Bablake School is a secondary

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

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located in

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It was founded in 1344 by

Isabella of France Isabella of France ( – 22 August 1358), sometimes described as the She-Wolf of France (), was List of English royal consorts, Queen of England as the wife of Edward II of England, King Edward II, and ''de facto'' regent of England from 1327 ...

, widow of Edward II, making it one of the oldest schools in the United Kingdom. It is a part of the Coventry School Foundation, a

registered charity A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, Religion, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definitio ...

, along with King Henry VIII School, King Henry VIII Preparatory School and Cheshunt School. As of January 2021, Bablake is a selective, fee-charging independent school and a member of the HMC.

History

Started by Edward II's widow Queen Isabella in 1344, Bablake (or Babbelak in Middle English) was a public school first sited at Hill Street in Coventry. Isabella endowed the Guild of St John with the Babbelak land on which was founded the St John's chapel and the Bablake school linked to it. Bablake church, now known as St John's, still stands adjacent to the school's original buildings. The school still holds concerts in the church, and has even sung

Evensong Evensong is a church service traditionally held near sunset focused on singing psalms and other biblical canticles. It is loosely based on the canonical hours of vespers and compline. Old English speakers translated the Latin word as , which ...

there once. Many of the pupils were originally choristers of the church. The relationship continued through the figure of Edward Jackson, who from 1734 was both vicar of the church and headmaster of the school. The expansion of the Bablake site continued via land grants. In the 1890s, Bablake began to move to its current site in Coundon Road, where it continued as a public school with six all-boys boarding houses. In the 1930s fifty acres of land on Hollyfast Road were purchased to expand the playing fields of the school. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the school was evacuated to Lincoln. In 1975 the first female pupil was admitted. The school had long ceased taking boarders; what had been the bedrooms became the Mathematics department, and the headmaster's house became the Geography department. In the late 1980s the school built its Modern Languages block; a few years later Bablake Junior School opened and in 2000 the English, Drama and Music block was completed, sited on what was originally the headmaster's garden. In October 2020, it was announced that Bablake would merge with King Henry VIII School. The proposed new school was initially named ''Coventry School'', before backlash from parents and staff led to ''Bablake and King Henry VIII School'' being chosen. The combined school was set to open in September 2021. The plan was abandoned during the course of 2021, with the decision to share some facilities and teaching (particularly in the sixth form) between King Henry VIII School and Bablake School. In June 2022, Governors agreed to return to the original name, Bablake School.

List of headmasters

*Rev. Edward Jackson (1734–1758) *Sir William Moore (1822–1824) *Dr. Henry Mander (1824–1870) *F.W. Humberstone MA (1870–1890) *Rev. Dr. Franklyn (?–?) *E.A. Seaborne MA (1937–1962) *E.H. Burrough MA (1962–1977) *Martin W. Barker MA (1977–1991) *Dr. Stuart Nuttall (1991–2006) *John W. Watson MA (2006–2019) *Andrew M. Wright BSc (2019–2021) *Chris R. Seeley MPhil (2021) *Dr. Deneal Smith (2021–2022) *Andrew M. Wright BSc (2022–Present)

Coat of arms

The arms of Bablake School are those of its benefactor, Thomas Wheatley: Sanguine a Lion Rampant Argent, on a Chief Or, Three Mullets of the second.

Layout

The Bablake site houses two schools: a junior school that takes children between year 3 and year 6, and a senior school that takes children between year 7 and sixth form. Although the junior school is formally independent, its intake generally move up as a group to the senior school. In the main school, there are blocks allocated to specific subjects, such as science, music, drama and English combined, and a languages block. The main school building contains rooms for history, geography, computer science, art, design & technology and maths. The school has a swimming pool and indoor sporting facilities on site including an indoor artificial climbing wall and fully equipped gym. It also has four tennis courts, which are used as netball courts at other times in the year. Off site there are six rugby pitches, hockey astroturf (with floodlights) and three cricket squares. The cricket pavilion, which housed the changing rooms, was hit by lightning on 28 June 2005, and was out of use until spring 2006. In the EDM – English/Drama/Music block – there is a large theatre and a rehearsal room which are both used for plays and music recitals.

Houses

Notable former pupils

Former students, known as "Old Wheatleyans", include: * Kare Adenegan (born 2000), won 2018 BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year * Mark Best (born 1994), cricketer for Loughborough MCCU * Paul Best (born 1991), cricketer for Warwickshire * Olivia Broadfield (born 1981), singer-songwriter * Robert Clift (born 1962), hockey player, Olympic gold medallist * Norman Coke-Jephcott (1893–1962), composer and organist * Martine Croxall (born 1969), BBC News presenter * Fred Daniels (1892–1959), stills photographer *Sir John Egan, (born 1939), Executive, Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Warwickshire * Geoff Evans (rugby union, born 1950) England and British Lions Rugby Player * Tony Fairbrother (1926–2004), aeronautical engineer, flight test engineering on the maiden flight of the

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, the first jet airliner * Shane Geraghty (born 1986), rugby union player * Courtenay Griffiths QC, criminal barrister *

Kenneth Hegan Kenneth Edward "Jackie" Hegan OBE (24 January 1901 – 3 March 1989) was an English Amateur sports#Association football, amateur association football, footballer who played on the Midfielder#Winger, wing and made four appearances for England nati ...

OBE (1901–1989), England international footballer * Melissa Kite (born 1972), journalist * Leonard Lord, 1st Baron Lambury KBE (1896–1967), industrialist *

Tony Mottram Anthony John Mottram (8 June 1920 – 6 October 2016) was a British tennis player of the 1940s and 1950s. Mottram reached the quarterfinal of the 1948 Wimbledon Championships in which he lost to Gardnar Mulloy. In the doubles event he reac ...

(1920–2016), tennis player, former British number 1 * Brian Matthew (1928–2017), broadcaster * Simon Over (born 1964), pianist and conductor * Jack Parsons (1890–1981), cricketer * Angus Russell (born 1956), businessman, former CEO of

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* Sir James Shelley (1884–1961), educationalist, critic and broadcaster * Nick Skelton (born 1957), showjumper, Olympic gold medallist * Donald Trelford (1937–2023), former editor of ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

'' * Melissa Walton (born 1990), Hollyoaks actress, as Loretta Jones

Appearances in the media

Part of the 2009 Christmas film '' Nativity!'' was filmed at the school. The first three episodes of the 2019

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

series '' Back in Time for School'', covering the period from 1895 to 1959, were filmed at the school.

References

External links

Official Homepage

Coventry School Foundation
{{authority control Private schools in Coventry Educational institutions established in the 14th century 1344 establishments in England Member schools of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference Grade I listed buildings in the West Midlands (county)