculum. During the Second World War several buildings were destroyed in the Baedeker raids on Norwich, while School End House was commandeered by the Auxiliary Territorial Service and the Bishop's Palace was used by the American Red Cross. Inhumations were reportedly disturbed in 1939 when air-raid shelters were being dug on the current site of the playground, previously the old cathedral cemetery. In total, 102 pupils who attended the school died in the two world wars.
  Post-war reconstruction was assisted by the Dean and Chapter who leased further buildings in the Close and the Worshipful Company of Dyers, one of the Livery Companies of the City of London, through HH Judge Norman Daynes, an ON and Prime Warden of the Company. Though functional the new buildings had little aesthetic value; according to Pevsner they "spoil the North West part of the precinct beyond hope of redemption". The Dyers' continue to be a major benefactor of the school. Following the Education Act 1944 the school became a direct grant grammar school, increasing the number of free places to one quarter of its intake, however reverted to full independence when the scheme was phased out in 1975. A preparatory school called the Lower School was established in 1946, rebuilt in 1971 by architects Feilden and Mawson, and has undergone several extensions since. The 1950s saw a closer relationship with the Dean and Chapter following the merger of the choir school and the lease of the Bishop's Palace.
  Boarding was phased out in 1989 and the buildings used for boarding, School House and the Bishop's Palace, were converted into teaching space. Girls were admitted to the sixth form for the first time in 1994, ending nearly 900 years of single-sex education. In 1999 the Daynes Sports Centre opened and the former gymnasium was converted into the Blake Drama Studio and two further laboratories. The same year the artists Cornford & Cross were commissioned by the Norwich Gallery to produce a series of sculptures beside the River Wensum. One of the works, Jerusalem, was installed on the school playing fields until July 2002. Part of the installation was later donated to the art department. In 2008 new science laboratories opened on St Faiths Lane in the south section of the Close. The facilities include a seismometer which is part of the British Geological Survey's schools network. That same year, the school began to admit girls below the sixth form for the first time, initially as young as age eleven. The next year, 2009, all school-age girls were eligible for admission. An eighth house called Seagrim, named after distinguished ONs Derek and Hugh Seagrim, was created in 2009. In 2011 the first female head of school in the school's history was chosen. In late 2013 work began to extend the Lower School. The extension of the Lower School was completed in 2018 when 4 changing rooms and a shower block had been converted into classrooms for roughly 60 pupils from Reception to Year 3. This has allowed pupils to enter the school at the age of 4 instead of 7.
  There are currently plans to build a new Refectory in the Senior School site to provide space for the evergrowing number of pupils at the school.  There are plans in place for the old refectory (only meant to have been temporary when built) to be demolished and classrooms built in its place.
caption: American service personnel relaxing in the Bishop's Palace during the Second World War. Today the room is a sixth form common room.
exif: {}