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Canford School is a public school (English fee-charging boarding and
day school A day school — as opposed to a boarding school — is an educational institution where children are given instruction during the day, after which the students return to their homes. A day school has full-day programs when compared to a regular s ...
for pupils aged 13–18). Situated in 300 acres of parkland near to the
market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rura ...
of Wimborne Minster in
Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...
, south west England, it is one of the largest schools by area. The school is a member of the
Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC), formerly known as the Headmasters' Conference and now branded HMC (The Heads' Conference), is an association of the head teachers of 351 private fee-charging schools (both boarding schools ...
. Called a public school, Canford's fees for the 2023/24 academic year were £15,173 per term for boarders. The school is consistently ranked among the best co-educational independent schools nationally. In 2014, and again in 2016, Canford was among four runners-up for "Public School of the Year" in the '' Tatler'' School Awards and received the top award in 2019. The school has an enrolment of 660 students, the highest in its history, aged between 13 and 18 spread across seven boarding and three day houses. Canford School counts among its alumni high-ranking military officers, pioneers in industry, computing, and economics, as well as senior figures in the Arts and Sciences.


History

Canford Manor was particularly associated with
John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (6 March 1340 – 3 February 1399), was an English royal prince, military leader and statesman. He was the fourth son (third surviving) of King Edward III of England, and the father of King Henry IV. Because ...
– the third of five surviving sons of Edward III of England. The Duke exercised great influence over the English throne during the minority of Richard II's reign, and the ensuing periods of political strife. Records suggest the Canford Manor was used as a principal residence of John of Gaunt for some time. Of that early period, only the Norman church and 14th century refectory known as John O' Gaunt's Kitchen remains. The main building, constituting the nucleus of the school, was designed by Edward Blore and later by Sir Charles Barry in the early and mid 1800s. The school itself was founded in 1923, having been "provided with a nucleus of boys and staff from a small private school in
Weston-super-Mare Weston-super-Mare ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the North Somerset unitary district, in the county of Somerset, England. It lies by the Bristol Channel south-west of Bristol between Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. Its population ...
".


Results

In 2024, 73% of pupils achieved grades 9–7 at GCSE, and 53% of pupils achieved A*/A at A level (53% of pupils achieved A*-A).


Inspection

, the school's most recent integrated inspection by the Independent Schools Inspectorate was in 2012. The headline judgement for each section except Governance was Excellent; the headline judgement for Governance was Good. There was a focussed inspection of compliance, jointly with educational quality, in 2018. All compliance standards were met, and educational quality and children's personal development were judged excellent. There was a regulatory compliance inspection in 2022, at which the school was found to meet all the standards.


Assyrian frieze

In 1992, a lost Assyrian stone relief was rediscovered on the wall of "the Grubber". Although it is at first sight rather unlikely that such a valuable item should be found on the wall of a school tuck shop, the history of the school explains how the relief came to be there. It had been brought back from the site of
Nimrud Nimrud (; ) is an ancient Assyrian people, Assyrian city (original Assyrian name Kalḫu, biblical name Calah) located in Iraq, south of the city of Mosul, and south of the village of Selamiyah (), in the Nineveh Plains in Upper Mesopotamia. ...
in northern
Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...
(
Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...
) by Sir Austen Henry Layard along with other antiquities which were displayed at Canford before it was a school. Originally Canford had been a private country house (known as Canford Manor), designed by Edward Blore and improved by Sir
Charles Barry Sir Charles Barry (23 May 1795 – 12 May 1860) was an English architect best known for his role in the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster (also known as the Houses of Parliament) in London during the mid-19th century, but also responsi ...
, and the residence of Layard's cousin and mother-in-law, Lady Charlotte Guest and her husband, Sir John Josiah Guest. At that time, the building now known as the Grubber had been used to display antiquities and was known as "the Nineveh Porch". It was however believed by the school authorities to be a plaster copy of an original which had been lost overboard during river transit and little attention was paid to it after the school was established. A dartboard was even hung in the Grubber close to where the frieze was displayed. It was John Russell of Columbia University who identified the frieze as an original, one of a set of three relief slabs taken from the throne room of Assyrian King Assurnasirpal II (883–859 BC). A new plaster copy now stands in the foyer of the Layard Theatre at Canford and a number of "Assyrian Scholarships" are available, funded from the sale proceeds which also helped pay for the construction of a new sports facility. The original relief is now part of the collection of the Miho Museum in
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
.


The Layard Theatre

The Layard Theatre is situated inside Canford School and is open to the public.


The Bourne Academy

Since September 2010 Canford School is the sponsor of The Bourne Academy, a state-funded school in
Bournemouth Bournemouth ( ) is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. At the 2021 census, the built-up area had a population of 196,455, making it the largest ...
.


Sport


Real Tennis

The school is one of four in the United Kingdom with a
real tennis Real tennis – one of several games sometimes called "the sport of kings" – is the original racquet sport from which the modern game of tennis (also called "lawn tennis") is derived. It is also known as court tennis in the United Sta ...
court (the others being The Oratory, Radley and Wellington College). It is unique among these schools in that its court dates back to 1879 when it was a country house, whereas the others have all been newly built for the schools since 1990.


Rowing

The school has a rowing club, the Canford School Boat Club, which is based on the River Stour. The club is affiliated to British Rowing (boat code CAN) and has produced three British champion crews at the 2002 British Rowing Championships, 2008 British Rowing Championships and 2010 British Rowing Championships.


Notable alumni

Former pupils of Canford School are known as Old Canfordians. Notable alumni include: *
The Very Reverend The Very Reverend (abbreviated as The Very Revd or The Very Rev) is an honorific style (form of address), style given to certain (primarily Western Christian, Western) Christian clergy and Christian minister, ministers. The definite article "t ...
Henry Lloyd (1911–2001), Anglican priest, Dean of Truro * Stephen Ward (1912–1963), osteopath involved in the Profumo affair * Hector Maclean (1913–2007), decorated RAF officer during
Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain () was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defended the United Kingdom (UK) against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force ...
* Sir George Clark, 3rd Baronet (1914–1991), Unionist politician in Northern Ireland * Sir Ralph Verney, 5th Baronet (1915–2001) British Army Officer and Politician * Sir Ashley Bramall (1916–1999), leader of the
Inner London Education Authority The Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) was the local education authority for the City of London and the 12 Inner London boroughs from 1965 until its abolition in 1990. From 1965 to 1986 it was an ad hoc committee of the Greater London Co ...
, 1970–1981 * The Baron Maclean (1916–1990), Chief Scout of the United Kingdom, 1959–1971, Chief Scout of the Commonwealth, 1959–1975, and Lord Chamberlain, 1971–1984 * Lieutenant Colonel Hilary Hook (1917–1990), Soldier and 'Home from the Hill' star * Ted Cooke-Yarborough (1918–2013) physicist and WW2 radar and computer pioneer * Paul Feiler (1918–2013), abstract artist * Mike Randall (1919–1999), editor of the ''Daily Mail'' and ''Sunday Times'' * David Sheldrick (1919–1977), Anglo-Kenyan conservationist * John Barnes (1920–2008), Historian * Peter Hare (1920–2001), cricketer * Rear Admiral John Templeton-Cotill (1920–2011), Naval Officer * The Baron Monro of Langholm (1922–2006), Conservative politician * Michael Medwin (1923–2020), actor * Alexander Paton (1924–2015), physician and author of ''ABC of Alcohol'' * Stuart Symington (1926–2009), cricketerJeater D (2020) ''County Cricket: Sundry Extras'' (second edition), p.29.
Available online
at the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. Retrieved 2020-12-24.)
* The 21st Earl of Morton (1927–2016), Deputy Lieutenant of West Lothian * Michael Ash (1927), mathematician, brewer, and inventor of the Easy Serve Draught Guinness * Iain Campbell (1928–2015), cricketer * Rutherford Aris (1929–2005), chemical engineer, Regents Professor Emeritus * David Littman (born 1933), historian and human rights advocate * Sir John Drummond (1934–2006), arts administrator, former controller of
BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...
*
General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...
Sir Brian Kenny (1934–2017) * Second Lieutenant Paul Benner (1935–1957), awarded the
George Cross The George Cross (GC) is the highest award bestowed by the British government for non-operational Courage, gallantry or gallantry not in the presence of an enemy. In the British honours system, the George Cross, since its introduction in 1940, ...
* Stan Brock (1936), television presenter, philanthropist * Anthony Bryer (1937–2016), Historian * Air Chief Marshal Sir Roger Palin (born 1938) * Simon Preston (born 1938), organist, conductor, composer * Stephen Rubin (born 1938), founder of Pentland Industries (Hunter, Speedo, Berghaus, Ellesse, etc.) * Derek Jarman (1942–1994), film director and gay rights activist * Ian Bradshaw (born 1940s), Photographer and winner of the World Press Photo Award * Sir Henry Cecil (1943–2013), champion race horse trainer * Admiral Sir Ian Garnett (born 1944), naval officer * Rear Admiral Sir Jeremy De Halpert KCVO, CB (born 1945), Naval Secretary * Tim Stevenson (born 1948), Lord Lieutenant * Simon Crowcroft (born 1950), Connétable of St Helier * David Docwra (born 1953), cricketer and educator * Alan Hollinghurst (born 1954), Booker Prize winning author * Peter Parker (born 1954), Author, Journalist, and Fellow of the
Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...
* The 10th Viscount Portman (born 1958), British peer and property developer * Owen Bennett-Jones, journalist, 'Newshour' * Sir Philip Moor (born 1959), judge of the High Court of England and Wales * Nigel Robertson (born 1962), entrepreneur, founder of FreePages plc * Simon Hilton (born 1967), music video director * Nick Robertson (born 1967), co-founder and former CEO of ASOS * Tom Holland, (born 1968), novelist and popular historian * Nick Borton (born 1969), Commander Allied Rapid Reaction Corps * Stephen Phillips (born 1970), Conservative politician * Giles Duley (born 1971), photojournalist * James Le Mesurier (1971–2019), Founder of White Helmets * Miranda Cooper (born 1975), formerly the singer 'Moonbaby', songwriter and director of the company Xenomania * The 10th Earl of Jersey (born 1976) * Yvonne Lui (born 1977), property magnate, philanthropist * The 12th Earl of Shaftesbury (born 1979) * Ben Gollings (born 1980), England rugby sevens player * Alex Hibbert (born 1986), polar explorer *
Ore Oduba Ore Oduba (born 17 November 1985) is a British television and radio presenter who has also worked as an actor. From 2008 until 2013, he presented the CBBC news programme '' Newsround''. In 2018 he hosted the game show ''And They're Off!'' in a ...
(born 1986), Presenter and sports journalist, 2016 Winner of Strictly Come Dancing * Chloe-Jasmine Whichello (born 1991), reality TV star * Brianna Stubbs (born 1991), GB rower


See also

* Bryanston School, Dorset *
Sherborne School Sherborne School is a full-boarding school for boys aged 13 to 18 located beside Sherborne Abbey in the Dorset town of Sherborne. The school has been in continuous operation on the same site for over 1,300 years. It was founded in 705 AD by Ald ...
, Dorset


References


Sources

*


External links


Canford School website
at the Good Schools Guide
The Allied Schools
{{Authority control Boarding schools in Dorset 1923 establishments in England Real tennis venues Schools in Poole Private schools in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Member schools of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference Wimborne Minster Educational institutions established in 1923 Grade I listed buildings in Dorset Edward Blore buildings Schools cricket Racquets venues Grade I listed educational buildings Exempt charities Schools with a royal charter Church of England private schools in the Diocese of Oxford